At 6:44 PM -0500 1/12/07, dhbailey wrote:
The ratio of historical music to contemporary music is hugely in
favor of historical music in opera houses and in orchestral concert
halls. How does that compare to the programming of Mozart's time?
David is exactly right, but possibly not for exactly the reasons he implies.
Here's the difference between then and now. Music in Mozart's time
(outside the church, at least) was entertainment, knew it was
entertainment, accepted that it was entertainment, and functioned as
entertainment. What we call "classical" or "art" music was intended
for the entertainment of up upper classes, who had the education
(sometimes) and the wealth (by definition!) to support the kinds of
things that entertained them. Opera was entertainment, and can only
be compared with musical theater today, although even today modern
musical theater is following opera inexorably into museum status.
And THAT public was fickle and their taste changed over time just as
much as today's public's for pop music, because for THAT upper class
public it was pop music.
And what criteria does entertainment follow. Well, first and
foremost you have to please your patron or patrons, because if you
don't you are no longer patronized. Mozart composed what would
please and what would sell. He was no fool, and his music was in
demand among the social classes that could pay for it. The fact that
we still find it entertaining and satisfying and artistically
wonderful today is simply due to the fact that he was better than the
average bear, and knew his craft better than almost all his
contemporaries.
Please your audience. Wow! What a concept!! And it can be done
without selling out or pandering, but only if you're good enough.
The band world's ratio of programming is practically diametrically
opposite to the orchestral world.
Sure, because the band world has never lost track of the fact that
music is for enjoyment and not just for forcing the public to accept
new sounds because "it's good for them." (And there's also the
simple fact that the orchestra and choral worlds have centuries of
repertoire behind them, while the band world does not.)
I know this is not a popular view, and I don't ask anyone else to
agree with me, but having worked both the pop and non-pop (argggh!
I've been corrupted by Dennis!) sides of the street may allow me to
see things with greater clarity. Or not, and it doesn't really
matter.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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