Classicophobia

Audiences for "classical music" performances are aging and shrinking, at least in this country.  Many people blame the plight of contemporary music education:  what's the first thing to get axed in school curricula so language and math heavy?  Some people blame the short attention spans of modern youth.  How do we expect listeners used to 2:30 songs to sit through even a movement of a Mahler Symphony, much less the whole thing?  While we certainly cannot blame the music itself (except those ensembles completely ignoring anything written after 1900), perhaps it is in the presentation of that music that is scaring off a new audience.  Or perhaps it's the old model of performance itself.

A concert at Buckingham Palace, 1851

Yes, music education is suffering all over the country.  But even before NCLB (back when I was their age), one couldn't say much for the quality of that education either.  In middle school I just plain loved playing in the band.  Although the atmosphere was highly disciplined, it was fun.  Here I was, seated in a room with about 75 students, most of whom were my friends, playing Bach.  Yep, Bach: Prelude and Fugue in B-flat (transcription of the work in C-major).  It was the coolest thing; no one had to tell us; we just kind of knew it.  As for general music.....SNOOZE!  Blue-haired lady played "drop the needle" for hours on end, just telling us that Beethoven was something special.  To me, his music made for a good nap.  Now, maybe tell me why he was something special (besides going deaf) and I might have perked up a little.....then again, maybe not.

Who would be comfortable wearing jeans
and a t-shirt to this show?

What kind of presentation are we offering to our audiences.  In 2008, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette music critic Andrew Druckenbrod tried a shot at debunking some of the myths of classical concert attendance.  He included:

Myth: You must dress up.  While that's not necessarily so, come to Five Flags Theater in Dubuque for an evening performance and wait for the picketers from PETA.  I swear that I've never seen so many furs in one place.  And what about the players?  Gentlemen's attire hasn't really changed in 200 years.  We're still expected to dress like (quoting cellist Lynn Harrell) Captain von Trapp's butler.  
Myth: You must understand music to enjoy a concert.  This one I probably have to agree with, although it needs to be accepted with a grain of salt.  Elliot Carter is an acquired taste and I'm not sure his music is particularly kind on my palette.  That said, does "understanding" the intricacies of sonata form allow for greater enjoyment of a Beethoven symphony?  Um....no.  Frankly, it's ok to just bask in the richness of the sounds.  Interestingly enough, Rite of Spring probably would "do more" for a younger audience than Ode to Joy.  Of course, there are usually copious program notes offered to assist the listener, but they're often pedantic, referring again to those complex forms and the varied elements in the music itself.  AND, the lights are dimmed so as to make reading them during performance impossible.  At my own summer concerts there are no notes; I try to offer brief but poignant commentary on what we're about to perform and let the audience take it from there.
Myth: There are secret rules of conduct. Well??????? One will still get nasty looks if you clap between movements (a twentieth-century phenomenon, ya know...) Back in the "old days," movements of symphonies were primarily spaced out among other works on the program. And if the audience heard something it liked? Applause in the middle of the piece! (Egads!) And something they hated? One can still have that experience at Milan's famed Teatro La Scala. Those Italians are not afraid to hoot, holler (and "boo") something that displeases them.  And, of course, there are the stories of the riots caused at the infamous premiere of Rite.  Frankly, I long for those days.

Myth: Classical music is old and irrelevant. Yeah, a lot of it would be considered "old," although it's hard to hear much before Mozart (b. 1756) on our classical concerts. An occasional Bach, but most of that has been taken over by the "historically informed performance" crowd, as if they actually know and want to recreate the sounds of the earlier times. From what I know of rehearsal practices (or the lack thereof), the last thing I'd want to do is hear a first performance in the era before the professional orchestras (roughly pre-1850). I am sure that many of these, by modern standards, were horrible.  As for relevance, that is surely in the ear of the listener.  Travel to Prague and you'll find that Mozart's Don Giovanni, the piece he wrote for them(!), remains highly relevant, as much as their home-grown composers.  I really have to think that emotions and beauty (in sight or in sound) never really go out of style.

I'd pay good money to hear this!  (But note: "Admission free")

So, how do we get our audiences back?  (As if we ever lost them.)  Parents with young children cannot attend concerts held on weekend evenings without laying out cash for a babysitter.  Is child care a possibility for our concert halls?  Can we work to recreate the exciting events that made concerts during the nineteenth century so special?  Pops programing is not going to increase attendance at "real" concerts, but could smaller, chamber-like performances actually be performed in venues appropriate to the music?  How about a bar that offers a much difference venue for classical music (La Poisson Rouge anyone)?  Or, take a cue from the flash mobs and go to where the people are, rather than trying to get them to come to you.  There won't be any cash in it, BUT it certainly is an acknowledgement that a lot of this stuff we call classical music (and I mean much more than Ode to Joy) can reach the masses.....