I can listen to it on the radio, but I just can't sit through anything for more than an hour at a time.
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I am terrified of classical music.
I enjoy classical music, especially in the morning. I'm not a morning person and it's the only music I can stand to listen to when I first wake up. I also like opera, but I've never been to a show.
Me.
The author needs to get out of London's smothering concert halls. I'd suggest getting out of England entirely and going to a classical concert at Tanglewood or Central Park.
I think what's killing classical music is that it's stigmatized as an art form that ended in the early 20th century. You can learn to appreciate practically any kind of music if you're willing to give it a good listen. You know what just might contribute to a classical comeback? The nearly ubiquitous I-Pod.
If you are READING you are not listening. I teach music apprieaction to college freshman. Want to talk about a real nightmare? They assume music is easy, and come into the class with a bad attitude and expectation. I lose over half the class in just over a couple of weeks once they realize they have to listen to weekly assigned pieces and pass a listening quiz. The thought of spending a few hours a week listening (yes, just listening...not driving, reading, and/or computering while the music happens to be playing) is beyond their comprehension. I only wish music education was treated as seriously in grade schools as their obsession other social modeling. By first grade they know how to put a condom on a bananna, but have never heard an oboe. (insert evil grin) Now, maybe if they used an oboe in sex-ed?
But today I can't dream of affording a ticket to the symphony. Our community recently celebrated the opening of a new symphony hall, and though I wanted to go to a concert, I was horrified at the cost--$100 per ticket for any seat from which one could actually see the performers. My own children aren't going to have the same exposure to the great minds of music that I had because there's no way I can take an entire family to the symphony. And playing CDs for them just doesn't cut it.
If classical music is going to survive as more than the pursuit of three or four eccentrics, it is going to have to bring up a new generation of classical fans. The only way to do this is to expose kids to classical music. They great concert halls and orchestras are shooting themselves in the head. If I were a rich lady, instead of donating millions to improve the city's concert hall I'd fork over to bring children from local schools to hear concerts, or send small chamber ensembles to the schools.
The violin kids who play the NYC subway, and appeared on Live at the Apollo, like the classical. It just depends on what music is played. The modern stuff is typical of much 20th century art - ugly art, anti-art. But some good music has come along. And the old classics can't be beat, if one is in the mood. All music competes, however. You would think that as the boomers age, classical will again revive. Orrrr . . . the geezers might just stop listening to music entirely (some, but a lot will have classical on - constantly). Fear not.
I love classical music too, but like others have said, it is great 'background' music for other things...
Reading, napping, eating, those bi-annual forays into housekeeping,etc.
Interesting. My kids like classical music, including symphonies, but it would be difficult for them to sit quietly and watch a performance for hours. It's nice to have the CD's in the car, so we can listen to a piece, and then talk about the parts we liked (or didn't) and what images the music brought to mind. "It was birds!" "No, it was butterflies!" "No, it was jellyfish!" "Jellyfish? You're WEIRD, Tom!"
I'm not sure about start times, rock and roll shows have similar starts. I think the two big problems are the tuxedos and the incredible lack of something to look at. The whole dress up atmosphere of the classical concert is anathema to modern entertainment, we're now deep into our 2nd (and fast approaching 3rd) generation that wears jeans and t-shirts to see their favorite musicians perform, there's really no reason to dress up in the audience area it's dark anyway, but classical music maintains the tradition of dressing up, and that tradition begins with the tuxedo clad performers. Even most magicians have ditched the tux, time for classical to move on, not saying they should come out dressed like Judas Priest, but something a little less associated with getting married would be nice.
Then there's the incredible lack of visual presentation. Lets face it, unless you know how to play one of the instruments, and have good enough seats to actually watch the technique of the players in that section, there really is NOTHING to look at during an orchestral or symphonic show. If you're going to go to an event in person you need something for multiple senses, if you're just going to listen you can stay home and put on a CD. Now I'm not really sure what the solution to this is, maybe Walt was onto something with Fantasia and hiring an animator to give a visual interpretation playing behind the orchestra would do it, maybe go totally rock and roll and bring in the pyrotechics, or go pop and bring in a dance troupe, but give them something to look at besides a bunch of people sitting in uncomfortable clothes.
I think the bigger problem for the Classical music world is the comparative lack of quality of the current crop of musicians.The Classical music industry has been trying so hard to work the sex angle in recent years that they've effectively rewarded mediocrity in the interest of attracting a younger audience. Watch the Van Cliburn competition when it comes on PBS and I think you'll agree: the talent pool is shrinking . I was once being groomed to play the international competition circuit when I was at Juillliard and I'm pretty certain that most of the performances I've heard from Van Cliburn finalists in recent years wouldn't have gotten me past the preliminaries in the 80s.
The most recently recorded classical CD I've purchased was Murray Perahia's Goldberg variations (from 2000I believe). He was peaking when I was a student but has continued to evolve, and his Goldberg variations might very well be better than Gould's. Otherwise, few musicians have impressed me in recent yearsI haven't heard any pianist in the current crop that can touch Perahia or the rest of those great pianists of 15-20 years ago. The violin pool is in an equaly sad state if you ask me. Gil Shaham looked to be the next great hope but Josh Bell and his sexy coiffeur seems to have eclipsed him (in spite ofthe fact Bell can't reallly hold a candle to Gil)
While the classical world is failing in their attempt to sex-up the industry, they are also driving more discriminating fans away. It matterrs little to me that concerts don't fit into my schedule. What matters is that the music has suffered. I'd rather listen to my old CDs and LPs in the comfort of my own home.
Times were slower, people were more patient, and things were just plain different. To dump an ordinary citizen of the period in today's environment would put him or her into sensory overload inside a day.
Classical music was originally played on festive occasions: as liturgy in churches, at royal banquets, at garden parties, on barges along the river, and so forth.
It began to change around the time of Beethoven, when orchestras got larger and larger and then huge, and when it moved from ducal banquet chambers to public concert halls.
One of the few great developments in the classical music scene over the past thirty or forty years has been the return to ancient instruments and the return to chamber orchestras, instead of everying being done on the scale of the Boston or Philadelophia symphony orchestras.
I had a seat at the Friday afternoon concerts of the Boston Symphony for about eight years, and it was a real pleasure, but one I would not want to return to.
That's why Tanglewood is so pleasant, or the operas at Glyndebourne, because venues like these are more like the way music ought to be heard--at a festive occasion, during dinner, at Mass (although regretably the liturgists who presently control the music are idiots, so the real experience is now very rare), where the music honors God, or the King, or a family or village festivity.
bttt
Count me among the short attention span/frayed wallet crowd. I listen to classics almost every day, but find concerts boring. Not to mention, they never play what I want to hear.