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Cross Country Checkup·Analysis

What's the future of classical music?

Making music: As Christmas concerts reach a fever pitch across the country, some wonder if the art of making and listening to serious music is on the wane. What is the future of classical music?
CBC Radio ·
Pinchas Zukerman and the NAC Orchestra perform a live concert in the historic Salisbury Cathedral during the orchestra's U.K. tour of remembrance. (Fred Cattroll/NAC)
Cross Country Checkup1:53:00December 14, 2014 - Classical music

Making music: As Christmas concerts reach a fever pitch across the country, some wonder if the art of making and listening to serious music is on the wane. What's the future of classical music?

GUESTS & LINKS

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INTRODUCTION

As Christmas concerts open across the country, some wonder if the art of making and listening to serious music is on the wane. It's a perennial worry often focused on the funding for orchestras, the 'greying of audiences,' and the challenge of introducing children to classical music. 

We discussed this topic on Checkup five years ago ...and also 10 years before that ...but we thought it might be time to check back in to see how things have developed. In both those programs, we had a guide: Tim Dawson, long-time double-bass player with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, co-founder of the Bach Consort, music teacher, and an energetic organizer of several other music events. He has come back to join us again.

We are now in a time when music is important enough that many carry whole libraries of music with them, stored digitally on their portable devices. Music, whether pop, orchestral, or rock can be downloaded online with a few clicks. For many, their daily lives have their own soundtrack.  

A hundred years ago, if people wanted to hear music, they had to play an instrument themselves or find someone else who could, whether it be a individual, a band, or an orchestra.  For centuries, music came largely from three sources: folk, the music of the people; the court, the music of the aristocracy; and the church, the music of the sacred. It comprises a rich history that has been handed down over the centuries, and it is loosely tied up in what we now call 'classical music.'  It is the embodiment of many centuries of culture; dense and complex.  And many worry that it can be lost ...that it will slowly fade into insignificance, forgotten in the fascination with the new and the latest.

Is classical music part of your life? Do you listen to it?  Do you play it?  Do you think it is important that children are introduced to it?  Should they be taught to play classical instruments? Some say if it is no longer relevant to people today, then let it go? Do you agree?

If you are a music lover ...what is the difference between listening to music and playing it yourself?

Our question today: "What's the future of classical music?"

I'm Rex Murphy  ...on CBC Radio One ...and on Sirius XM, satellite radio channel 169 ...this is Cross Country Checkup.

GUESTS

Tim Dawson 
Has played double-bass for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for 34 yrs. and teaches at the University of Toronto. He is the co-founder of the Bach Consort.

Mark Oppenheimer
Writes biweekly "Beliefs" column for The New York Times and reports for The Atlantic, The Nation and This American Life. Author of an article in The New Republic, "Stop forcing your kids to learn a musical instrument."

Tamara Bernstein
Music writer, lecturer and artistic director of Summer Music, the free concerts at the Toronto Music Garden. 

LINKS

CBC.ca

Arts Journal

Baltimore Sun


The Globe and Mail

Macleans

The New Republic


The Guardian


Daily Mail


The Chroncle of Higher Education


R & L Publishers


Journal of Neuroscience


Northwestern University School of Communication


Quartz

PLOS ONE


Eureka Alert

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