Thoughts on "Popularising" Classical Music
Recently, I had my first experience with an interesting sort of music performance.... in my sort of cloistered life, I hadn't known about these Candlelight Concerts by Fever. Probably most people haven't either... well, Fever is a promoter of these Candlelight concerts were a small ensembles plays popular classical "hits" or arrangements of popular movie music or contemporary popular music... all in a darkened candlelit (electric, thank goodness) atmospheric setting.... and this takes place in about 100 countries around the world!
So, a very very lucrative business for the promoter and one that is heavily marketed as well.... and if the concerts that I played at is any indicator... well, it is pretty well patronised with full houses on all evenings.
... why am I writing about this then? Well, I'm not a music snob by any means... but I have spent my entire life sort of just doing concerts in concert halls and that sort of thing... and also playing music in background music performances as well... you know, functions, state events, and weddings... that sort of thing. What is sort of interesting about this sort of production is that from the audience point of view, it is a concert... and from the musicians, they treat it more like a "gig"... and the promoter... well, they seem to just rake it in!
So, what is good about it... well, that is obvious. The audience that goes to these events wouldn't ordinarily be the same as those that attend the regular concerts. The presentation is different and less intimidating (sort of what I'm trying to achieve with my ensemble's "proper" concerts).... and they are listening to music that is more relevant to them... things that they know already. So, if that introduces them to the concept of Classical Music as well, then I'm definitely all for it!
... but what is not so good. Well, I'm pretty sure that this is all a huge business venture for the promoter. Nothing wrong with that... but I'm not sure that good things always flow from profit motives. Sure, there is a new connection made between a larger audience and the classical music musicians... but how much of that ends up transferring to a larger classical music audience? ... and does that matter?
The quality of the performances will also be quite varied... in the groups that I played with, the quality of the musicians varied quite significantly... and there is the potential that the audience is being sold an inferior performance without them knowing it (well, that happens everywhere in music anyway... especially pop stuff...)... but again, does that matter? I see that the audience doesn't really mind too much... and they are there to be entertained, and if they are entertained and enjoy it... well, who am I to say otherwise?
... but then is it enough to just "scrape" through? Shouldn't we present quality at all times... and not just "good enough" when we can get away with it?
On the musician front of things... well, the entire experience WAS quite enjoyable, even though I thought that the whole thing could HAVE been better in certain aspects... again, who am I to pass judgement?
... but there would be better ensembles and quality if the payments were more reflective of the work that quality musicians would put in. For one of the performances, I had a colleague who was top-notch... and it showed, especially in comparison to performances that had "lesser" players. But she said that she would not do this sort of thing again... her integrity demanded that she spend the time to make the performance up to her quality, but the payment and conditions were too little to make that worthwhile.... and demanding higher payments essentially just would result the promoter selecting for people who WOULD accept the conditions. Again... the focus is on profit and "good enough".
So... mixed impressions about the whole experience. Yes, great that people are being introduced to a classical setting in a comfortable and friendly atmosphere... but with caveats. In the end, would I do it again... yes. I still think that the outreach to new audiences IS more important than anything else... and as long as my own artistic integrity holds to perform the best as possible, then I think it is worthwhile. However, if I start going down the road of "good enough", then that is a problem... however, in the past, I have been exposed to similar situations and been quite aware of avoiding this common pitfall.
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Terkadang saya menyukai musik klasik pada suasana tertentu. Misalnya, saat sedan membaca buku, instrumen musik klasik memberikan suasana seperti berada di toko buku.
Ah yes, there are many different atmospheres that classical music can provide!
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Just had to stop and reply to this....
Some years ago, I notified two of my friends with glee that Games Music Live was coming to Shanghai, a concert I saw in University and was blown away. Classic soundtracks from famous games, all our favourites - Final Fantasy in particular - were on our doorstep so naturally we went all in.
It did not take long for me and one of the two friends, both of us musically trained, to start feeling blood boiling in our Cheeks of Rage.
It became violently clear that this was a sham concert. Something that was internationally touring somehow changed their performance in China to be, well, a scam.
Don't get me wrong we were in the legit concert, in one of the big concert halls of Shanghai. But the music was all - ALL - Blizzard Entertainment. Halo, and the likes. There was a big screen just showing trailers and random footage of Blizzard games.
This was kind of annoying. But the most annoying part was that...
The musicians were faking it!
At first I thought it was odd that we were hearing things like guitars and bagpipes. Nevermind maybe just a bit of a supplemental recording. Then I wondered how the concert was so pristinely mixed and balanced, with seemingly artificial fading.
Finally, though we were pretty far back, we started to notice the musicians, the violinists, were pretending to play. I am sure they were legitimate musicians, but they were bowing without touching strings, for example.
All the flashy lighting and big screen full of explosions was likely more than enough to fool the audience on the whole, A depressing evening indeed.
Oh yes, I've heard that there are lots of the "big blockbuster" events where everyone is faking it... and the excuse that is given is that they don't want any "mistakes" or anything like that. So, the whole thing is a business charade that has completely warped the concept of what music and performance is... sigh, every business person eventually thinks that they know how to do something "better", and they often lose sight of actually what is important.
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