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what can classical music learn from the contemporary world?
by：Marslite
2019-09-29
This blog is based on my \"provocative\" speech to the European Association of Music colleges in the recent congress in Zagreb on November 2017.
The aim is to stimulate discussion and debate in academia and in the performing arts about us as an area;
Better understanding of many of our challenges and opportunities;
And start a creative discussion of ideas.
Position our art form in the contemporary world.
Of course, it\'s a bit ambitious, but I have to say that my audience is from the Conservatory of Music in Europe and elsewhere, they are very active and of course invested in the presentation!
Most of what I\'m going to say today you may find it hard to hear because I\'m going to take a very critical look at our field.
But my intention is to describe as objectively as possible our place in the contemporary world, and as many things as we can learn from it, to our advantage;
The major challenges we are all experiencing;
What did we ignore?
And some new ideas.
A lot of things we do.
My hope is that we should all embrace the issues we rarely discuss and find ideas and solutions from them that will help re-discuss
Position an art form that we all like very much and hope to see it in this brave new world.
I need to clarify a term for you before I start and I will use a lot.
When I use the phrase \"contemporary music\", I am not referring to Stockhausen or John Adams.
I mean the music that\'s around us every day: rock, hip hop
Hip hop, rap, jazz, songs and audio tracks-
For example, the music played by Ramin Djawadi for the HBO series \"Game of Thrones (See above).
Over the years, the global trend of classical music has been declining.
For example, orchestras and opera companies in the United States are shutting down or suffering from major financial crises.
According to the National Arts Endowment Fund, the number of viewers plummeted in real terms, down 30% in the United States alone.
European government funds, which have long been the backbone of financial planning, are being reduced or questioned.
Our art form is being challenged by irrelevant or worst accusations, lacking legitimacy, that is, questioning its critical position in our social fabric.
Classical music only attracts social and economic elites --
This remains despite the surge in outreach and education programs.
Today\'s classical music, which can be described as being on the edge of society, is a niche market that currently seems almost invisible and immutable.
Our field does not seem to be affected by change and innovation, which it must accept if it is to survive into the future.
So how do we reinvent ourselves?
The answer is not simply said.
Instead, we should innovate.
It is not for the destruction of art forms, but for the wider understanding and understanding of the power and beauty of art forms, and most importantly, for our work to be truly legal.
My perception of the entire classical music industry took place many years ago when I was running a symphony orchestra that also enjoyed owning and running its own performance hall.
When there are no concerts, rehearsals or recordings held by the orchestra, we use the hall for other activities, especially pop music performances.
These will attract a large audience and generate much-needed profits that flow into the bottom line.
On one occasion, when we had a pop event, I was on my way home from the hall, and when I passed through the hall, I fell into meditation, my attention was suddenly drawn to the transformation of this very familiar space.
Now it\'s full of artwork, huge photos and displays, merchandise for sale, cheerful welcoming guests with a smile and help and advice.
This change was initiated by the Pop sponsor.
I was fascinated by what I was going through, so I walked into the concert hall and the concert hall was transformed as well.
Beyond recognition, the stage features attractive sets, techniques, and lighting.
So I had to stay and watch the show. It was great.
Great energy, very high performance and production standards, and wonderful interaction with the audience.
Then it touched me.
This is the problem.
The purpose of the performance is to establish a relationship between the performer and the audience.
It is the artists who want this to happen and are willing to invest in achieving it.
They really want to invite viewers for continuous contact through social media, recordings and merchandise.
They want the audience to focus on their future tour and get excited and invested in their art development.
Then I thought about a classical concert and what we provided.
It\'s disappointing.
A lot of the time, we just put some music positions and chairs and turn the lights on.
The musicians then took to the stage to play for themselves or their friends.
No participation, no sense of special occasions, just a rash repetition of what has been happening --
Even the artistic quality of the performance is the highest.
