ChoralNet

The professional networking site for the global online choral community.

You are here: Home / Others / Killing Classical Music

Killing Classical Music

by Leave a Comment


A compelling new website I just found, Killing Classical Music, a site “dedicated to rescuing the world’s best music from a slow, certain death at the hands of tired traditions and oppressively ordinary thought.”
 
 
At some point, any discussion about re-imagining the possibilities and reach of classical music will come to a discussion of venues. That has certainly come up here and will continue to do so in the future. But most of the time, the issue at hand has been about taking music to venues in which it is not typically presented, etc. Not so today. This is all about music that fits a space and space that makes music better than it otherwise is.

Many people have experiences of the numinous when they hear music. For some, this is even more prominent when the music is intended as sacred music. Many people also have such experiences when they find themselves in sacred spaces. Presenting sacred music in a sacred space can create a combination that is more than the some of parts.


Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I recently heard (on NPR) about members of the Cleveland Orchestra who have a standing gig in a bar. They play classical music, but let it “all hang out” more than in concert. Everyone loves it, including the musicians and the patrons who don’t normally get to listen to classical. Here’s the url: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130596864
     
    Which brings to mind another theory about classical music’s decline (if one buys into such a notion) — both choirs and orchestras (as a whole) are too focused on the technical and not enough on the authentically human. When they DO connect and express their authentic humanness through the music, the programs build (thank you to Gustavo Dudamel for introducing this notion to the orchestral folks).
     
    Cheers!
     
    Tom

  2. So are you saying that styles of music which are more popular, such as death metal and hip-hop, are more closely connected with folk music? Anyway, I don’t think western cultures have folk music anymore — how many American teenagers do you think know “Black is the color of my true love’s hair”, compared to the number who know songs by Lady Gaga or Rihanna?
     
    Unless, of course, you mean “primal” in it’s Freudian sense.

  3. I don’t know about “tired traditions and oppressively ordinary thought.”  But I do have a theory:  Classical music is experiencing decline because it has lost its primal connection with folk and traditional music of the people.  The more cerebral it becomes, the more the audience narrows.  Hopefully a “death” will lead to a rebirth of a symbiotic relationship between “classical” composed music and “indigenous” music of the common folk.  The negation of traditional melodic structure does not help matters much. 

  4. You’re right that this is compelling. The space is the largest part of the instrument that is being played by the composer. It is frustrating when this consideration doesn’t receive the high priority it is due, whether in the planning of local concerts or national conventions. In ACDA, we owe it to the composers whose works we cherish to present those works in the best possible acoustical and aesthetic environments.

Leave a Reply

© 2026 American Choral Directors Association. All rights reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy