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As Art should be experienced outside of Galleries and Museums, Classical music needs to be heard outside of the Concert Halls.
I started out this evening looking at TEDx Talks about Viola/Violists & got enticed down a rabbit hole of Greek music (not going there today 🙄), then ended up back at TEDx Talks to watch Avri Levitan explain this wonderful concept & program he helped initiate, and a few other speakers talk about concepts to help keep Classical music/education alive in the future.
Revolution Of Classical Music Education - Avri Levitan, teaching music performance.
TEDx Talks - Classical Music To The People - Audun Sanvik, get closer to the people, NO music stands!
What Does The Future Hold For Classical Music? - Christopher Lewis, what do we need to do?
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Wouldn't this be the purpose of busking? Or flash mobs? Taking art to the masses has always been the province of street performers. Fairs and festivals engage in this too.
I once wrote a short story about a record shop opening because vinyl was making a comeback. The grand opening wound up having a flash mob comprised of various nightclub bands show up to play a short set and then yield the stage for the next band. The concept was based on street performers showing off their talent. In the story the stage was a flatbed truck with all the electronics and systems required to perform built into it. The truck was owned by a local recording studio. Their motivation was that it also helped them discover upcoming artists. Win-win for the musicians and a great time for the record shop's grand opening.
The short story I wrote also illustrated that public entertainment takes work. Not only from the performers, but also the associated people where the performances are taking place. Few cities engage in "art for the masses" type of programs outside of offering a free paper list of local museums/art galleries/things to do and see. The reason is that it takes vision and energy and few people in positions of control have much of either let alone a desire to change things out of their comfortable rut of coasting along.
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RDP said
Wouldn't this be the purpose of busking? Or flash mobs? Taking art to the masses has always been the province of street performers. Fairs and festivals engage in this too.
None of these TEDx Talk videos are about taking music to the general public, 'masses'.
The last video talks about creative ways to keep Classical music alive, but the others mostly talk about the mutual benefits reaped from an intimate interaction of Classical musicians performing for less-likely-to-be-music-educated or underprivileged audiences.
Playing to a scheduled audience is different than playing where people are in the midst of engaging in other activities.
Some musicians busk or even play at pubs because they love to play music & want to share it, but usually the idea behind busking is it's another venue for a musician, or musical group, to make a living off of playing music for random people passing by, or else they're paid by the establishment/tavern/wedding planners, etc...
Fairs & Festivals usually have trad folk or popular musicians performing, not Classical.
IMHO, flash mobs are great, but just sensationalized advertising stunts.
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Bringing classical concerts to unusual places has been an increasing trend for a while now. There's a loosely organized group called Classical Revolution with chapters all over the country that brings casual chamber music concerts to unusual venues, usually bars or coffee shops, usually with a small cover charge.
One of the best examples of bringing music to a wider audience that I've seen from the Sacramento chapter was a free string quartet concert at a bookstore that stayed open for normal business throughout. Some of the audience was there just for the concert, but other people just heard the quartet while they were in the store and stopped to listen. The quartet stopped between pieces to field questions from the audience, and got questions both from seasoned classical listeners and people who had heard little or no classical music before.
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ELCBK said
RDP said
Wouldn't this be the purpose of busking? Or flash mobs? Taking art to the masses has always been the province of street performers. Fairs and festivals engage in this too.
None of these TEDx Talk videos are about taking music to the general public, 'masses'.
The last video talks about creative ways to keep Classical music alive, but the others mostly talk about the mutual benefits reaped from an intimate interaction of Classical musicians performing for less-likely-to-be-music-educated or underprivileged audiences.
Playing to a scheduled audience is different than playing where people are in the midst of engaging in other activities.
Some musicians busk or even play at pubs because they love to play music & want to share it, but usually the idea behind busking is it's another venue for a musician, or musical group, to make a living off of playing music for random people passing by, or else they're paid by the establishment/tavern/wedding planners, etc...
Fairs & Festivals usually have trad folk or popular musicians performing, not Classical.
IMHO, flash mobs are great, but just sensationalized advertising stunts.
"[K]eeping classical music alive" requires new blood and you don't get new blood if you don't make the general public aware of how beautiful classical music is. The only way to do that is to bring the music to the masses. The most cost effective way is to perform for the public outside of established venues like concert halls.
The problem is that performing for free doesn't bring in revenue. Thus orchestras don't participate unless it's an established event for which they're compensated by the promoter whether there are ticket sales or not. And then they bemoan the fact that their audiences are shrinking.
This leaves the classical education of the masses to buskers and flash mobs. Tedx is falling victim to the same visionless methodology as the pro orchestras, wondering why the general public doesn't care about the music they play. Part of which is ascerbated by the fact that if you don't play music the general public likes, and instead concentrate on music which is written to showcase player skill, you don't get a lot of followers because there aren't that many musicians who would appreciate what's being played. Play instead for the masses and you'll get people to come watch/listen.
This is why pop music is so popular even though it's rather simplistic musically.
Traditional and folk rennaissance music by definition is "classical" music. It's not orchestral, but where is the rule which says that "classical" music is the exclusive province of orchestras?
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I enjoyed both those videos - nice find.
I've always felt that all the traditional formalities (not the first word I though of lol) surrounding classical concerts is designed to deter rather than attract a new kind of audience.
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Ive been to some concert in the park type events in a couple different towns over the years. Ive also seen performances at schermerhorn.. Id say being in that venue does have advantages for orchestral music. The acoustics made it feel like i could touch the instruments. pretty cool. Theyre doing things now like playing john williams movie scores while the movie plays on a screen. Think thats one way to expose symphonies to more.
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Jim Dunleavy said
I enjoyed both those videos - nice find.
I've always felt that all the traditional formalities (not the first word I though of lol) surrounding classical concerts is designed to deter rather than attract a new kind of audience.
Many of those formalities around classical concerts are actually relatively modern developments. For example, the convention of not applauding between movements only became widespread in the 20th century after the recording industry started recording live concerts. Similarly, the whole idea of the classical concert as a formal event mostly originated in the United States at the end of the 19th century, as wealthy industrialists wanted to show how "cultured" they were and transformed symphony concerts and opera performances into places to be seen.
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AndrewH said
Jim Dunleavy said
I enjoyed both those videos - nice find.
I've always felt that all the traditional formalities (not the first word I though of lol) surrounding classical concerts is designed to deter rather than attract a new kind of audience.
Many of those formalities around classical concerts are actually relatively modern developments. For example, the convention of not applauding between movements only became widespread in the 20th century after the recording industry started recording live concerts. Similarly, the whole idea of the classical concert as a formal event mostly originated in the United States at the end of the 19th century, as wealthy industrialists wanted to show how "cultured" they were and transformed symphony concerts and opera performances into places to be seen.
That doesn't surprise me at all. They seem designed to be as pretentious as possible.
I believe in Mozart's time (for example) audiences might wander in and out of the auditorium and (if they weren't impressed with the music) carry on conversations while the musicians were playing. Maybe that's the reason behind the 'shock' ff chords at the start of many of his symphonies.
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