Speak To Me :
Innovating Classical Music in the 21st Century
Senior Thesis Project
Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR
Emma Gomis
Music Department, May 2nd, 2011
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts
Acknowledgements
First, I would like to thank everyone who supported me during the writing of this paper. Thank you to my family, to Dylan DiSalvio, Laura Nichols, Tessa Goldston, Ben Wills, and Nathan Wheeler. Thank you to all the people who I interviewed: Janine Jansen, Justin Kantor, and Ronen Givony. Thank you to the Lewis and Clark Music Department and all the professors who have shaped me into the musicologist I am today. Special thanks to Nora Beck and Kathy FitzGibbon for their help and input.
Introduction
In the 20th century, Sergei Rachmaninoff played sold out concerts all over the country, Charles Ives and George Gershwin, among others, began forming a more American vernacular style of classical music, and Leonard Bernstein captivated the American audience. While classical music may not have been as popular as girl groups and Elvis Presley, it was still a principal facet of the American sonic landscape of the 1900s.
Classical music has faced a much different cultural panorama in the 21st century, “confronting an increasingly unsustainable combination of escalating costs, sagging philanthropy, aging audiences and declining attendance”.[1] As Kozinn points out, music education has essentially disappeared from public schools, and the American orchestral system is failing financially, causing 17 orchestras to close in the last 20 years and the Detroit symphony orchestra to go on strike last year.[2] During a time in which “everyone has heard the requiems sung for classical music or at least reports of its failing health”,[3] a time in which the classical audience attendance is continually diminishing (see Figure 1) and record sales are minimal (see Figure 2), those involved in the music industry have been pushed to be entrepreneurial and creative in an attempt to revive interest.
Figure 1
SOURCE: National Endowment for the Arts, Experian Simmons
Figure 2
SOURCE: Veronis Suhler Stevenson, RIAA
In reality, classical music has been diagnosed as “dying” for years now, and it is alive and well. There must be something in its intrinsic beauty that subtly still speaks to a modern audience and keeps us from taking it off life support. But the public’s musical disposition is not enough to rely on these days, and while the numbers keep falling, those involved in the music industry struggle to find ways to keep their audience engaged. The two questions that should be causing distress in the minds of everyone involved in the classical music industry right now are: first, what kinds of spaces are conducive to active listening and fostering that intimate relation between sound and audience; and more importantly, what types of different didactic and alternative programming methods can be used to attract a wider and more varied audience?
In this paper I will explore three approaches that have been applied in the 20th and 21st centuries to innovate the presentation of classical music in an attempt to reach a larger audience: genre cross-over; the use of alternative spaces and venues, and innovative forms of music education. Using the work of American musicians George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, and John Cage as a historical reference from the 20th century, I will correlate how these same approaches have been expanded upon in the last few years. By comparing two performances by the violinist Janine Jansen, one at a traditional venue (with the New York Philharmonic) and the other at a non-traditional venue (Le Poisson Rouge), I will examine the efficacy and challenges with different approaches to make classical music more accessible to a larger audience while maintaining artistic integrity.
Unconventional Thinkers of the 20th Century
The concern of innovating classical concert experiences—mixing genres to attract a wider audience, using different spaces to attract a different crowd, and finding an effective way to teach people about classical music—has been predominant throughout history. Over the years, many important musicians have pushed the music industry in multiple and diverse directions with the intention of getting people excited and involved. In the twentieth century, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, and John Cage greatly impacted the way that classical music was performed, taught and presented through alternative methods similar to the ones that are being explored now.
Genre Crossover
In the 1900s vaudeville and jazz were the popular music, and George Gershwin’s “jazz concerto” Rhapsody in Blue symbolized a fusion of two genres and of two extremely separate social worlds. The fact that the performances of Rhapsody in Blue were well attended and accepted was very exciting. As William Saroyan wrote in his short story “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze,” it was “jazz at the opera house.” Revolutionarily and symbolically important, Rhapsody in Blue brought classical snobbery and popular vulgarity together, and the performance was a great success.
The piece was premiered at New York’s Aeolian Hall on February 12, 1924 in a concert titled “An Experiment in Modern Music.” It was performed by Paul Whiteman’s band with Gershwin on the piano. In a pre-concert lecture Whiteman, who had commissioned the piece, announced that the purpose of the experiment was “to be purely educational.” He said it would “at least provide a stepping stone which will make it very simple for the masses to understand, and therefore, enjoy symphony and opera.”[4] From the initial conception of the project, it was intended to break the barriers between various social strata that made classical music inaccessible to a larger and more diverse audience. The concerto was ground-breaking because it exposed people to an idiom they had not expected to hear in a classical concert hall and took the first big step in, as Schwarz describes it, the “long and still incomplete process of breaking down America’s musical barriers between highbrow and lowbrow, popular and “serious”, and even black and white.” [5]
While its popularity with the audience was apparent, the critics passed mixed judgment and to this day there are still discrepancies among critics about how the composition fits into the jazz canon. Leonard Bernstein was one of the “critics” who responded to the piece with mixed sentiments, and in an article in the Atlantic Monthly in 1955 he wrote:
“The Rhapsody is not a composition at all. It's a string of separate paragraphs stuck together. The themes are terrific – inspired, God-given. I don't think there has been such an inspired melodist on this earth since Tchaikovsky. But if you want to speak of a composer, that's another matter. Your Rhapsody in Blue is not a real composition in the sense that whatever happens in it must seem inevitable. You can cut parts of it without affecting the whole. You can remove any of these stuck-together sections and the piece still goes on as bravely as before. It can be a five-minute piece or a twelve-minute piece. And in fact, all these things are being done to it every day. And it's still the Rhapsody in Blue”. [6]
No matter what musical idiom it conforms to, doesn’t conform to, or how it is classified, Rhapsody in Blue joined two very separate worlds and captured the public’s attention. The opening glissando of the piece [7] is as recognizable as the motive in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and the song has now become one of the most well known classics of American orchestral music. In the 2008-09 season, Gershwin’s Rhapsody was one of the top six American compositions most frequently performed by orchestras, with 24 scheduled performances.[8] While it pales in comparison to the 84 performances of the piece in the year that it was premiered, this statistic still shows how to this day his vernacular language has permeated the boundaries that excluded it from the classical world.
Alternative Music Education
While Leonard Bernstein may have maintained a side of classical snobbery reflected in his musical criticism, as evidenced by the proceeding quote, he was a great innovator, educator, and musician who did much to expand the boundaries and expose a wider public to classical music. Although best known as a conductor, he was, as Ned Rorem defines him, a “jack-of-all-trades.”[9] One of his greatest strengths was his didactic disposition and the way in which he was able to teach and inspire people to engage with classical music. Over a fourteen-year period from 1958-72, during which he was the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic,[10] he gave a series of 53 televised performances through the Omnibus series called the “Young People’s Concerts.” The programs were designated to educate children on the language of music, to make it more relatable and accessible to a younger audience. The New York Philharmonic initiated the “Young People’s Concerts” series prior to Bernstein’s arrival as music director, but he made the program successful, turning them into a central focus of his work and what he described as his “educational mission.”[11] In each episode, Bernstein explained musical terms from modes to intervals to orchestration in a manner that young children could understand; he spoke about different genres of music and also covered the works of great composers such as J.S. Bach, Dmitri Shostakovich, Aaron Copland and Charles Ives.[12]
In the first program, “What does Music Mean?” (Jan. 18, 1958), he rhetorically asked the sea of children in the audience, “what do you think music is all about?” and continued to say, “Music is never about anything. Music just is.”[13] In the next episodes he proceeded to discuss a broad range of topics including: “Jazz in the Concert Hall”, “What is a Mode?”, “The Latin-American Spirit”, and “What is Classical Music?” among various other subjects. Watching the video recordings of these performances, which have now been translated into many other languages and syndicated to forty countries, it is amazing to see how Bernstein’s charisma and eloquence in communicating with the audience captivated the children’s attention. “Leonard Bernstein, passionately promoted American composers, dabbled in avant-garde happenings, and tried to convince schoolkids that Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” gave a better high than LSD ”.[14] Even when he took a sabbatical season from the Philharmonic in 1964-5, he continued to lead the Young People’s Concerts and did so until 1972, although he stepped down as director in 1969. Bernstein also used these programs as a platform to introduce young musicians to the general public; sixteen year-old pianist Andre Watts made his debut in the program on January 15,1963.[15] Originally broadcast on Saturday mornings, the programs were so successful that for three years CBS presented them at 7:30 p.m. (prime time for television viewing).[16] The success of these performances and Bernstein’s steps toward music education were communicative and extremely effective.
Unusual Venues
Another prominent 20th century composer who took immense leaps in the revolution of musical presentation was John Cage. Cage’s educational methods were different and more experimental than Bernstein’s: he wanted to expose people to sounds that they wouldn’t conventionally be aware of. In his work, Cage meditates on how a performance space affects an audience and how to present music to people so that they can achieve an intimate connection with sound. In an interview Cage explained that,
“The structure we should think about is that of each person in the audience. In other words, his consciousness is structuring the experience differently from anybody else’s in the audience. So the less we structure the theatrical occasion and the more it is like unstructured daily life, the greater will be the stimulus to the structuring faculty of each person in the audience. If we have done nothing then we will have everything to do.” [17]
Out of these meditations he developed what came to be called “happenings,” which thrived in New York in the late 50’s and early 60’s. The most essential conceptual pillars of these happenings were: audience participation, and the necessity to eliminate the boundary between art and listener through multiple mediums and an unconventional use of space. The first happening is usually considered to be the 1952 performance of Cage’s Theater Piece No. 1 at Black Mountain College. John Cage, R. Buckminster Fuller and many other brilliant minds of the 20th century taught at this college and put on avant-garde shows that would deeply influence the presentation of music in the years to come. In Theater Piece No. 1, Cage stood reading from a ladder while Charles Olson read from another ladder, Robert Rauschenberg showed some of his paintings and played scratched phonograph records, David Tudor performed on a prepared piano and Merce Cunningham danced.[18] The “score” allotted the five performers a set amount of time during which they would perform among the audience rather than on stage. In the performance nothing but the amount of time and the various artistic medium were predetermined. The compositional technique was based on the concept of chance and aleatoric music; aside from those two elements, the performers were free to engage with art and audience in whichever ways they wanted. Through this technique, Cage hoped to eliminate the boundaries between listener and music in the hope of fostering active listening and a connection with sound. In searching for a space conducive to active listening, a search that continues today, Cage pushed what defined a space as a venue in various directions. He preformed among the audience instead of on a stage, took his music outside into the street, and used many unusual spaces in his attempt to cultivate an attentiveness and intimacy with sound.
