The worldwide Covid-19 Pandemic has oppressed the long anticipated 250th year celebration of Ludwig van Beethoven, a German composer whose legacy is understood, or misunderstood, even by those who know nothing else about the classical music tradition. Pandemic or not, great concerts and lectures have taken place online and off, as well as major articles, including ones demanding, asking or negating whether we shouldn’t just cancel his music for “sucking all the oxygen out of the room.” I have refrained from adding to this noise simply because having performed all of his symphonies a hundred times each as a musician in numerous orchestras, I can honestly argue I’ve never played the same piece twice, which is the whole POINT of classical or any other written music: making them feel spontaneous.
I understand the resistance to this cult-ish behavior for Beethoven’s music. And perhaps at times, I’ve succumbed myself to BOTH the attraction and the frustration. As a composer working for more performances of my own orchestral output, I compete with Mozart, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky too. I would perhaps have more opportunities via a moratorium on all the giants’ works. But the symphonic soundworld would be destitute for it, and I’ll tell you why.
While there is a more-or-less linear progression from the beginning of the symphony (originally meaning all instruments play together) from its own stable musical genre (roughly Haydn) to its abdication in the 20th-Century (roughly Schoenberg), Beethoven started by setting a critical new standard for what a symphony could do (inventive power), and ended by unlocking its spiritual powers (Ode to Joy). This gob-smacked every listener, musician, and composer who followed. We can’t enjoy or distinguish later works without comparing them to the great master. We use this word master not as some oppressive enslaver, but as a top-level teacher, at whose feet we might learn so much. And this is perhaps the principal reason orchestras return to them. He refashioned the sonata form into a spiritual belief system; a church in many ways.
As eager student-musicians we relish the chance to climb these mountains of his tricky running 16th-note passages (aka licks) and thematically-related rhythms, because everything less becomes far easier by comparison. We acquire greater endurance to maintain our strength and concentration thru the grand finale of these 30 to 75-minute long dramas with surprises in nearly every bar. We learn the European aesthetics of balance, grace, power, surprise, and self-control; not to become pseudo-European ourselves, but because by mastering them we would assume ownership (and stewardship) of these powers for ourselves! We could wield Beethoven’s musical sword ourselves. Who would refuse such a superpower if they had the talent and understanding to take it?
Growing up in a family of musicians going back some generations, I took it and ran. Eventually I began to fly further with these powers as an arranger, director, and composer. And I’m black! I wasn’t primed to go very far, if at all. So let me offer some philosophical advice and a vision to address the issue of neglected composers, both living and dead ones. One thing classical music has taught me over 40 years is to lean into the ambiguity, contradictions, irony, mixed feelings, indecision, conflict, hypocrisy, and the human condition. The world is not either-or; it is both-and. We are not so much right or wrong, black or white, rich or poor, strong or weak: we are both right AND wrong, both black AND white, etc. These contradictions will and must co-exist (work together) with each other in our paradoxical universe.
In fact, these contradictions work to define each other as relative or comparison. They complement each other, esp. when they mix and alternate in artistic ways, such as the 1st theme and contrasting 2nd theme of a sonata-form work like a traditional symphony, concerto, string quartet, and solo sonata. Each of these is a mighty vehicle for self-expression, once we ourselves master both the listening to, or the performance of the top historical works, chiefly through sheer repetition of different composers.
Neeme Jarvi conducting Detroit Symphony Orchestra thru Beethoven’s 5th Symphony performance was a world different from DSO led by the current music director Jader Bignamini. Some differences will be too subtle for audience to pick up, but rest assured the major differences will likely hit us over the head in pleasant surprise. And sometimes we will even experience epiphany! Both of these world-stage conductors will RISK CRITICISM to try something slightly different if it might reward everyone watching. Knowing when and how to maintain the status quo and when to risk big, is one of life’s greatest gifts. Hint: the latter is very rare.
So Beethoven, Mozart, Richard Strauss, and ole man Bach himself will remain the inspirational foundation of this genre. And today’s composers must continue to compete with the world standards set by them. The classical aesthetic is the Olympics of the art world, is not limited to music, and is not limited to living white males. A few of our living composers, and just a few mind you, will actually rise to the occasion, and may be canonized years after their deaths as foundational composers to follow, such as Florence Price. They will become the latest masters. This, I believe, is one reason why we actually prefer our favorite composers long gone: they stand on a whole legacy. To dismiss Beethoven is to dismiss the whole of classical music.
Always look for the bigger picture and find/create your own opportunities: that’s my advice.
Now here is my vision. Since I believe we have an embarrassment of riches (first world problems as we say today) of more composers, musicians, conductors, and curious music lovers than our pre-pandemic America currently supports– PLUS we have a demand for BOTH concerts strictly of living composers AND concerts strictly of golden chestnuts (in addition to standard concerts that mix both)– I can see a time when everyone gets pretty close to what they want. The NEA and major arts foundations already support new orchestras for each audience; and yet, not every city has such new orchestras to support. Online streaming (YouTube) is your best bet.
This tri-furcation will reflect an ever-expanding, and an ever-diverse America (pandemics aside), creating much-needed jobs for many thousands of composers, conductors, musicians, administrators, venues, and supporting artists, both commercial and fine arts. This I know to be true, because I created one myself. That’s my BOTH-AND.
HAPPY 2021!