Imagine: a world with no classical music.
Now, you may say to yourself “well that’s not hard, I don’t listen to it to begin with.” Unfortunately, you would not be alone in thinking that way, and there is a reason for that.
For the past two centuries or so, classical music has gradually lost all of its relevance and popularity. Believe it or not, there was a time when classical music was what most people listened to. However, slowly but surely, this genre has turned into a relic as less and less people, especially those who are young, care to listen to it. When those young people grow up without classical music, it is highly unlikely that they will randomly pick it up and pass it down to their children. Therefore, one would presume that as that cycle perpetuates itself, the percentage of people who listen to classical will eventually become miniscule.
Nonetheless, one has to wonder: is that a fair assumption? What will actually happen to classical music in the future?
For some reason, there is no consensus on the answers to those questions. Some believe there exists a bright future, and others believe there is no future at all.
In 2014, a leading music educator in the United States, Robert Freeman, warned that while
providing high levels of intensive training to a few, society is failing to educate the many to become prospective audiences for classical music. In his book titled The Crisis of Classical Music in America, he writes “the crisis in classical music comes in important measure from the obsessively narrow way we have trained musicians for more than two centuries.” He attacks those who advocate intense specialisation in music education, arguing that all children naturally fall in love with music and that by providing selective opportunities for children deemed “gifted”, the majority miss out. Freeman also points out that due to a decline in public appetite for classical performances, there is a diminishing number of jobs to be found in that field, which forms a cycle that causes such performances to become increasingly uncommon.
Clearly, Freeman is one of those who think that classical music’s future is not looking too good.
As aforementioned, though, not everyone sees so much doom and gloom when looking ahead. There are those who see things in a much different light. Leon Botstein, the music director of the American Symphony Orchestra, is convinced that the actual and potential audience is larger than ever before. He argues that we live in an age replete with user-friendly technology for music, including audio and video transmission, streaming, and downloading, that enhance the allure of live performance. With such technology, more people have access to the classical genre than before. Musicians who play classical music instruments are being produced in record numbers and their skills are incomparably higher than those that prevailed in the past, and according to Botstein allows for more integration of music professionals into the general public. Plus, he argues, there are now more composers working all over the world, in all manner of styles.
While there may be no consensus on what the future has in store for classical music, I personally hope that it’s not lost, and that it never will be.
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