Today, these ideas initially implemented by Cage, Gershwin and Bernstein have taken different shapes and been altered by a new generation and shifting cultural expectations. The question of how to reach a larger audience and make music more accessible has persisted into the 21st century; but now, with new advances in technology and varying musical trends, different approaches have been taken to search for alternative ways to answer the same question. In the following section of this thesis, I will discuss what several contemporary organizations are doing to continue the missions of Gershwin, Bernstein, and Cage into the twenty-first century.
Traditional Classical Venue
The most typical place to go hear classical music is a concert hall, an opera house, or a venue traditionally oriented toward a classical repertoire. Faced with dire statistics of audience participation, organizations such as The American League of Orchestras are pushing traditional classical venues to prioritize programs that will increase audience attendance. To explore the challenges faced by traditional venues and the innovative steps that are being taken I will focus on the New York Philharmonic.
New York leads the country in the number of arts organizations per capita, with 7.3 organizations per 100,000 people, more than twice the average in the U.S. (3.1). Some of these arts organizations associated with classical music choose to present classical music in traditional concert halls while others bring classical music into unconventional and alternative spaces. Two performances by Dutch violinist Janine Jansen will serve as illustrative examples to highlight the different traditional and nontraditional venues that are programming classical music. In February of 2011 Jansen performed with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall (a traditional concert hall) and also at Le Poisson Rouge (a nontraditional, alternative venue). While the performances shared the same soloist, the crowd, atmosphere, presentation and general mood of the two concerts were widely divergent.
The New York Philharmonic was founded in 1842 and is the oldest existing symphony orchestra in America. It played its 15,000th concert on May 5th, 2010 and currently plays some 180 concerts a year.[19] Commissioning and premiering many important works—such as Dvorak’s “Symphony No.9”, (From the New World),
“Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.3”, Gershwin’s “Concerto in F”, and Copland’s “Connotations”—the New York Philharmonic stands as one of the most important and highly regarded classical groups in the world. Gustav Mahler, Antonín Dvorak, Arturo Toscanini, Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein are a few of the names that have led the Philharmonic in the past who inspired the classical world through their musical leadership.
“Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.3”, Gershwin’s “Concerto in F”, and Copland’s “Connotations”—the New York Philharmonic stands as one of the most important and highly regarded classical groups in the world. Gustav Mahler, Antonín Dvorak, Arturo Toscanini, Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein are a few of the names that have led the Philharmonic in the past who inspired the classical world through their musical leadership.
Currently under the direction of Alan Gilbert, who became the orchestra’s music director in September 2009, the New York Philharmonic does take steps to try to innovate the way they present classical music. On their website[20], they advertise the option of accessing their digital files and hearing various lectures and concerts online by subscribing to their podcasts. They also promote the possibility of purchasing their iTunes season pass, which includes recordings of 12 concerts with digital liner notes and Gilbert’s onstage commentaries. The website is an example of how the orchestra is aware of the recent technological advancements that have occurred in the past few years and is taking steps to use that medium to reach out to more people who possibly have not attended the concerts and hopefully inspire them to come. They are, however, still constrained by a specific audience who expects a certain repertoire and are also faced with many financial restrictions, both factors which limit their possibilities in taking leaps and bounds towards alternative methods.
Janine Jansen, who came to play with the New York Philharmonic orchestra on February 26th, 2011, has also resorted to similar methods to reach a larger audience. Jansen gained acclaim in 2005 when her recording of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons became one of the best-selling albums on iTunes.[21] It is apparent that much of her success can be attributed to Internet downloading rather than by concert attendance or physical CD purchases. This again serves as a reflection of the way 21st century technology has shifted the mediums through which it is most effective to reach a larger audience. Jansen noticed this and realized that the role the Internet played in her sales brought her an audience that was not strictly classical music aficionados: ‘“From the comments, you could kind of get that they had never heard, for instance, a harpsichord in their life before,” Jansen says. “And this is, in a way, really great; that they react so positively to something new to them.”[22] Besides Vivaldi she has recorded other well-known violin repertoire including Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven. The piece she performed with the New York Philharmonic during the last days of the month of February 2011 however was a lesser-known piece: Benjamin Britten’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 15.
