Unexpected Thoughts Regarding Classical Music
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Re: Unexpected Thoughts Regarding Classical Music
#2The author does not have a place for comments on his blog ... so I will use this space to suggest that:
1. anyone interested classical music should use Pandora.com to find out what they like: I ended up with a lot of Telemann and Corelli as performed by Manze and Egarr
2. if you have space in your apartment/house, go on Craigslist and get a decent set of speakers and a CD player and tuner/amp. Listening to classical on headphones is good but listening in open air is better.
Re: Unexpected Thoughts Regarding Classical Music
#3as a classical musician, this was inspiring and makes me feel happy :)
Re: Unexpected Thoughts Regarding Classical Music
#4The reason classical music is less popular among the masses is not that it does not appeal to emotions - a lot of people would argue with that. Half of the story is indeed in the conservative nature of it (my father is a musician and I know how he goes about interpretation of classical compositions, stage appearance and all these rules).
But there's also another half of the story which is simply lack of education in listeners. I only started to listen to different kinds of music (including jazz and classical) after I played an instrument for a year. It takes understanding and practice and since classical music is not really about any social group (like, say, punk-rock or classical rock are to some extent) it's hard for it to get this attention from people seeking for just emotional satisfaction. Over time, when a person gets more musically educated (and I mean doing music, not listening) his emotions require more intellectual sources, which is the structure of the composition (harmony and melody) and skills of the performers. That you can only appreciate when you try something yourself.
Re: Unexpected Thoughts Regarding Classical Music
#5The reason classical music is less popular among the masses is not that it does not appeal to emotions - a lot of people would argue with that. Half of the story is indeed in the conservative nature of it (my father is a musician and I know how he goes about interpretation of classical compositions, stage appearance and all these rules). But there's also another half of the story which is simply lack of education in…
another half of the story which is simply lack of education in listeners.
A lot of people just don't have the wherewithal to appreciate melodic music. Melody just escapes them. They want chords and riffs to wash over them while moving with a strong beat. The kind of lyric dance implied by other musical forms escapes them, and they have no hope of appreciating anything that wasn't once based on some kind of dance.
What really frightens me, though, are all these young people killing their fine cochlear structures with headphones. The wispy nuances of acoustic music don't even exist for them. They don't even exist in the same aural universe.
Re: Unexpected Thoughts Regarding Classical Music
#6The main buyers and patrons of "classical" music turn out to be a pretty conservative bunch. Have you ever listened to radio stations or concert promoters try to be humorous or hip? It's generally pretty puritan and sad, like something you'd find on the Disney Channel.
Until a new generation really takes ownership of this stuff, selling it to new listeners will remain an endeavor with dwindling returns.
Re: Unexpected Thoughts Regarding Classical Music
#7The author does not have a place for comments on his blog ... so I will use this space to suggest that: 1. anyone interested classical music should use Pandora.com to find out what they like: I ended up with a lot of Telemann and Corelli as performed by Manze and Egarr 2. if you have space in your apartment/house, go on Craigslist and get a decent set of speakers and a CD player and tuner/amp. Listening to classical…
A pair of high-end Sennheisers can be a great investment. (I have the 580s, which were once the flagship, now outdated, but still very good.) I can also recommend the Etymotic ER4P in-ear headphones.
Inexpensive but highly accurate small acoustic suspension speakers have been a commodity for awhile. Put these with a decent subwoofer with a built-in crossover, and you can get a very formidable setup, if you are willing to move your furniture around and hang things on your wall. Really good headphones can give you plug & play high fidelity, if you can live with a soundstage that's inside your skull.
(I use a Velodyne powered subwoofer with a pair of NHT Subzero-XUs, with a home-made external high-pass filter between my NAD receiver and the Subzeros. The natural rolloff from the speakers, plus the high-pass filter and the low-pass filter on the subwoofer gives me a bi-amplified system on the cheap.)
Re: Unexpected Thoughts Regarding Classical Music
#8Something that strikes me - whenever I've seen pieces like this before, they often seem to ignore that people still write classical music. It's nearly always Mozart, Beethoven, Bach but no mention of any modern or contemporary composers... I wonder why that is. Sure some contemporary classical music is a bit more esoteric and even less likely to appeal to the average listener, but it's certainly not all like that.
Maybe I'm slightly unusual in that most of the classical music I enjoy comes from the late romantic period onwards, but I do find it slightly disappointing that often when people "discover" classical music they seem to think it mostly stopped in the 1700s.
Re: Unexpected Thoughts Regarding Classical Music
#9The reason classical music is less popular among the masses is not that it does not appeal to emotions - a lot of people would argue with that. Half of the story is indeed in the conservative nature of it (my father is a musician and I know how he goes about interpretation of classical compositions, stage appearance and all these rules). But there's also another half of the story which is simply lack of education in…
another half of the story which is simply lack of education in listeners. A lot of people just don't have the wherewithal to appreciate melodic music. Melody just escapes them. They want chords and riffs to wash over them while moving with a strong beat. The kind of lyric dance implied by other musical forms escapes them, and they have no hope of appreciating anything that wasn't once based on some kind of dance. Wha…
I use headphones because the only time when I can spend some conscious time listening to music (not just filtering it with my ears) is when I'm taking a 30 min walk to the gym and then 30 min back. I realize, it's a trade off though, but don't be so hard on that.
Re: Unexpected Thoughts Regarding Classical Music
#10Something that strikes me - whenever I've seen pieces like this before, they often seem to ignore that people still write classical music. It's nearly always Mozart, Beethoven, Bach but no mention of any modern or contemporary composers... I wonder why that is. Sure some contemporary classical music is a bit more esoteric and even less likely to appeal to the average listener, but it's certainly not all like that. Ma…
That's understandable. Have you heard of any new classic rock bands lately? I doubt that. They do exists though. It's just that people lose interest in new faces playing the same old things. I mean sure, the scores may be different, but still somehow the music sounds the same, because they do combine chord progressions and melody parts in a certain painfully familiar way. Well, most of the time at least, that's what happens to the second generation of the genre followers.
Same as in web-apps industry. People like twitter and they are doing a good job. But having yet another one in a different skin would make no sense.