As a musician, my view on this is no doubt skewed, but based on what I’ve observed among society at large, people develop a deep and personal relationship with the music that they love. The music industry has gone through its ups and downs, but I don’t think I’m wrong in saying that a life without music would be unfathomable to most people! One genre within that umbrella, however, seems to be a no-go zone for many: classical music. What do those two words bring to mind? The answer will vary for everyone, but I think for a large percentage of modern society, the associations are not necessarily positive. Despite its long and storied history, it is an art form that has been fighting to survive in the public consciousness and in the court of public opinion.<\/p>\n
In addition to my work as a performer, I also teach 30 private flute students, ranging in age from 11-18 years old. They come to me for flute lessons, to supplement the instruction they get in their band programs at school. Most of these young people will not become professional musicians, and that is fine! I’m not necessarily here to create more flutists. I feel my role as their teacher is to teach them life skills through music (punctuality, responsibility, accountability, time-management, the ability to break a large task into smaller, manageable goals, etc.), as well as showing them the joy and satisfaction of self-expression with this language that expresses more than words ever can.<\/p>\n
While I knew that my students generally like music (they wouldn’t be in their school music programs if they didn’t!), I was curious about what my students’ attitude toward classical music would be. I decided to informally poll them, asking them to tell me the first thing that came to mind when I said, \u201cclassical music.\u201d Their answers really gave me some food for thought.<\/p>\n
Boring.
\nOld\/dead people.
\nMusic from a long, LONG time ago.
\nMozart.
\nBach.
\nBeethoven.
\nRelaxing.
\nOrchestra.
\nPiano.
\nViolin. (Oddly, no one said flute!)
\nGood to study to.
\nMy parents’\/grandparents’ music.
\nPretty.
\nBlue. (I will come back to this particular answer later!)<\/p>\n
I then asked them if they ever listened to classical music for fun. Naturally, the ones that said classical music was boring said no. But, even the ones that expressed a liking for it mostly said no as well! A few did say yes, but the majority of my students do not listen to classical music unless they \u201chave to\u201d (for band class, etc.). This then led to me asking if they listened to other kinds of music for fun (pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, etc.). Not surprisingly, most said yes (several had looks of, \u201cwell, DUH\u201d on their faces).<\/p>\n
In a previous post on this blog<\/a>, I mentioned\u00a0an interview from the Sound Opinions podcast where a representative from the streaming music service Spotify talked about the listening habits of their users. Basically, their research showed that young people (teens, twenty-somethings) kept up with popular music and spent time seeking out new music, but that these habits slow down as people age and by age 33, most people stop looking for new music and they prefer to stick to what they know they like. The music that people fall in love with in their first few decades of life will be music that they love for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n “Having been brought up in a very musical\u00a0household, I think anybody who, like me, has a family where everybody listens to music… it is still an incredibly special thing when you first discover some records and bands that are just yours.\u201d Lauren Laverne, BBC 6 Music, February 5, 2016\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n When I entered middle school, my small music collection was an assortment of what my parents listened to, what my friends listened to, and what my older sister listened to. I enjoyed music already, but it wasn’t until I discovered my local alternative radio station (KROQ 106.7 in Los Angeles) at age 12 that I started getting obsessive about it. For me, it all started with The Cure and their album Wish. This was a band that no one else I knew liked \u2013 this was perhaps the first group that felt like it was uniquely mine.\u00a0The spring and summer of 1992 felt like a fever dream of discovery as I basically listened to the radio nonstop and discovered the wonderful world of indie, post-punk, and shoegaze music. In a time period where it seemed like all of my preteen classmates were obsessed with grunge and hip-hop, I definitely was an odd duck, not that I particularly cared. There was something kind of satisfying about feeling like I had a musical secret, and how this music felt like a portal into a\u00a0world where I belonged.\u00a0My love for these bands continues to this day, over 20 years later. It’s entirely possible that I might still like them\u00a0if I had only discovered their existence\u00a0last year. But, I think the fact that I discovered these bands during those important formative years plays a big part as to why this music means so much to me. I do buy new releases from new\/current bands, and enjoy them (in some cases, immensely!), but if Spotify’s research is correct, it’s going to be the music I listened to from my teens and through my twenties\u00a0which will mean something particularly special\u00a0to me throughout my life.<\/p>\n The other musical world I lived in during my youth was the classical music world. I started flute lessons when I was ten years old, and it was an activity that came quite naturally to me. Classical music was something that was always around when I was a kid; my dad loved listening to all sorts of classical music (particularly classical guitar, which he also played). Hearing Luciano Pavarotti, Jascha Heifetz, Vladimir Horowitz, Maria Callas, Pablo Casals, James Galway, and Andres Segovia at home was pretty much a normal everyday activity. However, the classical music\u00a0that I ended up developing a personal connection to was not the same as what my dad liked. Hearing Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting Sibelius pieces with the LA Philharmonic made me feel like I had found what I had found with shoegaze music when I was 12. I absolutely fell in love with the way that a Mahler symphony can make you feel so small and yet so all-encompassing at the same time. Debussy and Ravel’s music featured some of the most deliciously perfumed harmonies I had ever heard. Later, in graduate school, I became fascinated with the way that minimalist music made time stop and made me feel like I was entering another dimension. This wasn’t my parents’ classical music. This was music that felt uniquely mine.<\/p>\n \u201cHang the blessed DJ, because\u00a0the music that they constantly play, it says nothing to me about my life.\u201d The Smiths, \u201cPanic\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. They are classics for a reason, of course. Musical geniuses, visionaries… but my students seem to\u00a0see them as old hat. It’s music from a long time ago, that they can’t relate to, that doesn’t feel uniquely theirs. I’m generalizing (of course there are people that are deeply passionate about these composers!), but I wanted to show my students that classical music is more, MUCH more, than the narrow definition that most people have of it (Bach through Beethoven, orchestra, piano, etc.).<\/p>\n As an experiment, I chose to play a short excerpt from a recording\u00a0for my students. The piece I chose for this first week was Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians<\/a>. Yes, it was a selfish choice because I love it, but I also chose it because I knew most of them would have never heard anything like it. Reactions included the following:<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn’t classical music. This sounds cool!\u201d
\n\u201cWhat IS this?\u201d (said incredulously)
\n\u201cI really like this!!\u201d (Three students had this reaction –\u00a0two\u00a0are\u00a0in middle school and one in high school.)
\n\u201cIt’s orange and purple!\u201d (This was from the kid that said classical music was blue. We talked a bit more and figured out\u00a0that this child is a synesthete. How cool is that?)
\n“It sounds like we are flying through space!\u201d
\n“I’m not sure what to think about this. Is this music?” (We then went into a long discussion about what constitutes music. Pretty deep territory!)<\/p>\n