The concert on February 26, 2011 opened with Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür’s piece titled “Aditus”; a dissonant contemporary piece which Tüür himself described as “a nine-minute concert opener based on the gradually lengthening chromatic scale. This is mixed with another row: 1112336332”.[23] These concerts signified the New York premiere of this piece. And although at the end of the piece, the conductor Paavo Jarvi pointed at Tüür who stood up and excitedly clapped at the orchestra and bowed, the mostly older and likely “traditionalist” audience didn’t seem too amused by the 12-tone piece or the jarring dissonance created by a brass-heavy timbre that filled the concert hall for the first ten minutes of the evening. In my opinion, it is important that the New York Philharmonic is programming new work by contemporary composers like Tüür,; in the 2008-09 season, only 5.7% of the total performance by American orchestras was of works composed after 1983.[24]
The next piece on the program, Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto Op. 15 with Jansen as the soloist, while still full of unusual harmonies and bittersweet lyricism, is much less discordant. The Britten Violin Concerto premiered on March 28, 1940 with the New York Philharmonic (John Barbirolli conducting and Antonio Brossa on violin) at Carnegie Hall;[25] approximately 31 minutes long, the concerto is full of beautiful harmonies and rhythmic motives that interweave throughout the piece. Jansen came out wearing a floor length dark blue dress and with a dramatic down-bow embarked on an emotionally heart wrenching performance. While at times her manner of playing seemed almost theatrical, she performed this technically demanding piece with graceful beauty and the way she colorfully played the double and triple-stop passages with intensity and emotion was breathtaking. Her phrasing was beautiful and while at first her movements and swaying seemed dramatic, as the piece grew in intensity the emotion she expressed through the movements seemed to naturally express and complement the tone and emotion of the piece; it was almost as if you were watching the notes pour out of her movements, as if she had become the melody and moved with the shape and contour of each phrase.
Watching her perform in this manner brought to mind a statement that John Cage had made when he was asked whether he considers concerts theatrical activities. “ Yes,” he responded, “even a conventional piece played by a conventional symphony orchestra: the horn player, for example, from time to time empties the spit out of his horn. And this frequently engages my attention more than the melodies, harmonies, etc.”[26] It is important to attract the audiences’ attention, whether through visual stimulus (like Lepage did with Wagner’s Ring Cycle) or simply by exaggerated movement while performing. And, if the visual stimulus that attracts the audience draws attention to the sound being produced, to the melodic or harmonic or rhythmic contour of a piece, then it is even more indispensable.
The program closed with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, the same piece that followed the Britten when it was premiered in 1940. With the opening theme of Beethoven’s fifth,[27] the “traditionalists” in the audience, who sat shaking their heads during Tüür’s piece and had warmed up a little during the Britten, were now leaning over the railings of the balconies, straining their necks to get a better look at the orchestra with unabashed enthusiasm. Paavo Jarvi’s rendition of the Fifth was “unusually brisk, visceral, and texturally transparent” while still captivating,[28] balanced and true to it’s essential mood. Jarvi’s use of interpretive license, such as leaving the fermata out at the end of the first phrase, made the 45 minutes of V-I progressions and melodic motives that have been drilled into the collective consciousness somewhat more unpredictable and interesting to listen to.
While it is important that the New York Philharmonic is programming atonal pieces like the Tüür and not just sticking to “safe” pieces like the Beethoven, the programming of the concert did not attract a very varied audience. Although the reaction to the Tüür and Britten did not seem nearly as enthusiastic as the applause the Beethoven received, programming things like Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is still important not only to commemorate such an important composition but also because it does appeal to “traditionalist” auditory expectations. While it may seem close-minded to the educated musician to keep programming the same classic pieces, it is important that there is a body of people that is excited by these pieces and that is attending concerts to hear them. A study conducted by the League of American Orchestras in 2008 showed that the average symphony concert attendee is 57, only 22% of attendees are under 45, and 50% of attendees have postgraduate work or degrees.[29] Considering these statistics, it is not hard to understand why the programming for classical symphonies can seem static and geared toward such a specific musical taste.
