Future of Classical Music, Part 2

Yesterday's post with this title was just a brief pointer to a discussion on Greg Sandow's blog, but it attracted a lot of interest. You know, I rarely think about the future of classical music. Thinking is a kind of contemplation and so when I think about music it is always about music that exists, of the past, five minutes past, or five centuries past. What can you think of when you think about the future of classical music? Greg is thinking about trends in audience demographics, funding, education and so on. None of this is directly thinking about the music itself, which is not to say that it is not important. But my focus is usually to try and get directly to the music, so my usual contribution to the classical music of the future is to try and write some.

In the comments to the last post Anonymous says that no-one (he means about 2%) listens to classical music, while Jon jumps in to say that "Classical music leads in online participation by 18% (with Latin music a close second at (15%). More and more people are listening, just not necessarily going to concerts (or buying CDs)." Is this really true? Where can I go to see these figures? Based on my personal experience, it seems as if classical music does occupy that statistically tiny part of the Internet as well as the marketplace and, of course, of public space. I live in Mexico, which seems to have more than its fair share of raucous, unpleasant music blasting at you wherever you go, but isn't this true in most places? Whenever you go to a mall, ride in an elevator, go into a store or restaurant or walk down a street don't you hear, 98% of the time, raucous pop music? I wouldn't mind if it were better pop music, or not mind so much! Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I am not opposed to popular music--or any kind--generally. But you also know that I find certain pieces and songs in all genres annoying and unpleasant. The other day I was walking down the street and from a window drifted the sound of the Fugue from the G minor solo violin sonata by J. S. Bach. Suddenly I was struck by how rare it was to hear something like in a public space.

When I think about the future of classical music, and by 'classical' I mean any music that has shown high aesthetic quality and withstood the test of time, I worry about the pervasiveness of recorded music and the effect it must be having on people. I can't stand being in an environment where bad recorded music is being blasted at me hour after hour. But how many are growing up in precisely that environment? Isn't their potential for being sensitive to subtleties in sound and rhythm being traumatized without them even realizing it? If they have spent years nodding away to the rigid backbeat of commercial pop, how able would they be to enjoy the subtle rubato of a Chopin nocturne?

Oh, all right, I know that on the scale of world problems--hunger, disease, crime, corruption and general economic malaise--this is small potatoes indeed. But if music can bring joy, delight, transcendence, healing and pleasure into our lives, then it also can bring their opposites. Someone ought to point this out...