13 August 2021. Classical | Music
Uptight and in the concert hall; a global music playlist
Welcome to Just Two Things, which I try to publish daily, five days a week. Some links may also appear on my blog from time to time. Links to the main articles are in cross-heads as well as the story.
#1: Uptight and in the concert hall
John Naughton’s Memex blog has a daily feature in which he recommends a piece of music in place of the morning news. The selection is fairly eclectic: some classical, some folk, some jazz, some traditional Irish music, some light rock music.
A couple of weeks ago he shared a piece by the clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer playing a piece by the Czech composer Stamitz. (I had to look him up: he was born after Bach, and before Haydn).
One of the things that was most refreshing about the piece, filmed in a recording studio, was its informality. Ottensamer was in a T-shirt, and conducting the orchestra when not playing. They were in casual clothes, and seemed to be enjoying themselves.
We don’t often see classical music presented like this. Instead, it’s tie and tails, dark suits, black dresses, with the soloists sometimes getting a free pass. (Although the BBC’s British Proms season is one of the great cultural institutions of the world, it also mostly suffers from this stultifying formality).
It didn’t used to be like that. It used to be like this:
Music soon became popular at the courts, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries.... Conversation, appreciative clapping or cheering—even during performances—was acceptable as long as the noble in charge was okay with it. The same was true for music at home, on the streets, at the local tavern—etiquette was determined by the setting and its authority figures.
In an intriguing podcast (31 minutes) called ‘Putting the Classism into Classical”—one of a series discussing Beethoven’s 5th Symphony—Switched On Pop argues that one of the tragedies of Beethoven is that although his music had a radical intent, it was captured by what they call the emerging ‘industrial merchant class” in Europe as a way to distinguish themselves from everyone else.
(Image of Beethoven courtesy of the Library of Congress.)
The story they tell is this:
The Fifth’s creative rule-breaking — subverting the classical sonata form in the first movement, for example — requires close listening to fully grasp. Over time, these norms crystallized into a set of etiquette rules (e.g., “don’t clap mid-piece”) to enhance the new listening experience.
And—from about here in the podcast—they talk about how Beethoven’s music became the symbol of seriousness in classical music. (So this doesn’t throw you if you go and listen to it, the section starts by discussing Mozart).
Their argument is that the rules around classical music— smart clothes, not clapping between movements, and so on—emerged in the early 19th century, partly because of the complexities of Beethoven’s music:
The symphony becomes the soundtrack for a new class of self-made white men. It becomes the marker of their belonging and their individuality. And they use the symphony as a way to police who belongs to this caste, and who doesn’t. If you can understand this harmonic journey from C-minor to C-major, if you know how to behave in the concert hall, then you’re welcome. And they’re not so subtle about who’s allowed in this symphony club.
Some of that continues into the world of 21st century classical music, and there have been valiant attempts by some performers to change it. In the case of Beethoven:
It’s a culture that tries to divide and exclude, even as the music itself is all about resilience and overcoming.
But it’s probably too late to change it now. 200 years of cultural practice is a deep row to hoe.
RestOfWorld.org has added a playlist to its mix. The songs are chosen by their staff around the world, and are, as you’d expect, tremendously diverse. The first six songs on the list are from Morocco, Vietnam, Brazil, Israel, Pakistan, and South Korea.
They’ve also used Spotify to assemble the list, which they explain like this:
Why did we choose Spotify? In 2021, Spotify nearly doubled its global coverage and launched in 85 new markets — from Benin to Bangladesh — bringing the number of countries in which Spotify is available up to 178. This is a major leap forward: In 2018, Spotify was active in only one sub-Saharan African market (South Africa), and today that number has jumped to 45.
Its Spotify playlist is here. They add more songs to it every week.
j2t#148
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