Part of the reason for the homogeneity that has characterized the classical audience is not attributed to the lack of education in younger generations, but reflects more of a monetary issue. It is difficult to imagine how a younger demographic would find it feasible to spend the $75-200 a ticket to attend. It is also hard, however, to fathom how symphony orchestras could reduce ticket prices, be innovative, and fight off whatever societal apathy and disinterest that is keeping concert attendance low, in the face of the economic problems they are also dealing with. If the New York Philharmonic depended exclusively on income from ticket sales to meet their annual budget of $35 million, and tickets for the approximately 2,700-seat Avery Fisher Hall, were sold at an average price of $20 (the average price at Le Poisson Rouge) they would yield a daily income of $81,000 which would mean they would need to put on over 420 concerts a year, more than one concert a day. “In practice, all orchestras must address their operating deficits by relying on three principle sources of nonperformance income- private philanthropy, government support, and investment income.”[30] Unfortunately, after September 11th and the resulting financial crisis, philanthropy has been sagging. Additionally, the United States is not like other countries where the government offers heavy funding for the arts; instead, “the strongest government support for symphony orchestras and other performing arts flows indirectly through the tax expenditures resulting from the general tax deduction for contributions to non-profit organizations”.[31] These financial complications lead to performance expenses that are much higher than actual performance revenue (see Figure 3). These monetary issues have also lead to many bankruptcies in the American orchestral system including the Florida Symphony (1991), Birmingham, AL (1993), Honolulu, Hawaii (1993), Louisville, Kentucky (1996), Oakland, CA (1994), Sacramento, CA (1996), San Diego, CA (1996), Tulsa, OK (1998), Orlando, FL (2002), and San Jose, CA (2002), along with Denver and New Orleans who entered bankruptcy and later reformed as labor cooperatives.[32]
Figure 3
One example of an approach that tried to use a traditional classical venue in an unconventional way was Rober Lepage’s production of Wagner’s Ring cycle, which was put on at the Met and later screened at 20 different movie theaters all around the country. In this case, Lepage chose to use visual devices to entice a different audience. The 24-stage-length planks that moved and shifted to form rivers and mountains, the video projections that made dancers hung on wires look like mermaids swimming in water, and other visually captivating techniques, spiked the interest of more than just the regular opera enthusiast. This production embodied the spirit of Cage’s Theater Piece No. 1 in that it incorporated multi-media art to entice audience attention. The use of different audio-visual techniques in Lepage’s production also mirrors the New York Philharmonic’s attempt to promote iTunes passes and digital downloads, in the sense that both organizations are aware of technological advancements and they are trying to use the new mediums through which art and information are now reaching the public.
In the meantime, concert attendance keeps decreasing[33] and music directors and musicians keep looking for alternate ways to solve this financial and cultural deficit. These numbers alone should encourage musicians and everyone involved in the music industry to wonder why it is that attendance is so low and to search for ways to bring people back to the concert halls and back to the music. “If recent participation trends remain unaddressed, the audience for live classical music could decline by an additional 2.7 million people, or 14%, by 2018, as a result of projected trends in demographic momentum”. [34]
Non-Traditional Classical Venues
The music venue David Handler (27) and Justin Kantor (29) opened in New York in June of 2008, Le Poisson Rouge, is a step in the direction of fighting off this cultural apathy. With the slogan of “serving art and alcohol,” this new alternative venue draws in a widely varied audience through its unusual programming. It’s hard to find a venue where you can go see contemporary pop/rock bands like Deerhoof and Daft Punk one night and then come back the next day to see The Kronos Quartet or hear Arvo Part’s Fourth Symphony. Le Poisson Rouge’s philosophy in cross-genre programming is a more modern version of what Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue did by bringing jazz into the opera house except vice versa—LPR brings classical music into a club-like environment, which also programs popular music. The experimental philosophy of this “multimedia art cabaret” is bringing in a wider audience and exposing people to different sounds.
Handler studied composition and violin and Kantor studied cello at the Manhattan School of Music; after graduation they embarked on a project with the mission of finding a way to “revive the symbiotic relationship between art and revelry; to establish a creative asylum for both artists and audiences.”[35] As Handler explained, “playing and being trained in classical music from a very young age, I struggled with the relevance of classical music in my life as a young person”.[36] LPR was the outcome of this desire to break the boundary between the prestigious and pretentious intellectualism sometimes associated with classical music and the colloquialisms of popular culture.
Handler and Kantor took over the Village Gate, which was previously a jazz club that closed in 1993. They renovated the space and installed a stage that is close to the floor so as to encourage the connection between performer and audience, and installed tables and chairs that can accommodate 200 to 800 people.[37] With funding from private investors, the two young musicians hired Ronen Givony who aided in forming a space where an audience can go to hear all sorts of different genres, from punk rock to Baroque opera to jazz.
Janine Jansen got to experience performing in both venues when she was in New York in February 2011 and between her performances of Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto with the New York Philharmonic she played a show with Inon Barnatan, piano, at Le Poissoin Rouge which showcased many of the French compositions from her recently released CD “Bon Soir.”
Paavo Jarvi says that, “even when she plays with an orchestra, Jansen approaches the music like a chamber musician.”[38] In her hometown, Utrecht, she is also the artistic director of an annual chamber-music festival and since 1998 she has been a member of Spectrum Concerts Berlin, an important chamber music series in the Berlin Philharmonie. Considering this background, it was no surprise that she was so enthusiastic about the environment and audience-connection she felt when she performed at Le Poisson Rouge. Between songs she commented on the atmosphere and said it reminded her of the Broadway Café in Vienna where she would play chamber music late into the night with her friends when she lived there. “Both of these young musicians seemed energized by the informality of the setting.”[39]
The club-like feel, the dim candescent energy emanating from the room, and the food and drinks made for a very different experience than going to the Philharmonic. The audience was mostly older and the show was sold out, leaving the last few stragglers standing in the back. The psychedelic garage band Thee Oh Sees were playing over the speakers while the crowd finished finding their seats: an interesting juxtaposition with the classical repertoire that was about to be performed. As Jansen came on stage the crowd went quiet. Later on, Jansen described her feelings about performing at this non-traditional venue to me:
“Yesterday at the Poisson Rouge, I really like it. Of course I was actually wondering a little bit how it would be because you know, you don’t know which kind of people come there, but actually I think it’s the connoisseurs, the music lovers who know everything about classical music, and they were so quiet. I mean really, they were really so focused and concentrated and I really loved it. From the moment we were on stage you could feel this enormous concentration from the audience and it was so unforced. I was impressed at how quiet the audience was—probably much more quiet than at the New York Philharmonic.” [40]
The concert opened with a beautiful Ravel’s Sonata in G (1923-27). The first movement began with a soft motive introduced by the piano, which was soon accompanied by a melodic line from the violin—slowly with all the chromaticism and polymetric changes the two lines began to interweave, sounding as two separate voices creating the same texture. The held note at the end of the movement allowed Jansen to show off her beautiful vibrato and both hers and Barnatan’s phrasing was wonderfully executed. Jansen and Barnatan then moved on to the second and central “Blues” movement of the impressionist Sonata. Appropriately for a venue that was previously a jazz club, the bluesy tone of the movement was embodied beautifully by these two players. As so and so reviewed the concert, “They played it, with its bent pitches and fluid tempos, as if the blues were--at least for the moment--their musical mother tongue”.[41]
The next piece was Olivier Messiaen’s “Theme et Variations”, a piece the 20th century composer affectionately wrote for his wife. “Its plaintive theme, stated with a disarming gracefulness, gradually expands into the sort of soaring but firmly controlled line that animated Ms. Jansen’s account of the Britten a few days earlier, supported here by tolling piano chords voiced with the light dissonances Messiaen used to evoke celestial grandeur”.[42] After these two twentieth century pieces, the contemporary swiss composer Richard Dubugnon came up and spoke a little about his piece “Retour a Montfort-Lamaury” which was performed next. The last piece on the program was the “A Major Sonata” by Cesar Franck (an influential composer of modern French chamber music). As an encore, the duo came out and played Debussy’s “Beau Soir”. These four pieces celebrated the release of her new CD “Beau Soir” on Decca, which consists of a mostly French program. Jansen and Barnatan played without any sort of amplification and as Kozinn points out in his review of the concert for the New York Times, “The extreme pianissimo playing in the Ravel and the Franck drew listeners in, and they were perfectly audible at the back of the room. If anything, the lack of amplification heightened the sense of intimacy that has been one of Le Poisson Rouge’s attractions.”[43]
Le Poisson Rouge is taking the ethos of Rhapsody in Blue and applying it to their programming choices. It is a space that cultivates a diverse audience by programming shows from jazz, classical, and popular genres. Rejecting the idea that classical music belongs strictly to a specific social class, LPR instead tries to integrate it into everyday life alongside other popular genres. In an interview after the show, owner Justin Kantor explained the philosophy behind his venue:
“I went to the Manhattan School of Music and it was there I saw this completely different approach to music that didn’t connect with me very much. I realized I didn’t know what to do; I loved playing but I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it, so this idea of, it was really the environment more than anything else, it wasn’t that the music I felt like was bad or needed to be changed or you needed to like have put performers in sexy outfits you didn’t need to electrify it or make new rock versions of things, it’s just you don’t want to sit down and be like told what to do and feel like you’re going to church when you’re going to see a concert. So that was really where this concept sort of started, sort of like take classical music off of its elevated perch and say ‘hey you’re just another type of music and you should think of yourself as that.’ And even though it’ s sometimes maybe more challenging than other types, there’s still any type of genre of music can have the same level of artistry and creativeness and beauty and so we just kind of leveled the plane a little bit; that was really the goal”.[44]
The setting for classical innovation has changed with the ebb and flow of technology and general cultural shifts. Thus, it is necessary to find ways to adapt to different audience expectations. Flashy outfits and recorded music in live performances have altered audience participation, and we now live in a increasingly visual world where we expect heightened visual stimulation. Lepage with his flashy images, Cage with his unconventional use of space and multi-media art, Jansen with her dramatic gestures, Bernstein’s use of the television as a medium through which to reach a larger audience, and the New York Philharmonic with their promotional iTunes offers are all just trying to find ways of altering the performance aspect to get people to connect with the music. The music still speaks to the audience. The music will always speak to the audience. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to grab their attention long enough to get them to actively listen. As Ronen Givony, music programmer at Le Poisson Rouge, said in an interview: “There is an audience for non-popular music; it’s just a matter of how you make a gesture towards it.”[45]
After seeing Jansen play at these two very different venues, it seemed apparent why venues like LPR have the flexibility to be more innovative, straying from the elitist traditions of classical music presentation, while venues like the Avery Fischer Hall seem to maintain the same form that has been used for symphonic orchestras since pre-18th century. It is easier for a small chamber ensemble to perform in alternative spaces and to play more controversial music because it is much simpler to agree on a piece and to physically play in an unusual venue when you’re not an orchestra of thirty-something musicians with instruments to load looking for a stage large enough to hold you and a room vast enough to contain your sound.
