Why is Contemporary Classical Music Irrelevant?
Obviously, that is not something I agree with, but look at contemporary art. Contemporary artists are pretty well-known in the culture.
This question is posed in this video by English composer, David Bruce.
Part of the problem is with “uptown” composers, although Bruce never uses that word. He speaks of academic music as insular, playing to an audience of other composers and friends. He says, “These various safety nets of academia and the cozy bubble of friends and colleagues are really comforting to a composer.” But then he adds, “I think we should be asking ourselves more; how we can reach beyond that to the kind of interested, intellectually curious people who attend art galleries and watch art films in the millions.” After his short video, I decided to read some of the comments. I was amazed by how many modern and contemporary art haters piped up. But when it comes to contemporary composers versus contemporary artists, the visual arts world has vigorous, public, and institutional support that composers can only dream of. On the music side, there are organizations devoted to playing the work of contemporary composers: I discussed some of them in my previous post. Bag on a Can, Time:Spans, etc., as well as ensembles that also specialize in it, such as the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Kronos Quartet (who are hugely successful). Here in Houston, ROCO commissions many new compositions, and Aperio performs works by living composers from the Americas. But when you compare the institutional support that contemporary and modern visual art get, contemporary composers don’t get nearly as much stuff. America is packed with museums and kunsthallen devoted to Modern and contemporary art (not to mention smaller art spaces.) Even if you don’t get the art, one can see elaborate exhibits by living artists here in Houston not only at the Contemporary Arts Museum, but also at the Menil Museum and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Unlike, say, the Houston Symphony, the Menil and the MFAH are not mausoleums solely dedicated to the masterworks of the past. The fact that symphonies have become these backward-facing institutions is discussed in other videos by Bruce, particularly The History of the Orchestra More or Less (which is a tribute to the astonishing History of the Entire World, I Guess by Bill Wurtz). In this video, not only does Bruce lucidly explain how the orchestra came to be composed of its particular set of instruments, he also explains how, with the rise of the conductor as the star of the show, orchestras became more and more conservative.
Admittedly, 12-tone and serialist compositions are challenging to listen to. (And “challenging” can be read as a synonym for “no fun.”) But there is a lot of other modern and contemporary classical music that is, to me at least, accessible, interesting, and a lot of fun. But except for a few minimalist composers, most of these people have almost no institutional leg to stand on.
What can be done? Hell if I know, but I would be interested to hear from readers if they have any ideas.
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