Why do we hate modern classical music?

The Guardian ^ | 11/28/2010 | Alex Ross

[mojito]

A full century after Arnold Schoenberg and his students Alban Berg and Anton Webern unleashed their harsh chords on the world, modern classical music remains an unattractive proposition for many concertgoers. Last season at the New York Philharmonic, several dozen people walked out of a performance of Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra; about the same number exited Carnegie Hall before the Vienna Philharmonic struck up Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra.

The mildest 20th-century fare can cause audible gnashing of teeth. Benjamin Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings is a more or less fully tonal score, yet in 2009 at Lincoln Centre, it failed to please a gentleman sitting behind me. When someone let out a "Bravo!" elsewhere in the hall, he growled: "I bet that was a plant." I resisted the temptation to swat him with my pocket score.

[Dead Corpse]

Now that is funny right there... ;-)

[kaehurowing]

All modern “classical” music can be divided into two schools:

1. The “bugs crawling under my skin” school.

2. The “silverware, pots and pans being thrown on the kitchen floor” school.

Unfortunately, since most symphonies and orchestras now feel compelled to force people to listen to it as part of their concerts, most of them are going under financially. People are not going to pay good money to listen to cr*p.

[chesley]

I’ll see ‘em all and raise you a Shania Twain and a Martina McBride.

OK, it isn’t just the music.

[paudio]

IIRC, many composers that today we call classical maestros of the past were rejected at their time—at least at first. Some of their work were considered ‘too folksy’ or ‘too light’. Usually, the criticism came from the musical elites at the time. Time may change, but some situations keep repeating themselves: the ‘guardians’ feel the ‘newcomers’ sell out too much to the mass’ tastes. As time passes, some of these ‘newcomers’ pieces would be accepted as ‘classic’ and the composers become the guardians themselves.

[Borges]

Which composers are you talking about?

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

The point of the article appears to be that if we don't appreciate modern music, it's just because we're insufficiently sophisticated, and that all those crowds who show up for exhibits of modern art are sophisticated. I disagree. There are millions of people who try hard to like modern art because they think they're supposed to, and they're afraid to say out loud that they think it's pointless, a fraud, because saying so will mark them as unlettered hicks. Looking at art you don't like doesn't actually hurt, though; it's easy to nod sagaciously and say something vague about how you "love the way the artist uses color," or some similar inanity. It's harder to tolerate the ghastly squeaking and blatting of modern music. The sheep who force themselves for the sake of being hip are the really unsophisticated ones.

An interviewer asked Spike Jones the secret of his success. His answer: "We are too corny for sophisticted people, and too sophisticated for corny people."

Yes, there are Spike Jones versions of the Nutcracker Suite and Carmen.

[dfwgator]

Philip Glass? Who's that?

Didn't he play at the South Park Elementary Christmas show?

[kaehurowing]

Modern “crap” classical music is exactly in line with this:

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/smithsonian-christmas-season-exhibit-fea

[dfwgator]

Yep. Reminds me of the PBS commercial where the 5 or 6 birds land on the power lines and the ‘composer’ makes symphony out of it. Sounded like crap.

I could just see Dan Ackroyd's "Leonard Pinth-Garnell" doing that with "Bad Symphony".

[achilles2000]

I don’t think the piece is interesting at all. It is a compilation of excuses for a mistake, which is what most of what passes for modern “art” is. The excuses have been trotted out before. What no one wants to admit is that, in general, the modern music that he discusses is an attempt to substitute a theory for musical genius. Modern visual “art” is “art” for fools.

[JHL]

>>Because it sounds like a gaggle of cats getting tossed into a wood chipper?<<

>>>You say that like it is a BAD thing.<<<

DING DING DING we have a winner for Post-of-the-Day!!!

[Frapster]

Because it sounds like a gaggle of cats getting tossed into a wood chipper?

Don't be so insulting - cats in a wood chipper sound immeasurably better than modern classical music ;-)

[P.O.E.]

Dave Barry's Music to Get Rich By

[dfwgator]

I must admit, I do dig Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, because it features Pat Metheny on Guitar, the “Slow” part is a beautiful piece of music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sX4jqylYDU&feature=fvw

[dangerdoc]

The composers that would have made classical music in the past are going to Hollywood and scoring movies. That is where you find the equivilent music now. The people making “classical” music now are posers.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

Great album. I love Wakeman. He's also very witty. Saw him doing a solo concert in a small venue. Music was fantastic, and the stories were very, very funny. I've also seen him with Yes on many occasions. You either like them, or you don't. I really do.

Along those lines, I do love some ‘modern’ composers, and am confident that people can still create beautiful symphonic music if they are motivated to.

[RobRoy]

>>Along those lines, I do love some ‘modern’ composers, and am confident that people can still create beautiful symphonic music if they are motivated to.<<

On a bit of a side note, it is one of the reasons my favorite “rock” band was Genesis. I literally saw it as “classical music meets rock music”. Some of those chord progressions and instrumentation (keyboard of course) that Tony Banks came up with were very evocative of the classics.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

I agree, and I am also a Genesis fan.

[ml/nj]

Because a Concerto for three garbage cans falling down two flights of stairs isn't particularly musical.

ML/NJ

[shotdog]

I toss into the mix some of the later Mahler works as well as Holst’s “Planets.” John Cage is not even human. Nothing pleases more than a Hayden string quartet. sd