Classical Music’s New Golden Age

City Journal ^ | Summer 2010 | Heather Mac Donald

[sitetest]

Thanks to period-music evangelists, breathtaking virtuosity, and millions of listeners, the art form remains vibrant.

Anyone inclined to lament the state of classical music today should read Hector Berlioz’s Memoires. As the maverick French composer tours mid-nineteenth-century Europe conducting his revolutionary works, he encounters orchestras unable to play in tune and conductors who can’t read scores. A Paris premiere of a Berlioz cantata fizzles when a missed cue sets off a chain reaction of paralyzed silence throughout the entire sorry band. Most infuriating to this champion of artistic integrity, publishers and conductors routinely bastardize the scores of Mozart, Beethoven, and other titans, conforming them to their own allegedly superior musical understanding or to the narrow taste of the public.

Berlioz’s exuberant tales of musical triumph and defeat constitute the most captivating chronicle of artistic passion ever written. They also lead to the conclusion that, in many respects, we live in a golden age of classical music. Such an observation defies received wisdom, which seizes on every symphony budget deficit to herald classical music’s imminent demise. But this declinist perspective ignores the more significant reality of our time: never before has so much great music been available to so many people, performed at levels of artistry that would have astounded Berlioz and his peers. Students flock to conservatories and graduate with skills once possessed only by a few virtuosi. More people listen to classical music today, and more money gets spent on producing and disseminating it, than ever before. Respect for a composer’s intentions, for which Berlioz fought so heroically, is now an article of faith among musicians and publishers alike.

[loungitude]

Doctor, I must concur. Opera is unlistenable.

[Dan B Cooper]

>I used to sing with the Oratorio Society of Washington - we performed the Berlioz Requiem

Back in the day, me and the boys used to sing on a street corner in the Bronx. I had a great falsetto. We sang stuff by Dion and the Belmonts only because we hadn’t heard of Berlioz. So much for a public school education:)

[CrazyIvan]

I enjoy it, as long as it’s not opera, which I can’t, and won’t, tolerate.

“Opera: a bad melodrama in which a man upon being run through with a sword, instead of bleeding, sings”.
Mark Twain

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“Opera: a bad melodrama in which a man upon being run through with a sword, instead of bleeding, sings”. at the top of his lungs!
Mark Twain, and Doc Bogus

[Dan B Cooper]

Luciano Pavarotti & Frank Sinatra - My way

[Vineyard]

One word rebuttal: “FIDELIO”

Mike

[Fiji Hill]

Classical music doesn’t have the supremacy it had in e.g. the 18th and 19th centuries.

In the 20th century classical music had a significant influence on pop music. One of the top hits of 1923, for example, was "Yes, we Have No Bananas," a song influenced by Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" and Michael Balfe's 1843 aria "I Dreamed I Dwelt in Marble Halls."

During the 1940's, band leader Freddy Martin had a string of hits with pop versions of classical pieces, including the first movement of Tchaikovskii's "Piano Concerto #1," Grieg's "Piano Concerto in A Minor," and Rakhmaninov's "Piano Concerto #2 in C Minor." In 1946, Frank Sinatra had a hit with the latter piece under the name "Full Moon and Empty Arms." Jo Stafford's "No Other Love," which is essentially Chopin's "Étude No. 3 in E," reached #10 on the pop charts in 1950.

Classical music continued to influence popular music into the rock and roll era. In 1959, Della Reese took “Quando M’en Vo” from Puccini's "La Bohème" on a ride up the charts under the name "Don't You Know," and the next hear, Jackie Wilson did the same with "“Mon Cour s'ouvre à ta Voix” from Saint-Saëns’ opera "Samson and Delilah," which he recorded as "Night." B. Bumble & the Stingers jazzed up Tchaikovskii with "The Nut Rocker" (1961), and the Toys charted with "A Lover's Concerto" (1965), based on Bach's "Minuet in G Major."

In the 1970's, Apollo 100 scored with "Joy," a rock version of Bach and Johann Schop's "Je­sus Bleib­et Meine Freude, Mein­es Herz­ens Trost und Saft" (1972), and Eric Carmen charted with "All By Myself" (1975), another song taken from Rakhmaninov's "Piano Concerto # 2." Even in the 1990's, Blues Traveler had a hit with "Hook" (1995), which is based on Johann Pachelbel's "Canon in D."

I'm not very familiar with the popular music of today, but it is probably a safe bet that it is not influenced all that much by classical music.

[Molly Pitcher]

Thanks! City Journal is excellent on so many fronts...

[KarlInOhio]

Even in the 1990's, Blues Traveler had a hit with "Hook" (1995), which is based on Johann Pachelbel's "Canon in D."

Canon in D is the Kevin Bacon of classical music. Many modern songs using the same chord progression are referred to in Rob Paravonian's Pachelbel Rant

[Molly Pitcher]

Very good. I do know in our area with at least one concert-sponsoring group, a significant # of comp tiks are given out to each concert...students grab 'em up.

And the effort is underwritten by some business sponsors. (E-VIL Corporations. HA)

[BornToBeAmerican]

Please check out Secret Garden

They write all of their material and it has been used by many artists.

'Songs from a Secret Garden' is a good place to start

Check them out, I am sure you will love them.

[Fiji Hill]

I recall when classical music was occasionally used for the theme songs of radio and television shows. “The Lone Ranger,” for example, used the “Galop” from Rossini’s “William Tell Overture,” and the television show “Lassie” used “Avant De Quitter Ces Lieux” from Gounod’s “Faust.”

[Roccus]

The radio show Sgt. Preston of the Yukon used Reznicek's Donna Diana

[Borges]

That’s more a function of population growth.

[Borges]

It’s perfectly listenable. And not all opera sounds the same. Something like Carmen is very close to the Musical Comedy. Various French operas have voices that are virtually whispering. Mozart’s operas certainly don’t have any ‘bellowing’. Not to mention the fact that the invention of opera is the single most important event in the history of Western music.

Tell me this is unlistenable...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB8IWGJl7Nw

[P8riot]

Only if you do not inform yourself concerning the story. Many people do not take the time to do so, otherwise they might enjoy it more. Granted the language barrier is insurmountable for most, but the notes and diction must be pure in order to be performed properly. Typically though most productions I have been involved in have provided transcripts for the audience.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

It was great,,,,,, until she started singing! I just do not like operatic voices. Love the music though. I’d much rather listen to a Mongolian throat singer! In fact, I like Mongolian throat singing, and Peking Opera. As a musician, who started out with French Horn, I like almost all music. Just can’t stand operatic voices, and errr,, Rap.

[P8riot]

Beautiful example. I could not have chosen better. Thank you.

[P8riot]

Some folks are hopeless :~). Opera isn’t for everyone though.

[zeugma]

I recall when classical music was occasionally used for the theme songs of radio and television shows. “The Lone Ranger,” for example, used the “Galop” from Rossini’s “William Tell Overture,” and the television show “Lassie” used “Avant De Quitter Ces Lieux” from Gounod’s “Faust.”

I wonder how many people were first introduced to classical music through Looney Tunes.