Vol. XX No. 8
May 2005

New Venues, New Music

Derek Mithaug brings up an interesting idea in his April Career Beat column ("Classical Music, the New Underground?"). It is an idea I used to fantasize about myself until I realized its inherent limitations. Classical music cannot be the "new underground" because it already is "underground" and has probably always been there.

The fact that music has split into so many stratified classifications—rock, hip-hop, jazz, classical, new age, etc.—points to one crucial factor: the amazing and complex diversity of choices that modern audiences are faced with. Coupled with an economic system where greed, competition, and profit predominate at every level at the expense of truth, spirituality, and often the simplest of everyday human interactions, as well as with a consumerist philosophy that demands short attention spans, action-oriented behavior, and instant gratification, it is not difficult to assess the damage. So-called classical music requires long attention spans, some knowledge of philosophy and history, at least a working idea of musical language, and an openness to experience. Most of these elements are being methodically erased by the everyday experiences in our capitalistic technological communities.

While I agree with Mithaug that the paradigm needs to shift, that "classical" music need not be dominated by a fanatical core that holds tenaciously to tradition at all costs, I don't know if a new paradigm—the epochal shift Mithaug refers to—will necessarily result in large numbers. The underlying assumption here is that "underground" means "hip," and it will catch on in a few years. The truth is that such trends are manipulated by large corporate conglomerates and advertising firms with a financial payoff in mind. Such cannot be the case with the kind of music Mithaug is referring to, which I hesitate to label. (After all, is Philip Glass comparable to Monteverdi? Are Bartok, Schoenberg, and Stravinsky all aboard the same vessel as Mozart?)

Music that requires patient consideration and frequent listening is not about to draw the energies of the boys in the board rooms who are interested in paying their country club dues and the lease on that new Jaguar. The truth is that this kind of music has always been grasped and loved by a minority of the population and despite all our efforts to the contrary, as long as we routinely fail to educate the masses and bring them to any higher recognition of truly human values, it will continue to be so. Our hope lies not in changing the cosmetics but in changing the dynamics behind it. Art reflects the society that produces it, despite all attempts to force it to do otherwise. Maybe our complex, money-driven expression of music is expressing exactly who we are these days—underground as well as on the surface.

Fernando Rivas
Charleston, S.C.
(B.M. '77, composition)

Derek Mithaug's Career Beat column last month about young artists performing in "underground" venues could not have been more timely. However, what to play is just as important as where. Many young artists are hooked on the 19th-century repertoire—and who could blame them? Yet the present generation of listeners hardly connect to this repertoire. They have had no exposure to it—no classical music at home, no school music education. Radio? Who listens to WQXR? (And WNYC plays classical music at night only.)

Young listeners are much more amenable to listening to 20th- and 21st-century "classical" music. Much of movie music is "modern." The ever-present dissonance in our world (street noise, machines, and the like) is an integral part of their lives. The musical mentality of the 19th century is light-years away from them. They can be educated, brought closer to it, and learn to enjoy it gradually—with patience and persistence, and through new music. It's high time to wake up to the reality.

Baruch Arnon
Juilliard faculty, piano literature and chamber music

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