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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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In Reply to: The Classical Revolution in China. The Hope of the Future? posted by BarneyT on April 4, 2007 at 10:09:46:
I've commented below in another thread, and previously, that I think what is required for the classical music tradition to survive and thrive is a healthy interest in contemporary music by audiences. Traditions need to keep developing in order to survive, and development means new works among other things. The last century is really the first century where audiences don't get a bigger dose of contemporary music than they do of older compositions, and the birth of recording and radio are two of the significant causal factors in that change.Turning out more performers isn't going to help, in my view. It just allows the current situation to continue. A larger audience doesn't help if the reportoire remains the same. Both of these factors may delay the decline of the tradition but they won't turn it around. To turn it around the music needs healthy growth also, and that means the composition of new works within the tradition and a growing audience for them. Without that, we've got the 'same old same old' and things will eventually stultify and die.
Interestingly, there seem to be some new composers coming out of China and they seem to be composing some interesting music. I regard that as a healthy sign but we need to wait to see how that turns out.
On the other hand, I see a posible negative in this change in China. China has its own classical music traditions which have produced some great music in their own right though I, and most of us, hear very little of it. I would not like to see that tradition weaken and die because of an large scale adoption of our musical culture by China. That would be as much a tragedy, in my view, as the loss of our own classical music tradition. Diversity is a good thing and the loss of any musical tradition and reduction in the range of musical expression threatens that diversity.
So, overall I see some potential plusses and some potential minusses here with it really being too early to tell how things will work out. I'm more concerned than thrilled by this sort of news.
I'm also about to disappear for 6 days so I won't be able to respond to anyone. It's not that I'm ignoring what others may think of my views, I'm just not going to be near a computer again until next Thursday.
David Aiken
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Follow Ups
- I wonder… - David Aiken 22:54:41 04/04/07 (0)
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