The relationship with the audience is transactional and they pay and we give them a ticket to give them a chance to hear some music.
Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, and the world of pop remind us of what our audience is missing.
Someone once said that you should never try to solve problems with the same mentality of creating problems, so let\'s take a look at where we are from the perspective of a creative entrepreneur.
They will define it as an opportunity, and they may define it as something like this: Academic and performing arts institutions are profoundly influenced by changes in the structure of contemporary society, this will test and challenge each hypothesis when creating a new delivery model.
So unless we find a way out of the Earth to live elsewhere in the solar system, this opportunity should be seen as inevitable and we should take it very seriously.
But in order to do that, we need to look at the biggest weakness in the niche world of classical music, which hinders this re-thinking: the inertia of the pop paradigm we are particularly resistant to the concept of innovation, because there has been little innovation in our field in the past 100 s.
More changes have taken place in organized religious and church services during the same period.
In our world, innovation is always considered a baby stage or workaround, not a systemic change or a huge leap.
In the academic world, this leads to the added value of existing courses, which we call elective courses.
Therefore, some of the best ideas, some of the most innovative ideas, are put forward on the basis of accepting or retaining it to obey the dominant position of the Orthodox compulsory course.
I do not advocate doing more, nor do I advocate putting more pressure on our students in new areas that need to be learned.
I propose that, given the needs and opportunities of the modern world, we revisit our priorities and streamline our work.
This means changing our products.
This in turn requires the creation of priorities for students to maximize their artistic development, contributions to society and employment opportunities.
We are the only industry I can think of that there is no formal connection or creative synergy between trainers (Conservatoires)
And the employer (
Performing organization).
This means that we cannot rely on a professional network to support our students to enter a strange job market.
In contrast, contemporary music has established a network in the field of music business for many years.
Through this, students can often take advantage of internship opportunities, which often develop into job opportunities.
Do we want to close this gap?
Only a few music schools are studying and conceiving new ways of teaching based on technology.
One of them is the Berkeley Conservatory of Music in Boston, where new technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality are being introduced, and students benefit from challenging the Orthodox immersive learning experience.
World State Sawdust in Brooklyn, New York (in video above)
This is another great new project, including technology as part of the audience experience.
All I know is the Center for Experimental Media and Performing Arts (EMPAC)
The art, science and technology of Troy, New York, all interact with each other on their contemporary programs.
We need to share new contemporary practices and experiences so that it helps to define our priorities and lessons.
This made me talk about the next point very well.
In academia, another major challenge is: the Gordian knot of the history course has many myths and legends of immutable paths created by time and teachers.
Teaching and learning are changing.
It is the use of technology, peer learning, distance learning, flipped classroom.
However, we still believe that the core experience of the conservatory of music is --on-
A model teacher of the 11 th century seminary.
Music students believe that choosing a major studio teacher is the most important factor in determining where they go to learn.
Their choice has nothing to do with the overall skill training that may be offered --
The skills they need as a performing artist.
Is it time to broaden the experience of learning music?
Technology will determine our future.
It has penetrated into every part of our lives and we are at the beginning of an upcoming development.
Ignore it, or exclude it from the concert experience or teaching mode, a bit like the Aztecs ignore the invention of the wheel.
Look at the rate of change over the past 26 years.
At that time, there were 11 million smartphones, two of which were apps, one phone and one fax service.
There are 7 billion apps today and you can\'t count the number of apps available.
Smartphones are consuming the art, and high-quality audio has made it possible for accessibility and convenience.
These developments create significant opportunities for innovation and greater creativity, social change and connectivity.
Most of classical music is ignored.
However, contemporary music is the main pioneer and promoter of technological innovation.
Take a look at YouTube, the biggest music platform on the Internet, which offers billions of videos (
I don\'t include people about cats! )
If a video has 20,000 or 30,000 views, we will announce the victory.
A few years ago, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra received 1 million viewers, which was seen as a victory.
