Ever been in a socially awkward situation? I can recall a couple of instances when I accidentally found myself amongst a class of people to whom I very clearly, and awkwardly, did not belong. It was palpable. Uncanny. Creepy. To the extent that my very body language gave me away as “not one of them”. Holy moley – talk about funky vibes. I’ve felt ‘em. Thank goodness these experiences were not long, drawn out affairs. I had the option to flee and flee I did! Why do I mention this? Audiences. It’s all about audiences.
What listeners agree upon as “classical” music was initially designed, executed and consumed by and for an elite audience: Royalty and/or wealthy patrons of Europe. Everybody knows that. This elite patronage system eventually gave way to the wealthy and powerful bourgeoisie of the Industrial Age (and post-industrial age). Add to this list the powerful corporations of the present times and we can easily discover who this music was meant for. Charles Ives identified them as “blue haired old ladies”.
He was especially critical of the ultra-conservative tastes these rich, blue haired oldsters harbored (and how this often prevented contemporary composers from having their works performed). It should be noted, however, that Charles Ives did not attempt to earn a living from composing – he was an early insurance mogul. Perhaps his own wealth afforded him the opportunity to compose radical music since he was not chained to the market created by the tastes of conservative listeners. He could afford to compose weird music in his spare time and with his own wealth was able to hear it performed occasionally.
When placed into this context, it is somewhat astounding that “classical” music managed to gain a sizable audience in the 20th century from decidedly non-elite segments of society. I am thinking primarily of the United States here, although the same could be said of other countries perhaps even in the old communist bloc of the Cold War era. In the west there was enough of a market for this music for privately owned businesses to emerge and thrive in their efforts to meet the demand of the listeners. This market was made up of two rather distinct audiences for music, which sometimes overlapped yet remained distinct from each other: those who go to concerts and those who don’t. The non-concert-going people might be just as passionate about music, but participate as home-listeners either to radio or physical music products. The live music audience might often come from upper classes who can afford to spend an evening out as a leisure time activity, though concert audiences have been known to include folks from humbler origins too. The home-listening audience was fueled by changes in technology at the dawn of the 20th century.
Radio was to the people of the 1920s what the internet and mp3 technology has become for the current age. Radio created a new gateway for the masses to experience music at the dawn of the 20th century just as ipods have created more convenient access to personally selected music for today’s listeners. Having a large, portable selection of music readily available wherever you go has only increased the size of a listening audience. Radio was an alternative to having someone in your family with the ability to play a piano and a piano itself in the house. Radios were much cheaper and most families had one – even families that didn’t yet have running water in their homes or even electricity. Those families had the same option to hear music as families from more fortunate backgrounds.
Yet, the origins of having a personal collection of music to choose from came from essentially the same businesses that manufactured home radios – furniture companies. Radios were initially big pieces of furniture. As an alternative to the piece of furniture that played someone else’s music choices, the technology of flat shellac discs containing musical performances was pitched mainly to sell the piece of hardware to use those discs on. Many early record companies started life as subsidiary companies created solely to provide the “software” for the playing devices. RCA-Victor called its piece of furniture the “talking machine” – you’ve seen these before, right?
When you stop to think how much time has passed since these devices were last considered “current and viable technology” to now – the furniture companies must have made boatloads of these things for there to be so many still lingering in antique shops and the like. Again, probably cheaper than a piano.
An entry-level Victrola would set you back $15 in 1913. In today’s money that’s about $350. A step up cost $25 or nearly $600 in today’s money. Consider how much more sophisticated an object a piano is to a Victrola machine, the piano would be far more expensive indeed.
Notice too how the early advertisements for the Victrolas featured classical / opera stars as opposed to popular singers. Enrico Caruso was arguably the most famous of such figures. What the shellac discs contained were arias and shorter segments of notable operas. So, even if the music was not familiar, listeners would have a bite-size portion of a larger work at their disposal. Consumer-friendly indeed. As the industry became more sophisticated, books of several discs bound together were sold containing larger works spread out over the many sides of the records. Like this:
Listening to a whole symphony on sets of 78s took a level of dedication not even vinyl LP lovers would find tolerable. Yet, these things did sell in their time. Even the playback machines improved over time with the advance of electricity rendering the old acoustic machines obsolete. Once the post-war world emerged, both magnetic tape and micro-groove LP records would rapidly replace the shellac-dominated physical materials of recorded music pretty much permanently. Until the digital revolution, of course. From the mid-1940s at least until the mid-1990s, vinyl LP records made up the bulk of the physical material for music buffs to consume their sounds on. This, together with the general post-war prosperity (again, the focus here is on the US), would spread “classical” music to even further-flung corners of the country (geographically and socially). In fact, it could be argued that a general music-infrastructure existed in those years that is somewhat in limbo right now. How so?
