Dec 152009
I feel that the younger generation don’t like classical music because it has become socially unacceptable in their opinion. Almost like it’s a crime to listen to it. But, how can we change this??
I feel that the younger generation don’t like classical music because it has become socially unacceptable in their opinion. Almost like it’s a crime to listen to it. But, how can we change this??
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If a community gradually comes to accept that the ultimate goal in life is the acquisition of money, and if people who fail to accumulate a lot of it are called ‘losers’, the life quality in that community simply has to be oriented toward commercial opportunity.
In order to earn more and more money, a commercial enterprise simply has to ‘aim low’.
Commercial treatment of the Art of Music in such a society is not aimed at adventurous exploration of sound. To maximise profit, certain strong rules have been formulated..
(i) produce something that the dumbest, least sensitive member of the community can understand and like…
(ii) plaster it with irrelevant, but attention-grabbing facets [such as hair styles, clothing eccentricity, fan clubs, etc.]
(iii) be very wary of significant change once the cash register makes its noise.
(iv) expose this material as often and as widely as is possible
(v) constantly say how exciting it is to be ‘modern’.
(vi) et cetera.
Opposing this in our schools is, so often, a timid little person playing recordings of his/her favourite music (rarely more recent than 100 years). The staff in our schools generally regard this teacher as a useless, unsuccessful fossil. [Maybe they are almost right?]
In my opinion, there is one solution that has a remote chance of propagating Art Music in a community.
Music classes, similar to enlightened classes dealing with visual arts, theatre, dance, etc., must DO IT, not ‘learn’ to venerate it.
Composition of melodies, group improvisations, taking part in quality classroom singing (omitting ‘fa-la-la’ perhaps?), etc. are relevant.
Listening to Mozart will not produce massed veneration of Art, though performing his music (even badly) has a chance.
We must also be very clear in our minds WHY we want our community to love creative music.
It is surely not just to prove to ourselves how wise we are to love it?
Again, it is NOT to create new audiences for old music, magnificent as we feel it is. [ A museum Art is pathetic, surely?]
The only ‘acceptable’ reason for evangelic passion in propagation of Art Music is that it has immense communal life quality benefits, is ennobling, comforting, stimulating, etc. It must be seen as a relevant CONTEMPORARY activity, as well.
Newness must be encouraged, and the old should not be overly venerated during educational activity in this wonderful Art.
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I can’t possibly improve on the suggestions made thus far, but let me offer an observation from my own experience.
When I was a teenager, I listened to popular music, just like most kids my age. But then I started to gravitate toward progressive rock. No idea why, really … maybe my brain was just wired in a way that it sought out something “different.” But anyway, progressive rock was my gateway to classical/art music. Not only were many of the musicians in the genre classically trained, but they also brought their classical sensibilities to bear on their music. Rick Wakeman of Yes talked about how he helped the band compose a song in “sonata form,” and my interest was piqued. Here was a band that composed long pieces of rock music, highly structured, with complex passages that appealed to the intellect as much as to the tapping feet. The music even had separate “movements,” for heaven’s sake. And the band opened its shows with a tape recording of the finale from Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite”! Other bands, notably Emerson, Lake & Palmer, took things a step further by performing classical pieces on rock instruments, including “Pictures at an Exhibition” and “Fanfare for the Common Man.”
By this point, my interest was piqued, and I wanted to seek out the source material … I wanted to know what drove these artists to pour so much unorthodox (for rock music) creativity into that they wrote. And that’s what opened my world to classical music.
That’s my long way of saying that perhaps to grab kids’ attention, you have to speak to them in a language that makes them want to learn more. In this case, make the music they enjoy a “gateway drug” of sorts. Most kids, who would rather die than be considered unpopular, and/or have the attention span of a gnat, won’t be reached. But for the few whose interest is piqued, you’ve just enriched their lives and increased appreciation for “serious” music.
When I was at primary school the headteacher used to play classical music as we left the assembly hall, a different piece each week. At the time it didn’t have much impact but later on I started to recognise pieces I’d heard then when they were on the tv etc and now I listen to classical music quite a bit, especially when I’m working.
The use of classical music in tv and film may also spark an interest.
And then there’s “classical crossover” artists like Josh Groban and Catherine Jenkins who help by giving the genre a modern image, introducing younger generations to classical music through combining it with a more “pop” feel.
But ultimately there’s no way of forcing kids to like classical music, even if there ought to be.
I agree with i. jones and Ian. First of all, parents must learn to instill classical music in their child from an early age – namely, to play classical music around the house. Secondly, i think it is very important to actually give them hands on experience. THat way classical music can become something personal and relatable to them.
But the classical music world should not stick their noses up in the air, which I feel many people do, which is somewhat responsible for giving it the ‘elitist’ reputation. we should outreach in a way that can reaches a lot of the young audiences and start making it more accessible. Nowadays, this is the media. Classical music has virtually no place in today’s media world; therefore, it is ignored.
I love classical music. I have tried over the years to pass this love onto my two sons, even to putting headphones on my tum when I was pregnant. The eldest was quite appreciative, but the younger would have nothing to do with it as his friends said it was fuddy-duddy.