If you want to be taken seriously, the number to watch millions of contemporary music is where you started.
This is one of the main opportunities we can and must seize to increase our visibility.
We then enjoyed the large ensemble, and at a time when the orchestra market was down, the ensemble of the Conservatory determined the schedule, budget, facility planning, and student recruitment.
The audience is getting smaller and the musician\'s job opportunities are limited, does it make sense to continue putting these programs first?
Smaller bands are a more robust and exciting model and are seen by many as the main growth areas of classical music in the future.
It is certainly more flexible, economical, creative, and photogenic, and more attractive to new and young audiences.
In addition, many of these combinations are exploring different types of art languages that leverage the connection between sound, images, text, movement, and technology.
Look at the number of the most advanced ensemble around you at present, such as: The fifth ensemble, the alarm clock, the eighth black bird, the Red Note Ensemble, the Berlin ensemble (
In fact, Berlin is a hive of some real cuts.
Edge ensemble development of classical music)
Aurora, the south bank of London, and many excellent string quartet have been successful in today\'s world.
But does the conservatory design training programs for this ever-changing pattern?
In my interviews with various bands, they all said that their new skills were formed and learned outside of the traditional Conservatory of Music --
Training program.
These new skills include staging and production value;
Across all styles of pop, hardcore, contemporary, classical and early music; technology;
In-depth understanding of extended instrument technology;
Click on the use of the track;
The ability to perform and perform in stage drama;
And a strong startup mentality.
The iconic concert hall has also contributed significantly to our lack of community relevance and legitimacy.
A few years ago, I was walking in Amsterdam with a Turkish friend and visiting this beautiful city.
We passed the concert and I pointed this out and told him all the great artists and orchestras who performed there regularly.
He listened politely and said:
\"Yes, in my country, we always sympathize with you when you put music in the box for the elite, while in Islamabad and throughout Turkey, music is heard everywhere.
\"For me, this is the horn to bring music from the concert hall to the community, and this is what you do as part of your relationship with the community. (
See the video below to learn about the unconventional family concert of Southbank Sinfonia cheating the Olympics).
Don\'t expect them to come to you all the time. Go to them.
Of course, people will complain about the gym, the community center and their sound effects.
But if you \'ve been focusing on the development of technology, there are some audio devices that can overcome most of the problems and make the performance of any space a great experience.
Contemporary music includes film soundtrack and video game music.
Have you heard of some symphony music for video games?
Really great, now is the foundation of some spectacular concerts.
But in classical music, we don\'t tend to take film music seriously, let alone music in video games.
We condemn composers for jumping to the dark side.
They are considered commercial, and this is the worst charge you have against musicians.
There are very few Academy of Music professors with film scores: Berkeley in Boston and Valencia, Thornton school at the University of Southern California, and Altez College of Art in the Netherlands are exceptions.
However, like Erich Korengold, Max Steiner, Antonio Morricone, Danny Elman, Thomas Newman, Hans Zimmer, El bernard Herrmann and Ramin Djawadi all helped us define and shape us the contemporary world of life.
Their legacy is bright and powerful.
This brings me a big problem, and then a series of supplementary questions that will affect the area of expertise: are we training musicians for work that is gradually disappearing, instead of providing them with work skills that have just emerged?
The product we are producing, that is, the students, is just excellent, but there is no contemporary world of skills, tools, awareness, and sense of innovation that allows them to really participate?
Are we just a quirky part of the entertainment world, providing a social atmosphere for the social elite?
What kind of people do we want to be?
Are we part of the retail industry, or is it part of the entertainment industry, or is it a small religious group, or is it a community involved enterprise, or something else that is totally different?
How do we want to engage with the contemporary world so that we can get rid of the burden of our long history and work to solve this problem
Butterfly out of the cocoon-
Like taking our place again in the social center?
A creative entrepreneur will define problems, articulate opportunities, and discover solutions that can make a huge leap forward.
