Classicism vs. Classism

Classical Revolution Detroit event playing Brahms Clarinet Quintet 2011

I took part in a place-making workshop last week in Detroit. Despite the usual negative reports, my hometown is actually receiving huge private investments from billionaires, local corporations, and major foundations, revitalizing central areas from Midtown to the river. In these workshops (my second), a cross-section of about 40 artists and civic planners heard a short presentation about how cool parks draw residents together with food, music, things to do, people-watching, and novelties that identify the city. Then we walked the space for the proposed park, nothing more than a small, triangular dirt lot at this point, to begin to brain-storm for unique ideas to make it another HELL YEAH place to visit. (Update: this is now called Beacon Park.)

One of the choices we were asked to consider was what could be done to experiment with the space sooner than later. What were some quick, cheap, and dirty ideas to see if people would come when there was something going on? Some examples in other cities were sandlots for volleyball, simple jungle-gyms on sand, benches for parents, food trucks, and picnic tables. Such flexibility at low cost could jump-start the whole chicken-and-egg cycle so they might plan and upgrade the location all at once when the money was in place. People would become used to showing up there.

Access granted

Well, this leads me to further justify ideas like Classical Revolution (CR), the grassroots movement that began in San Francisco in 2006, presenting classical concerts, readings, and open crossover jams in public spaces for donations. CutTime launched the Detroit chapter in 2010 and it immediately became apparent that it’s looseness, information, and affordability create new access with a casual classical made possible by smoking laws. CR has musicians playing for curious friends and strangers alike. And each chapter experiments often, cheap and dirty, to, in effect, surf what’s possible, find a balance to the carefully-planned and locked tradition, and draw anyone to our traditional concerts. It removes classy as a reason for attending. Let me tell you why that’s so critical right now.

Classical Revolution Detroit event with Amici Strings

Many enjoy classical concerts, and for many different reasons. For veteran subscribers, those reasons will often be a combination of social and professional, as well as inspirational. But it is the rarity of the occasion of classical events that give us the feelings of ease, elegance, thoughtful study, even moral purpose and clarity. People will dress up, esp. orchestra musicians in full coattails. We are especially civil (or European manners apply), and we expect to experience some of humanity’s highest artistic achievements. Some enjoy that we can all feel classy together; enjoying a lifestyle for a few hours we may not experience anywhere else. (aspirational)

So I had to wonder… Does a concert experience, if communal, make us resonate together, an extension of the meaning of “symphony”?  The high qualities of Symphony Hall and the Opera House might do that, but is this the classicism that says everyone deserves beauty, or the classism that says only the cogniscenti deserve beauty? The former might unite us a bit, while class conflict divides us a bit.

I’m raising a host of negative associations, conscious or not, because when we make classical music about class and affordability, then we reinforce exclusivity, elitism, and worse. We have no right to claim sole ownership over the human legacy of music such as Mozart’s: his works are all public domain, itself another classical idea. Classicism means we intend to signal this-really-IS-for-everyone. If classical can show a side that is humble, open, raw, common, folk, spiritual, or humanist, it can begin to bridge across that buffer zone between disparate groups. I’m not usually one to speak of tearing down walls. Just like I love the walls of my house, I truly enjoy that classical music is not rock, rock is not jazz, and jazz is not classical. But having some hybrids (partnerships) that form bridges connecting cultural traditions and people in the wider world (like food), let’s call these drapes in the house of art so we can move easily between them all.

Legacy

Because I’m black and am now crossing the cultural gaps with my chosen profession, I stand firmly in the middle, and appreciate my position between the classical arts and the rest of the world. Consequently, I choose to draw from classical music the idea of humanity; of being part of its largest community, along with the perfectionist, European aesthetics (high standards) of performing arts; of exaggerating the human condition (pathos) in concert. And I choose to bake these ideas into my compositions.

Perhaps it is also the effect of being one in a team of 90 in an orchestra playing dramatic roles (acting) together with a concrete goals (sport): to make audience get the music, to make recordings, to tour, ever to make our performance truly memorable. Perhaps humanity has grown too large, too fragmented, too overwhelming, too distant and empowered to WANT to work and play together as one species. But I love seeing when it does happen— if only momentarily following some great tragedy. Some Greek philosopher somewhere declared that music should reflect the natural flow of human emotions; tragedy and comedy. Some 2,000 years has since added violence, revenge, transformation, recovery, and more onto the orchestra stage.

  • Today in clubs, bars and restaurants, live classical music performed quick, fun, and dirty could become a regular presence in the lives of thousands. Will this new presence quickly create droves of new single-ticket buyers and subscribers? Undoubtedly not right away.
  • Will it reverse the classist message this-is-not-for-you outside the classical music industry? Yes!
  • Will it give access and permission to the masses to open themselves and their children to the possibility that traditional concerts offer deeper thrills? I believe so.
  • Could this idea employ and train dozens, then hundreds of young classical musicians to spinoff their own creative projects too? HELL yeah!

While classical will likely remain a road-less-traveled, we should, at the very least, clear a path past the minefields.

(Revised August 2022)

What do you think about this?