Eine kleine Nachtmusik. O Fortuna. Canon in D Major. Whilst you might not be able to connect these names to
a song, if heard, 99% of people would be able to recognise them. This seems to be the problem that classical music is facing – to know classical music, its names, its composers, appears like too much hard work for most people; it’s as if the cliché of classical music being listened to only by upper class snobs has penetrated into the public masses,until nobody can see anything different.
In his lecture at York University on 10th November, Tom Service, music critic for The Guardian, argued that there should be a place for classical music in modern culture, but that things needed to be changed if this was to happen. However, as students, representing the very demographic that have such an effect on the shape of modern culture, do we want classical music to be a part of our lives? To put it in a harsh light, classical music has become the endangered species that people feel somewhat guilty for, but which they are able to soon quickly push to the back of their minds. But do we have a responsibility to listen to classical music, just to keep it alive and to show that the Youth of Today aren’t all yobs and chavs? Isn’t this just buying more into the cliché of classical music being an elitist art form?
The very act of trying to appeal to younger generations (as well as older ones who would not normally listen to classical music) with shows such as The Choir seems to be perpetuating the same old tired stereotype that classical music is somehow better for you than other music genres, that there is a need to keep classical music “funky” and “cool” so that it doesn’t slip away forever. However, I’d much rather people fell in love with classical music for what it was, than for some weird mutation of it, with voting and judges and dull presenter types.
Perhaps, instead of creating these kind of shows to try and generate a sudden interest in classical music, it would be nice if people stepped back and thought – is this the right way of interesting people in classical music? By force feeding us with ideas that classical music needs to be listened to, the media industry is driving people away from it – making them feel like the little child in primary school again, made to make up a random song with instruments because it was somehow part of their musical education.
I’m certainly not saying that classical music should be forgotten or swept under the rug, but no other music form or genre has such a pressure behind it to be taken up or listened to – nobody in the rap industry is going around trying to promote rap as part of our modern culture, because it has naturally become that way.
In his lecture, Tom Service saw the answer as making musical activities and instrumental sessions free for children and not just for the rich and socially privileged – the logic being that a CD is generally too passive to make a child interested, but interacting with instruments is a much more active and exciting role. This appears to be a step in the right direction, but unfortunately it still continues the problem of making people play classical music because it is classical music. Does classical music have to be subverted for it to enter our modern culture or is keeping it as it is just continuing the clichés? Why do both the young and the old have to become interested, when there are many other music genres that are happy to stick for a certain age group? There seems to be a confusion as to where classical music should be heading, and until it is able to justify itself in our modern age, it is hard to see a recognised place for it any time soon.