Do we have the energy, creativity, and consciousness to jump this consideration?
The aim is to stimulate discussion and debate in academia and in the performing arts about us as an area;
Better understanding of many of our challenges and opportunities;
And start a creative discussion of ideas.
Position our art form in the contemporary world.
Of course, it\'s a bit ambitious, but I have to say that my audience is from the Conservatory of Music in Europe and elsewhere, they are very active and of course invested in the presentation!
Most of what I\'m going to say today you may find it hard to hear because I\'m going to take a very critical look at our field.
But my intention is to describe as objectively as possible our place in the contemporary world, and as many things as we can learn from it, to our advantage;
The major challenges we are all experiencing;
What did we ignore?
And some new ideas.
A lot of things we do.
My hope is that we should all embrace the issues we rarely discuss and find ideas and solutions from them that will help re-discuss
Position an art form that we all like very much and hope to see it in this brave new world.
I need to clarify a term for you before I start and I will use a lot.
When I use the phrase \"contemporary music\", I am not referring to Stockhausen or John Adams.
I mean the music that\'s around us every day: rock, hip hop
Hip hop, rap, jazz, songs and audio tracks-
For example, the music played by Ramin Djawadi for the HBO series \"Game of Thrones (See above).
Over the years, the global trend of classical music has been declining.
For example, orchestras and opera companies in the United States are shutting down or suffering from major financial crises.
According to the National Arts Endowment Fund, the number of viewers plummeted in real terms, down 30% in the United States alone.
European government funds, which have long been the backbone of financial planning, are being reduced or questioned.
Our art form is being challenged by irrelevant or worst accusations, lacking legitimacy, that is, questioning its critical position in our social fabric.
Classical music only attracts social and economic elites --
This remains despite the surge in outreach and education programs.
Today\'s classical music, which can be described as being on the edge of society, is a niche market that currently seems almost invisible and immutable.
Our field does not seem to be affected by change and innovation, which it must accept if it is to survive into the future.
So how do we reinvent ourselves?
The answer is not simply said.
Instead, we should innovate.
It is not for the destruction of art forms, but for the wider understanding and understanding of the power and beauty of art forms, and most importantly, for our work to be truly legal.
My perception of the entire classical music industry took place many years ago when I was running a symphony orchestra that also enjoyed owning and running its own performance hall.
When there are no concerts, rehearsals or recordings held by the orchestra, we use the hall for other activities, especially pop music performances.
These will attract a large audience and generate much-needed profits that flow into the bottom line.
On one occasion, when we had a pop event, I was on my way home from the hall, and when I passed through the hall, I fell into meditation, my attention was suddenly drawn to the transformation of this very familiar space.
Now it\'s full of artwork, huge photos and displays, merchandise for sale, cheerful welcoming guests with a smile and help and advice.
This change was initiated by the Pop sponsor.
I was fascinated by what I was going through, so I walked into the concert hall and the concert hall was transformed as well.
Beyond recognition, the stage features attractive sets, techniques, and lighting.
So I had to stay and watch the show. It was great.
Great energy, very high performance and production standards, and wonderful interaction with the audience.
Then it touched me.
This is the problem.
The purpose of the performance is to establish a relationship between the performer and the audience.
It is the artists who want this to happen and are willing to invest in achieving it.
They really want to invite viewers for continuous contact through social media, recordings and merchandise.
They want the audience to focus on their future tour and get excited and invested in their art development.
Then I thought about a classical concert and what we provided.
It\'s disappointing.
A lot of the time, we just put some music positions and chairs and turn the lights on.
The musicians then took to the stage to play for themselves or their friends.
No participation, no sense of special occasions, just a rash repetition of what has been happening --
Even the artistic quality of the performance is the highest.
The relationship with the audience is transactional and they pay and we give them a ticket to give them a chance to hear some music.
Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, and the world of pop remind us of what our audience is missing.
Someone once said that you should never try to solve problems with the same mentality of creating problems, so let\'s take a look at where we are from the perspective of a creative entrepreneur.
They will define it as an opportunity, and they may define it as something like this: Academic and performing arts institutions are profoundly influenced by changes in the structure of contemporary society, this will test and challenge each hypothesis when creating a new delivery model.
So unless we find a way out of the Earth to live elsewhere in the solar system, this opportunity should be seen as inevitable and we should take it very seriously.
But in order to do that, we need to look at the biggest weakness in the niche world of classical music, which hinders this re-thinking: the inertia of the pop paradigm we are particularly resistant to the concept of innovation, because there has been little innovation in our field in the past 100 s.
More changes have taken place in organized religious and church services during the same period.
In our world, innovation is always considered a baby stage or workaround, not a systemic change or a huge leap.
In the academic world, this leads to the added value of existing courses, which we call elective courses.
Therefore, some of the best ideas, some of the most innovative ideas, are put forward on the basis of accepting or retaining it to obey the dominant position of the Orthodox compulsory course.
I do not advocate doing more, nor do I advocate putting more pressure on our students in new areas that need to be learned.
I propose that, given the needs and opportunities of the modern world, we revisit our priorities and streamline our work.
This means changing our products.
This in turn requires the creation of priorities for students to maximize their artistic development, contributions to society and employment opportunities.
We are the only industry I can think of that there is no formal connection or creative synergy between trainers (Conservatoires)
And the employer (
Performing organization).
This means that we cannot rely on a professional network to support our students to enter a strange job market.
In contrast, contemporary music has established a network in the field of music business for many years.
Through this, students can often take advantage of internship opportunities, which often develop into job opportunities.
Do we want to close this gap?
Only a few music schools are studying and conceiving new ways of teaching based on technology.
One of them is the Berkeley Conservatory of Music in Boston, where new technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality are being introduced, and students benefit from challenging the Orthodox immersive learning experience.
World State Sawdust in Brooklyn, New York (in video above)
This is another great new project, including technology as part of the audience experience.
All I know is the Center for Experimental Media and Performing Arts (EMPAC)
The art, science and technology of Troy, New York, all interact with each other on their contemporary programs.
We need to share new contemporary practices and experiences so that it helps to define our priorities and lessons.
This made me talk about the next point very well.
In academia, another major challenge is: the Gordian knot of the history course has many myths and legends of immutable paths created by time and teachers.
Teaching and learning are changing.
It is the use of technology, peer learning, distance learning, flipped classroom.
However, we still believe that the core experience of the conservatory of music is --on-
A model teacher of the 11 th century seminary.
Music students believe that choosing a major studio teacher is the most important factor in determining where they go to learn.
Their choice has nothing to do with the overall skill training that may be offered --
The skills they need as a performing artist.
Is it time to broaden the experience of learning music?
Technology will determine our future.
It has penetrated into every part of our lives and we are at the beginning of an upcoming development.
Ignore it, or exclude it from the concert experience or teaching mode, a bit like the Aztecs ignore the invention of the wheel.
Look at the rate of change over the past 26 years.
At that time, there were 11 million smartphones, two of which were apps, one phone and one fax service.
There are 7 billion apps today and you can\'t count the number of apps available.
Smartphones are consuming the art, and high-quality audio has made it possible for accessibility and convenience.
These developments create significant opportunities for innovation and greater creativity, social change and connectivity.
Most of classical music is ignored.
However, contemporary music is the main pioneer and promoter of technological innovation.
Take a look at YouTube, the biggest music platform on the Internet, which offers billions of videos (
I don\'t include people about cats! )
If a video has 20,000 or 30,000 views, we will announce the victory.
A few years ago, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra received 1 million viewers, which was seen as a victory.
If you want to be taken seriously, the number to watch millions of contemporary music is where you started.
