I love classical music, but sometimes the culture surrounding it makes me cringe.
1. Stiff performance manner and conventions
-We don’t have to be so black and fancy all the time.
-We can interact with the audience before, during, and after the show.
-We don’t have to play in a nice, quiet space.
-We don’t have to use a music stand.
-We don’t always have to get paid.
-We can play more than one instrument…
2. Stuck as single instrumentalists
Musicians are very intelligent, and excel at learning new skills. Yet, many classical players are caged within the traditional possibilities of their primary instrument (and traditional auxiliary).
Maybe this has to do with our conception of musical skills. For a musician that plays a single instrument, your judgement of how good you are as a musician is tied up in how well you perform on that instrument. Perhaps you feel that if you are not very good at another instrument, it makes you a worse musician.
However, once you branch out, you begin to understand how much transferable knowledge you have, and that musicianship is distinct from technical skill. Even if you can’t shred on every instrument, you can still display excellent rhythm, style, and musical understanding.
In other musical worlds, it’s not unusual for a musician to sing a few songs, dance a little, and play a few different instruments within the same performance, but it’s almost unthinkable to most classical musicians. It’s interesting to hear players on different instruments (fairly common with jazz musicians), because they maintain their style and voice between the instruments.
Hyper focus on a single instrument has also created an unbelievable amount of competition within the community. Striving for excellence is great, and it’s awesome to have such a high level of achievement on an instrument. Unfortunately, this has also created a situation where musicians are very replaceable- good for organizations, but not so much for individual artists.
3. Superficial understanding of music
As a result of focusing on a single instrument, classical musicians are often limited to the roles of that instrument. Most orchestral instruments are single-note-playing-instruments. Because of this, their ability to hear and comprehend harmony (and therefore form, phrasing, and compound rhythm) is severely limited, unless they develop piano skills.
On top of that, classical musicians rely more heavily on note reading and sheet music than any other tradition. Yes, this is admirable, and has allowed the music to endure from pre-recording days. However, reading music is not the same as creating music! Just because you can get by reading the notes, doesn’t mean you really know it. And you certainly haven’t reached the limit of how deeply you can learn it.
Unfortunately, a reliance on sheet music has sometimes led to the misconception that reading or paper is music itself, and complacency in preparation. Music is sound, not paper. Paper was simply the means of recording and communicating music before audio recording.
4. Illusion of a high class product
Producing a professional orchestra concert or opera is a huge and expensive undertaking. That doesn’t mean all classical music must be produced this way, unless you lack the creativity to share your music in any other way (yes, that’s a challenge!).
I like to be fancy sometimes too, but in today’s culture, everything is more casual. People feel more comfortable in casual situations. In modern social contexts, formality is off-putting, not inviting.
The presentation of classical music often feels limited to a particular style. The irony is that we present it as an exclusive experience, then proceed to wonder why more people haven’t come to our classical music event.
5. Lack of community connection
Go beyond talking to the audience from your big stage in your fancy suit.
How about way, way beyond that. Move yourself into different situations and spaces. Go to audiences physically, but also musically. If this means you must develop new skills, all the better.
Participate in your community in ways that are meaningful to you, and bring your role as a musician to those communities. The music community is saturated with musicians, obviously. But what about your community basketball team, dance class, or book club? These are the spaces where being a musician is unique and really appreciated.
6. Over-emphasis on the music
Yes, yes, music is wonderful. No one here disagrees with that.
Still, shifting the focus of classical music away from the music makes more sense to our human brains. Musicians care deeply about music, and we feel connected to it more than most. But this is perhaps due to the fact that we can perceive elements of the human that created the music.
What is truly magnetizing in music (and art) is humanity. It’s not flawless technique or sublime melody and harmony that draws us in. It’s the humanity of creation that interests us.
It follows logically, then, that developing our humanity is as vital as developing our technique. Creating relationships with audiences, artists, and communities is part of our work. Thinking of it this way has the added bonus of making you irreplaceable. Though many players can play the same notes and rhythms, no one else can occupy the exact spaces and roles that you do.
What do you think?
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Alyse Hokamp 