Bernstein’s Charisma Lives On
While these restrictions on orchestras make it harder for them to use alternative spaces, it hasn’t stopped the program that José Antonio Abreu, started thirty-five years ago in Venezuela now known as “El Sistema.” Abreu, a 69-year-old retired economist, trained musician, and social reformer founded the system in 1975 with 11 children in a parking garage, and even then he saw the potential. The program has now successfully taken children from the slums of Venezuela, placed an instrument in their hands and brought them hope and joy through music. It is absolutely breathtaking. Using alternative spaces, because that is what is available to them, “disused prisons or hostels- any buildings that could possibly be suitable- are being converted to accommodate the burgeoning numbers wanting to be a part of it.”[46] Now, with almost 300,000 children playing in approximately 200 orchestras distributed among the many “nucleos” that have been set up in the cities and towns of Venezuela, “El Sistema” is one of the most spectacular examples of social change through music that has ever occurred. The work being done in Venezuela resonates Bernstein’s educational philosophy. “El Sistema” is using music education to stimulate social change and reach people from different economic backgrounds. The music education system focuses on inspiring and motivating children through classical music, echoing the philosophy that inspired the “Young People’s Concerts.”
Among the many orchestras established by El Sistema, the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra has gained world-wide acclaim and played at Carnegie Hall among other reputable venues. Another “product of the system” as he describes himself is Gustavo Dudamel, the talented conductor of the SBYO and also music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Dudamel joined El Sistema at the age of 4 and the program helped form the musician that he is today. Children can join this revolutionary music education program as early as the age of two where they “start learning the basics, like rhythm, and the language of music. By the time they’re four, they’re being taught how to play an instrument. By the time they’re six or seven-year old veterans, they’re playing in orchestras.”[47] 75% of the children in these orchestras come from families that live below the poverty line, and one clarinetist of the SBYO who spent time in a detention center explained, “Holding a clarinet, was much better than holding a gun.” Watching the documentary Tocar y Luchar, it is absolutely humbling to see the way music can impact and shift crime and the negative effects of poverty and replace it with joy, dedication and confidence. In the face of poverty, the educational system uses classical music to instill in children a sense of belonging, self-esteem and work ethic. Dudamel has described Abreu as “an angel in the world,” and considering his work and the results it is producing, it really does seem like Abreu is a miracle worker.
The story of “El Sistema” is a great success story of innovative methods being able to reach a larger audience with no regard for social or economic boundaries. Maria Guinand explained the philosophical principles behind the organization in a lecture she gave at Lewis and Clark College on April 12th, 2011:
“We are trying, through music, to create what doctor Abreu was saying at the beginning[” (of the movie Tocar y Luchar]). “We are trying to feed the spirit, we are trying to light an interior light for all these children and young people. We think that poverty can be overcome by having the will and having the possibilities and having the conviction that you have been included, that you are working, that you are part of something. And to make a child part of a choir or part of an orchestra and his family is already including all of them. We feel that music provides self-esteem. There is nothing like a good applause, and applause that you get because you have worked hard, because you deserve it.”[48]
Through this type of philosophy, Abreu, Guinand, and all those involved in El Sistema and organizations like it… The program is free, the instruments provided, with funding provided almost entirely by the Venezuelan government. In the spirit of this quote, it is absolutely astonishing to see how music can bring people together, speaking to them and connecting to sound. El Sistema is “Music itself knows no boundaries of language, race or background. And it is non-competitive. When the conductor gives his downbeat, every player in the orchestra is equal. Music is a great leveler.”
“The borders that exist in the world between peoples is all in our head,” says Dudamel, “and our message through music is everyone has a chance to have a future, together.”[49]
As the League of American Orchestras points out, this nationwide system in the third world has now reached into over 200 towns and villages with orchestral training centers; “yielded a performance quality that consistently leaves audiences cheering; and purports to successfully move people out of poverty could hardly be ignored.”[50]
Because of its astounding impact, music education programs modeled after El Sistema are being planted in various places throughout the world. The Harmony program in London is showing signs of great success. El Sistema USA however has not been as successful, and the question of weather a program like this would work in the United States still seems dubious. The New England Conservatory in Boston implamented a two-year program that would train students in how to set up and start a “nucleo”, but a couple weeks ago the school announced their plan to discontinue the program. Because El Sistema is a mostly government funded program, a similar educational plan taking-off in the US may not be feasible. It is, however, still important and motivating that programs like this exist in the world and should inspire the rest of the musical community to keep searching and trying different ways to reach people through music.