Last summer my husband and myself had booked seats for Aida in the WMC. My husband was rushed into hospital and I thought I would miss it as I didn’t want to go by myself. My younger son (now 25) grudgingly said he would come with me. He absolutely loved it. He keeps asking can I go with him to see another one. I don’t know the answer to your question, but I know if youngsters have the opportunity, they would learn to appreciate classical music.
… Goodbye sweet America.
I hate the “it takes a village” attitude toward teaching kids. This begins in the home. I play classical music at home, I play classical music in the car, we go to live productions and watch simulcasts. I’m not going to leave it to someone else to “teach” my children about music; there is no true arts program to speak of in the public primary school, and the teachers I’ve met recently have next to no knowledge of Classical music. Heck, half (or more of them) should never have even gotten a teaching credential from what I can tell. They are not better at constructing a sentence than the “mush-for-brains” they are trying to teach.
So what sources are available? Local theater, regional and community orchestras, MET performances on PBS and in the cinema. The Andre Rieu’s and Celtic Woman even have their place in bringing “entertainment value” to classical and light classic music. The cartoons of the 40s – 50s used a lot of classical themes; listen to them and discuss them with the kids.
Pick out classical pieces that are used in the Cinema; though many are cliche, they are still classical pieces. Romeo & Juliet, O Fortuna, Aquarium, Cello Suite 1, Toccata (nobody ever gets to the fugue) BWV 565.
While I’m not an advocate of distraction while homework is being done, there is an opportunity to have classical music playing quietly in the background; it’s amazing what can sink in to the the subconscious that way. My oldest was humming some Bach on the way to school this morning. Far preferable to singing a Radio or TV jingle — which is at the other end of the spectrum.
I think its probably due to the lack of exposure to Classical music…Heck,I see Yiruma’s music being labeled Classical when its not even half of what Bach could do!
Of course I’m not expecting every composer to be like Bach who was a great genius but there is simply a lack of exposure to Classical.At most,Canon in D and Moonlight Sonata First Movement which is what I would expect or the piano teacher would introduce the Classical pieces.
Honestly,whenever I play Classical music like Revolutionary Etude by Chopin or Allegro Barbaro by Alkan(Half completed)they would claim it to be “noisy” and extremely non-musical when there is expression in it!They would request pieces like those pop songs transcribed for piano!These days I would wonder…when are they going to wake up and realize that most of the time,the basis of pop songs is Classical music?Well at least half of those I know at the very least.
I think we cannot change this.Classical music is simply not the mainstream which music now stems from.But rather it is being treated as ancient music of which is too intellectual for their intelligence.As we know,people would follow the main flow and just ignore the smaller rivers.It would take a huge amount of effort to make everyone as the past century of people.Audiences who appreciate Classical music and at the very least,compose music or play an instrument.It is simply impossible.
We no longer educate our young. We give them meaningless degrees which are little better than the old 11+ in standard, and we tell them that they are educated. The appreciation of Art Music, requires hard work and a decent education……Why do you expect the current generation to possess the qualities in abundance? This is the generation that considers Twilight and Harry Potter to be literature for pity’s sake !
Western Art music is now seen as elitist, and elitism is seen as a bad thing. Quite where the human race would be without elitism, I shudder to think.
We can’t change it..O Tempores, O Mores
I think Ennio x raises an interesting point. Many pop musicians are very talented and frequently have a good grounding in classical music. Perhaps those who have become wealthy and iconic have a responsibility to speak out for more serious stuff; young people are more likely to listen to them than to a music teacher at school who is desperately trying to counteract the constant barrage of pop.
I think that i. jones nailed it. “It begins at home.” Parents are relying too much on society to raise their children for them. From introducing kids to the arts, to getting angry over the sex and violence in video games that THEY THEMSELVES bought for their children. I hear talk of this constantly, now that I am studying education.
Arguments over parenting aside, I will point out that some of my fondest memories of childhood are of going downstairs with my father, lighting the fireplace, and listening to classical music. My parents are the ones who paid for and encouraged me to take piano lessons. And once I started playing real classical music on the piano, my parents would immediately buy me recordings of the music that I was playing. They are the ones that took me not only to see a recital of Beethoven Piano sonatas, but also The Rite of Spring, even though they themselves had never heard the piece performed before. My parents, neither of whom ever studied music or even took piano lessons as a child, are why I have grown to love classical music.
we gotta get them playing and listening and a young age, or if older, let them really listen to it on there own, but really any guitarist of modern day or any metalhead that plays an instrument that i know have a good respect for classical music, they know there stuff, not just the screamo, so most people actually know more than u think!
Scientifically speaking as much complex as the form of art gets the more intelligent people it takes to understand it. Being the most complicated music genre, it is not normal to find many people who love classical music, especially young minds.
Film soundtracks can be a great introduction to classical music. Big dramatic scores with power or slow movements with huge amounts of emotion. This kind of ‘pop’ classical is the logical jump off point into something more serious.
ya gotta put headphones on the tum tum sos junior can listen to mozart & others before they hatch,not too loud,,,,,,,they hear at second trimester
Start them on Apocolyptica, they play rock using cellos