Knocking on doors (thinking about the decline in music appreciation)

When I grew up in 1970s East London, it was not unusual for us to get a knock at the door at unexpected times. More often than not, my brother or I were sent to see who it was only to be met with two smiling strangers. “Is your mum or dad in?” they’d ask and up would go the cry: “Muuum!”. Mum would come to the door and, fifteen or so minutes later, would come back into the kitchen having politely talked to the Jehovah’s Witnesses or whoever it had been. As time went on, we developed a warning system with my aunt, who lived up the road and we would warn her, or she us when such visits occurred. My brother and I would then be ready to say (or lie – delete as appropriate) “Mum’s out at the moment”. We saw these occasions as unwelcome intrusions and, I must confess, looked upon the callers as a bit odd.

Many years later, I see things a bit differently. The callers’ purpose was, in most cases, a genuine attempt to enable other people to experience the joy, comfort or reassurance that they themselves gained from their faith. It could be seen as an act of generosity or goodwill.

What brought about my great epiphany? Certainly not a religious conversion – for as much as I love to look around cathedrals or old churches and to listen to or perform sacred music, I have no spiritual faith. Rather it was the feeling, when listening to a piece of music, that I wished others could take the same joy in it that I was experiencing. This has happened on many occasions: listening to Ravel while walking in the woods, getting a sense of spiritual uplift at the end of Sibelius’s 5th Symphony (which always makes me smile) or that sense of being part of something unknowable which I get from Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis.  It genuinely saddens me to think that the vast majority of people will never hear of these pieces, let alone listen to them.

Does that matter? Most people listen to music in some form or another. Isn’t that the important thing? Of course but, as someone who does (sometimes) listen to and enjoy pop music, film soundtracks and occasionally a bit of jazz, I don’t find that I get the same emotional response from any of those as I do from ‘classical’ music. That’s probably to be expected – I doubt that anyone has laboured as long writing a pop song as, for example, Strauss did when composing any of the Four Last Songs. Most pop songs tend to follow a fairly conservative structure using a limited number of chords. Classical songs will be, musically, more complex. I have always made the comparison (not intended to be critical) between music and food. I don’t mind eating a MacDonald’s burger but it doesn’t have the same appeal as one from a restaurant. Takeaway food fills a spot and we know what to expect from it. But a meal that’s been prepared by a cook with their own style, training and palate will be unique and even something of a voyage of discovery. In the same way, a pop song will contain fewer surprises and is therefore more accessible than a piece of classical music.

And there’s the rub: classical music can be less accessible than other musical genres. I say ‘can be’ because there are plenty of pieces that are well-known and very popular, having been used in tv adverts or as theme tunes (think of Carmina Burana being used to advertise ‘Old Spice’). But for all the popularity of classical compilations released by Classic FM or other outlets, most people will not venture further than those tracks and individual movements. I should say that, as a teenager, I bought many such compilations – Classical Gold 1 and 2, The Best of Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and Strauss (a 4-LP set) before daring to try a whole symphony. Once I’d started, there was no stopping me but I don’t think that’s typical of the average listener. The idea of graduating from a single piece to a multi-movement work or a full ballet is simply too daunting for most people. “I don’t understand classical music” they’ll say. Or: “I’d like to listen try it but I don’t know where to start”.  Classical music, we are told, is for the ‘elite’.

But, for which elite? It is no more difficult for someone to learn about a piece of music than it is for them to understand the offside rule in football. So it’s not an intellectual elite. The cost of attending a concert to hear an 80 piece orchestra play for 2 hours is less than a ticket to attend a premier league football match  with 22 men playing for 90 minutes (at the time of writing, the cheapest ticket to a Prom concert is £10 whereas the cheapest adult ticket to watch Arsenal is £30). So it can hardly be financially elitist. The so-called ‘elite’  is, in fact,  the group that have been introduced to classical music, either through instrumental lessons or through music classes at school. Sadly, the latter have been in decline for many years. My class music lessons at school were unambitious and never addressed a single piece of classical music. More recently, grammar schools have quietly dropped music from their list of exam subjects altogether, leaving the teaching of music to independent schools. Television has largely abandoned classical music and programmes like ‘Andre Previn’s Music Night’ are a thing of the past. All of this is used by some as proof that the arts are now elitist, when the truth is that arts funding and school cutbacks have conspired to exclude many people from learning about or experiencing the arts.  Arts elitism, you might argue, has been socially engineered to save money.

 This brings me back to my original thought. In the same way that people knocked on doors to share their faith, so I feel the need to ‘spread the word’ about music. If schools are no longer able to teach it and the BBC has turned its back, there is a vacuum which will lead to dwindling audiences and, potentially, large portions of the public living in ignorance of the rewards of classical music. You will be relieved to know that I have no intention of going from house-to-house and knocking on doors. But what can I do? Will YouTube videos attract viewers? (I have made a few short ones already but no-one knows about them). There may be an audience for illustrated talks held at a local level. But, for the moment, I suppose I shall settle for talking about music through this blog and hoping that people will read to the end!

I’d better let you go – it sounded like someone knocking at your door…