classical music

[Vivi]

How much popular is classical music in your countries?I mean are there a lot of people who listen to it or they usually laugh at it(this is the common attitude towards classical music in Greece)?I want your opinions,please!

[Peter]

In the UK hard to say - the tv channels broadcast classical music rarely and the cd stores have an ever diminishing classical section. However we do have some good youth orchestras and I think many young people are still keen to learn musical instruments. I think it is inevitable that young people as a whole are not drawn to classical music but you really shouldn't worry what others think - ignore it and enjoy what appeals to you - classical music has been and will be around a lot longer than those who mock it, and for you it will become a rich and rewarding part of your life.

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'Man know thyself'

[This message has been edited by Peter (edited June 30, 2003).]

[Sorrano]

Originally posted by Peter:
In the UK hard to say - the tv channels broadcast classical music rarely and the cd stores have an ever diminishing classical section. However we do have some good youth orchestras and I think many young people are still keen to learn musical instruments. I think it is inevitable that young people as a whole are not drawn to classical music but you really shouldn't worry what others think - ignore it and enjoy what appeals to you - classical music has been and will be around a lot longer than those who mock it, and for you it will become a rich and rewarding part of your life.

The same is true (at least in the Western part) of the U.S., I'm afraid.

[Andrea]

I can only speak for Vienna and not the rest of Austria, but I'm sure that it's easy to find classical music everywhere. Austria has a wonderful music history with Vienna being the classical music capital. Many composers came here to live and to create their masterpieces which included Beethoven, Vivaldi, Salieri and Brahms. Here in Austria, many famous composers were born, including Mozart, Haydn, Schubert and the Johann Strauss family.

Here in Vienna we have classical concerts being performed everyday somewhere in the city. We also have one of the foremost opera houses in the world, the Wiener Staatsoper. There's no problem finding a classical CD, video or DVD here for just about every music store or shops that sell CDs have a vast classical music section. It's great and I love Vienna for it...

[Sorrano]

Originally posted by Andrea:
I can only speak for Vienna and not the rest of Austria, but I'm sure that it's easy to find classical music everywhere. Austria has a wonderful music history with Vienna being the classical music capital. Many composers came here to live and to create their masterpieces which included Beethoven, Vivaldi, Salieri and Brahms. Here in Austria, many famous composers were born, including Mozart, Haydn, Schubert and the Johann Strauss family.

Don't forget Bruckner!!!! ; )

[mrfixit]

One time my mate was around when i was listening to to the 4th movement of beethovens 9th symphony ode to joy. He laughed and asked me if i was listening to a christmas song. Also i have a other one who cant understand how any peice of music can go past 4 minutes lol. They do P me off with there closed mindless.

[Steppenwolf]

So many people - especially, it is sad to say, young people - are horribly bigoted towards classical music. More fool them - they couldn't possibly imagine what they are missing. I was recently asked by a mate what drew me into classical music, and I could only explain it by comparing it to the feeling of falling in love, or religious conversion - a deep, powerful and moving experience that changes, and enriches your life.

We unfortunately live in an age of mass-consumerism in which everything is disposable and fake. Classical music is dismissed as without a second thought merely because the genre is old. We live a culture - if you can call it that - of coca-cola, McDonalds (McShit), MTV and all sorts of mass-produced garbage. There is no longer any place for beauty, or true culture. Modern 'art' is even more vile. It doesn't bode well for the future of our civilisation.

[Amalie]

The Spirit of the Age.


Yes, J.B. Priestley, called it the
addmass, ie. advertizing mass culture.

George Orwell called it more caustically, an age of
'concrete and contraceptives'. ..... I think it was Orwell, who when talking about the poetry of T.S. Eliot with its lugubrious refrain about the sterility and emptiness of the modern world, said that 'Eliot' had achieved the almost impossible task of making the modern world appear even worse that it was!
It is true though as 'Eliot' said, that we are living in a waste land, but 'Auden' gave us hope that even though, we are lost in a haunted wood/and children afraid of the dark who have never been happy or good, all around flash ironic points of light wherever the just exchange messages.
Like the Beethoven reference site for instance!



[This message has been edited by Amalie (edited July 18, 2003).]

[John Rasmussen]

What Sorrano says about the US is very true, unfortunately. Look at how many orchestras have folded recently; Rochester and Colorado Springs come to mind, and others are in trouble. Still, there's a lot of good music out there, under the radar: community orchestras and bands, chamber groups, even a few period-instrument ensembles. The University of Colorado recently started a new concert series devoted entirely to music written within the last hundred years, and I have spent some very interesting evenings at those concerts. The Central City (Colo.) Opera is going strong. And festivals and summer series still play all over the Rocky Mountains. Our music may be retrenching, but it's not dead yet.

[Sorrano]

Originally posted by John Rasmussen:
What Sorrano says about the US is very true, unfortunately. Look at how many orchestras have folded recently; Rochester and Colorado Springs come to mind, and others are in trouble. Still, there's a lot of good music out there, under the radar: community orchestras and bands, chamber groups, even a few period-instrument ensembles. The University of Colorado recently started a new concert series devoted entirely to music written within the last hundred years, and I have spent some very interesting evenings at those concerts. The Central City (Colo.) Opera is going strong. And festivals and summer series still play all over the Rocky Mountains. Our music may be retrenching, but it's not dead yet.

I have heard (on a classical PBS station) that the focus is changing from orchestral to choral. That is why the orchestras are struggling. (At least one reason.)

[Poseidan73]

Originally posted by Steppenwolf:
We unfortunately live in an age of mass-consumerism in which everything is disposable and fake. Classical music is dismissed as without a second thought merely because the genre is old.

I agree. It's much the same here in Malaysia, where USA's pop culture rules supreme (it'd be nice if some european music filtered into our country, but that's rare). Here, we have the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, who are good, and it's brought the live experience to the nation. Likewise, Singapore's LSO allows us some regional diversity. These are great things, but not enough to bring about a "mass" appeal, like Mariah Carey or Janet Jackson, unfortunately.

To this end, the classical crossover acts like Vanessa-Mae, Bond, Russel Watson and to a certain extent Sarah Brightman have to be lauded. I know purists on this board might be smacking their palms against their forehead, but classical music, before the Victorians came in, was risque and bright and sexy (except perhaps the religious works).

I listen to some contemporary pop music, some classical crossover acts, and lots of classical music, there's a lot to be appreciated in all kinds of musical art form, and current dance music, especially trance and techno, have a similarity to classical music. The question is: how does one bring this appreciation to the generation X? (and vice versa)

[John Rasmussen]

Originally posted by Poseidan73:
...classical music, before the Victorians came in, was risque and bright and sexy (except perhaps the religious works).

And after they came in. There's Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, Strauss' Salome, Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and Ravel's Bolero, among others. And even the arch-Victorians Gilbert and Sullivan could push the envelope a little.

[rach]

Here in the states there is a nice following, I think