This is one of the main opportunities we can and must seize to increase our visibility.
We then enjoyed the large ensemble, and at a time when the orchestra market was down, the ensemble of the Conservatory determined the schedule, budget, facility planning, and student recruitment.
The audience is getting smaller and the musician\'s job opportunities are limited, does it make sense to continue putting these programs first?
Smaller bands are a more robust and exciting model and are seen by many as the main growth areas of classical music in the future.
It is certainly more flexible, economical, creative, and photogenic, and more attractive to new and young audiences.
In addition, many of these combinations are exploring different types of art languages that leverage the connection between sound, images, text, movement, and technology.
Look at the number of the most advanced ensemble around you at present, such as: The fifth ensemble, the alarm clock, the eighth black bird, the Red Note Ensemble, the Berlin ensemble (
In fact, Berlin is a hive of some real cuts.
Edge ensemble development of classical music)
Aurora, the south bank of London, and many excellent string quartet have been successful in today\'s world.
But does the conservatory design training programs for this ever-changing pattern?
In my interviews with various bands, they all said that their new skills were formed and learned outside of the traditional Conservatory of Music --
Training program.
These new skills include staging and production value;
Across all styles of pop, hardcore, contemporary, classical and early music; technology;
In-depth understanding of extended instrument technology;
Click on the use of the track;
The ability to perform and perform in stage drama;
And a strong startup mentality.
The iconic concert hall has also contributed significantly to our lack of community relevance and legitimacy.
A few years ago, I was walking in Amsterdam with a Turkish friend and visiting this beautiful city.
We passed the concert and I pointed this out and told him all the great artists and orchestras who performed there regularly.
He listened politely and said:
\"Yes, in my country, we always sympathize with you when you put music in the box for the elite, while in Islamabad and throughout Turkey, music is heard everywhere.
\"For me, this is the horn to bring music from the concert hall to the community, and this is what you do as part of your relationship with the community. (
See the video below to learn about the unconventional family concert of Southbank Sinfonia cheating the Olympics).
Don\'t expect them to come to you all the time. Go to them.
Of course, people will complain about the gym, the community center and their sound effects.
But if you \'ve been focusing on the development of technology, there are some audio devices that can overcome most of the problems and make the performance of any space a great experience.
Contemporary music includes film soundtrack and video game music.
Have you heard of some symphony music for video games?
Really great, now is the foundation of some spectacular concerts.
But in classical music, we don\'t tend to take film music seriously, let alone music in video games.
We condemn composers for jumping to the dark side.
They are considered commercial, and this is the worst charge you have against musicians.
There are very few Academy of Music professors with film scores: Berkeley in Boston and Valencia, Thornton school at the University of Southern California, and Altez College of Art in the Netherlands are exceptions.
However, like Erich Korengold, Max Steiner, Antonio Morricone, Danny Elman, Thomas Newman, Hans Zimmer, El bernard Herrmann and Ramin Djawadi all helped us define and shape us the contemporary world of life.
Their legacy is bright and powerful.
This brings me a big problem, and then a series of supplementary questions that will affect the area of expertise: are we training musicians for work that is gradually disappearing, instead of providing them with work skills that have just emerged?
The product we are producing, that is, the students, is just excellent, but there is no contemporary world of skills, tools, awareness, and sense of innovation that allows them to really participate?
Are we just a quirky part of the entertainment world, providing a social atmosphere for the social elite?
What kind of people do we want to be?
Are we part of the retail industry, or is it part of the entertainment industry, or is it a small religious group, or is it a community involved enterprise, or something else that is totally different?
How do we want to engage with the contemporary world so that we can get rid of the burden of our long history and work to solve this problem
Butterfly out of the cocoon-
Like taking our place again in the social center?
A creative entrepreneur will define problems, articulate opportunities, and discover solutions that can make a huge leap forward.
Do we have the energy, creativity, and consciousness to jump this consideration?
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