Classical music has never before been so immediately available as it is today. On this blog I tend to focus on vinyl mostly. Yet, there is a ton of it for free right on the internet. Plenty of sites offer free and legal downloads sometimes of high-quality radio broadcasts from regional orchestras that are quite good. In fact, I am painfully aware that by limiting myself even to LPs and CDs I’m missing out on some great current performances. Yet, with so much available the question remains – Where is this music going? Does it have a future? If it does, who is the audience?
With the recent economic downturn of the last six years or so, too often I’ve seen in the news about once-thriving city orchestras packing up their music stands for good or close to it. The Cleveland Orchestra went on a high-profile strike four years ago and the Philadelphia Orchestra declared Chapter 11 more recently. Both orchestras have rebounded in the ensuing years, but concerns about the larger picture of appreciation linger on. Some orchestras are proposing radical changes to their mission statements – arguing that their roles in the communities they operate in ought to be more holistic than traditional. I think orchestras, like any other institutions, will only manage to be traditional as long as their wealthy sponsors allow them to be. Propping up tradition is a costly endeavor. Maybe things do tend to stay the same the more they change.
Often enough I wonder what potential audience there might be for music of the “classical” or “serious” variety as the future unfolds. Another tragedy of tough economic times is the continuing disintegration of the arts programs in the public schools across the country. Where orchestras have managed to survive from infusions of money from wealthy sponsors, the schools have been cutting back on music education more and more without any help or bailout. Where do these sponsors to the big orchestras think the musicians are going to come from? Vienna? Studies have been conducted to illustrate the terrible effects of cutting music education in the public schools on culture. With all the free music that is available, the irony is that fewer and fewer young people are being exposed to it and not just due to changes in education funding.
Part of what has driven me to seek out more classical music in recent years is the fact that the very sounds of those orchestral instruments are rapidly receding from even the most casual music sources. Hollywood films, TV shows, supermarkets, hotel lobbies all feature some kind of “rock music” in the background. Department stores now play generic sounding “rock music” – little of which is identifiable to me. Let me tell you why “rock music” emerged in the first place. It was not due to overexposure to Beethoven (sorry Chuck Berry). It was due to a general profusion of light orchestral music – MUZAK-type music. “How much is that doggie in the window?” kind of stuff. The easy-listening channels well into the 1980s played this junk. Rock and Roll was a rebellion against fluff. Today the easy listening stations play music that is essentially LIGHT ROCK. Beethoven performed by quality orchestral musicians sounds positively radical in today’s music climate.
The notion that “classical” equals “easy listening” is a massive misconception. Stravinsky, Varese, Mahler and Messiaen would all agree. I think there may be others in my age group and demographic who are likewise getting fed up with the general “rock music sound” of current filler-music in our society. Modern rock has become the new easy listening and it lacks soul. Not soul as in “soul music” but depth of feeling. The sounds I’m hearing from “classical” records in my collection are abundant in depth of tonal color and compositional excellence by comparison. Every platter is like a sonic vacation. Even from the most unlikely sources………
Check out those box sets above. I found these 4 2LP box sets of Arnold Schoenberg’s music a few weeks ago – Volumes 2, 3, 5 and 6. The series went up to Vol. 8 so I’m only missing 1, 4, 7 and 8. Of course that isn’t everything Arnold Schoenberg composed, but it’s a nice overview. I haven’t made it beyond Vol. 2 yet, but I was pleasantly surprised at how musical this stuff is. He has a rather fearsome reputation – considering he is the guy who invented 12-tone / serial composition. I expected his music to sound really ugly. Not the case. In fact I’m hearing a wonderful diversity of emotion so far. Once again, I’m not approaching Schoenberg’s music from an academic point of view – I’m listening and reacting emotionally. I’m really looking forward to tracking down the missing boxes now!
Here’s a Ligeti record I found recently too. For another modern composer, this is really fun music! I have quite a pile of 20th Century records to dip my ears into. It isn’t easy to find this stuff in flea markets and thrift stores, but once in awhile it happens.
Like this famous Electronic Music record with Steve Reich’s “Come Out” on it. Captain Beefheart loved this record and played it a lot, which explains a lot! While I was listening to it the first time I really believed I might go a little crazy until I got into the flow of the piece. I found this at a local flea market at a booth with nothing but Wayne Newton and Barbara Streisand records otherwise. What this thing was doing there who knows?
I also found a bunch of nice imported LPs mostly of classical and romantic-era composers, but still excellent stuff like this Mozart LP. As much as I like intense and experimental music, I cannot deny Mozart. His music is enjoyable and intellectually stimulating. And, even though his music may appeal to the power elite, the 20th century has proven that it is music for everyone – just like Schoenberg’s. The proliferation of inexpensive, quality record playing devices in the 20th century helped to turn this music into a populist art form. For those seeking a deviation from the norm, there are some amazing vibrations out there in the record bins. There are other realities to consider beyond what the modern media outlets force upon us. There may be an alternate future available if we know where to look.
Keep seeking and listening!
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