Conclusion
Music has the power of establishing a sense of community, of crossing socio-economic boundaries to bring us together, of inspiring hope and providing joy, and of offering a creative vehicle of expression. Making classical music accessible and keeping it alive and prevalent is so important because it is history, it is language, it is hope and joy; because, as Plato wrote, “music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good, just and beautiful, of which it is the invisible but nevertheless dazzling, passionate, and eternal form.” The performance of classical music serves a similar cultural function as maintaining museums does; it is historically important, reflecting the thoughts and mediums that have influenced and are being expanded upon in contemporary art. Classical music is the foundation of most current music and it is essential to be aware of the correlations between trends in artistic thought and current. But more so than the historical validity of classical music, it is also music that still speaks to and moves contemporary audiences. It is music that we can still relate to, music that can still provoke social change and steer children away from violence and crime. Because of this, it is essential that in heart of every musician there sound the melody of Rhapsody in Blue, and in the mind of every musician there reside the didactic charisma of Bernstein and the thoughtful novelty of Cage.
If we as a society want to keep classical music alive and relevant, we’re going to have to continue to use and expand upon some of these novel approaches and come up with more. The work being done in Venezuela, venues like Le Poisson Rouge, the New World Symphony in Miami, Third Angle and Resonance ensembles in Portland, OR, among many other organization all across the world are taking innovative and inspiring steps to bring classical music to a larger audience. This is a prominent concern in the musical world right now and the most important thing is that we all (musicians, teachers, producers, etc.) keep thinking, keep expanding upon different ideas, keep innovating, and keep debating to make sure that our language doesn’t become extinct.
[1] Kyle MacMillan. “Hanging by a string: Can classical music adapt?”. The Denver Post. Dec. 5, 2010.
[2] Allan Kozinn. “Music; This is the Golden Age”. The New York Times. May 28, 2006.
[3] Allan Kozinn. “Check the Numbers: Rumors of Classical Music’s Demise are Dead Wrong”. The New York Times. May 28, 2006.
[4] Paul Whiteman talks about George Gershwin and the creation of Rhapsody in Blue. Songbook. (n.d.). Songbook. Retrieved May 3, 2011
[5] Frederic D. Schwarz. “1924 Seventy-five Years Ago”. American Heritage. February 1999. Vol 50, issue 1.
[9]Rorem, Ned. “Leonard Bernstein (An Appreciation)”. Tempo, New Series.
[10] Bernstein was appointed Music Director in 1958 and given the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor in 1969
[12] Brian D. Rozen, “Leonard Bernstein’s Educational Legacy”. Music Educators Journal.
[13] Leonard Bernstein.
[14] Alex Ross.“Waking Up”. The New Yorker. October 19, 2009.
[15] Leonard Bernstein.
[16] Leonard Bernstein.
[17] Cage, John, Kirby, Michael, Schechner, Richard. “An Interview with John Cage”. The Tulane Drama Review. 55
[18] Hobbs, Stuart D. The End of the American Avant Garde. 109
[20] New York Philharmonic
[22] Lunden
[23] New York Philharmonic
[24] League of American Orchestras.
[25] New York Philharmonic.
[26] Cage, John. “An Interview with John Cage”. The Tulane Drama Review.
[28] Allan Kozinn. “Recreating a Hill of the Obscure and the Familiar”. New York Times. February 25, 2011.
[29] League of American Orchestras
[30] Robert J Flanagan. “Symphony Musicians and Symphony Orchestras.”
[31] Flanagan, p3
[32] League of American Orchestras
[34] American Orchestra League
[35] Le Poisson Rouge. (n.d.) Le Poisson Rouge
[36] Angela Thurston. “Two Fierce Fish Change the Tide in a Wide Ocean”. Manhattan School of Music: Alumni News.
[38] Lunden
[39] Kozinn, “Violinist Adds Intimate Stage to a Concert Hall Week”
[40] Janine Jansen, interview with performer, February 26th, 2011.
[41] Kozinn, “Violinist Adds Intimate Stage to a Concert Hall Week”
[42] Kozinn, “Violinist Adds Intimate Stage to a Concert Hall Week”
[43] Kozinn, “Violinist Adds Intimate Stage to a Concert Hall Week”
[44] Justin Kantor, interview with owner, February 28th, 2011.
[45] Ronen Givony interview with music programer. February 28th, 2011.
[48] Maria Guinand lecture. April 12th, 2011. Lewis and Clark Collage.
[50] League of American Orchestras
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2 comments:
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