This article in Compact takes a fact I’ve known for a long time and connects it up in a way I’d never thought about. Fact: Classical music has HATED its audience and done everything possible to reject and evict its audience for 100 years. Connection: Now all institutions, from media to politics to corporations making ordinary products, are doing the same.
Classical got there first. The theorists took over from audience-centered performers, and meticulously blocked and deleted every single aspect of music that real humans enjoyed.
The reason for the hatred is the same. When an institution depends solely on a few big donors, it doesn’t need customers, so it callously discards customers. Orchestras were solely serving the super-rich long before Share Value turned ordinary businesses in the same direction.
New thought: Classical had a unique opportunity to reconnect with mass audiences in the ’30s and ’40s when every local radio station played a huge proportion of classical because it was public domain. The pop music industry under union leader Petrillo charged hefty royalties for each play of a pop record. Many local stations also gave airtime to local orchestras and performers. The classical establishment ignored the opportunity for partnership and apprenticeship.
Semi-relevant: The author of the article, Taggart Murphy, is a prof of economics at Tsukuba, the same university that developed the original connection between musical rhythm and brain growth. The Orient is now the center of both new classical music and new original science. They don’t block their own thinking with lunatic notions of “diversity” or “equality”.
Polistra's Mill 