From Cartoons to Social Media – How Do You Make Classical Music Accessible?

A suggestion made during a forum noted current efforts to increase audience size. One direction is to mix genres by including popular musical pieces and artists. This breakout seems to man a move beyond the seemingly ossified tradition. But another way might be to show the musical borrowing across traditions. Consider a musician such as Scott Joplin, inspired by nineteenth century European romanticism. How can one hear this influence in his compositions? Or Nina Simone’s use of the Bach inspired counter-point of a fugue. Who would know without clues? Learning more about Bach’s musical exchange with Vivaldi allows audiences to see musicians and their work at a much closer range. Staging performances of compositions with art music instruments from other parts of the world such as the 21-string West Africa lute/harp, the kora. Or pianist Rim Jeon practice of combining traditional Korean folk songs with the traditional, then Western art music and jazz is another attempt at showing how form inspires new forms or extended conversations with a score. Yet, the clues to how this is done are generally held in reserve for people who go to Conservatory. Composers and musicians are in dialogue with earlier composers and musicians. These intertextual and performance dialogues could prove exciting to many listeners.

A few weeks ago, NPR aired the story of a program in New York’s school system designed to teach fifth grade students elements of music theory (June 2, 2012). The students are then expected to compose music that is performed by the New York Philharmonic. Art music comes to life because the students spend weeks learning the language that most professional musicians take for granted, no matter the tradition.

Similarly, Suzanne Vega’s [radio] series, Thirteen Days When Music Changed Forever, is totally a cool idea. Part of telling a story about and through music helps people to appreciate what to listen to and listen for. Lemony Snicket’s The Composer is Dead, is equally enjoyable for its ability to make art music have life. Recent examples of ways art music enters places outside the concert hall include film sound tracks. Or Phillip Miller’s Cape Town S.A. Rewind: A Cantata, Rewind for Voice Tape and Testimony, draws upon different forms of musical expression. It provides an opening and is successful in encouraging not so typical attendee for such an event to check things out.

I can’t help but wonder how an interest in art music is sustained in much of East Asia and still in Europe. Maybe there are insights to be gained by thinking globally about the questions posed by the Forum.

—Paulla Ebron

Paulla Ebron is an anthropologist currently exploring questions about Western art music as a form of cultural capital in the 21st century. She has taken music lessons on a variety of instruments. She is currently studying the cello.

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