I have been thinking this week about a topic raised within a podcast I heard in the previous week. The Thoroughly Good Music podcast with Jon Jacob. I like this podcast because it has the whole range of musicianship represented. It is mostly about what is happening, being recorded, being discussed in a English/ British context which helps me have a point of reference and grounding whilst I am abroad. I also listen to New Classical Tracks which is in the USA and an extension so that I can keep tabs on the wider Atlantic relationship of English speaking nations in regards art music.
The topic running through the conversation like a vein of now ecologically rejected coal, was elitism. You know: most audiences are old grey white (educated and middle class) men. Young people, ethnic diverse groups, women are just not there in the concert hall (it is said). The working class are also absent it is evinced.
I have never really thought about it. Why? Well mainly because I don't care.
My only frame of reference for attending concerts is to listen to the music. Be that standard repertoire of the Western Canon or perhaps Morricone’s film music or as here in Bahrain, Arabic music transposed for Orchestra. Or an Indian Raga which I like. In fact, any genre or artist I fancy seeing perform!
Jazz, rockabilly, reggae, ska, punk. It is all a part of my life. It is just that I choose to listen too and attend classical music performances as well throughout my life. Perhaps more now, as popular mainstream artists and genres do not have the allure that they once held in my youthful phases of life.
I started attending concerts in my own right (not being taken by school or groups) in my early twenties. It stuck. I have never wanted to stop and indeed, when opportunities present themselves, wherever I am in the world, I seek it! Live music making in particular is about laying ones mind open and being more: more than just the “me” in the world.
Im not paying attention to the social, ethnic grouping, age or sex of the audience. If I did that, I would have wasted my money. Im there for one primary reason: to listen to the music. The fact that it is a collective activity, is a bonus. I am a social being. I like being a part of an audience. A good live concert will literally blank everything, and everyone else from my mind: not always comfortably either. Some classical music is a challenge.
I am not able to read musical scores. I do not play an instrument.
I knew when my children came along that I would gift them music in some form over and above schooling. Without even mentioning it or making it a specific task or programme. Just something we do. I succeeded.
I hope it means that my sons have at least the ability to go deeper as listeners and perhaps as players. I hope if ever there are grandchildren, that once again this choice is taken and extended into that generation. It is a gift that can last a lifetime and open the World to you.
My parents could not do that for me. Just an ordinary working class childhood I had where gifts and talents will out, or not, so long as you get a job and pay your way. Yet listening to music, in all its forms, was available and treated as part and parcel of life. You see music, the vibrations that reach my ears, are classless. Sexless. Timeless. Ageless. Instruments and instrumentation written by every race and group. A language divested of words.
So no, I am not elitist. I am a grey haired old white man, now. That is true. No surprises there.
Here in Bahrain I am the tiniest minority at a concert. Yet no one cares. We have a bigger goal of humanity to attend to: connecting to the rhythms of the Universe that music offers. To be entertained. Perhaps for awhile to have the loads and ordinary cares of life taken off our shoulders.
Yet there is one thing I think is vital. One thing that I think is a mark of elitism. You see as a child putting on a record, was a thing. When dad did it, we listened. In my teens I was gifted an amp and record player. I then upgraded to the CD and thus the whole of my teenage and then later adult life has had the clear attitude and intentionality to have music playback at home and live performances where and whenever possible.
I can listen. Listening is a skill that can be developed.
Listening to music is the key. It is an elite ability. You need time, space, intention and opportunity. You need to train yourself to listen. It takes, believe it or not, practice. Any human being can do this. We all can learn to listen to music seriously. Instead of being passive consumers of sounds or forever staying in the one small realm of 3 minute popular songs.
Listening is easy to do. Like walking. I chose to listen all those years back because I felt moved, spoken too in a language that somehow moved my soul. So I listened more. With intention. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. 30 minutes. 1 hour. Even Max Richter’s “Sleep’’ album…..which is about 8 hours!
This I suggest, is my elitism. I have no other skills in music.
So to encourage the whole or greater part of a modern society to engage and ensure a healthy future for classical music: teach people the art of listening. Help them practice. Help them experience music as a world of instruments and sounds that can be minutes or hours of pleasure at a time. Help them see and listen to the whole range of musics. A part of that, is classical music. Not separated from other music. A part of a range. A part of the fabric of our life and the rhythm of the Universe.
Listening is a mental posture (Let me explore this…..) and approach. It is open ended. It is indeed equitable. Every society does music in some form already and we are attuned to our cultural seedbeds. Take that and expand the skill of listening, go beyond.
Have a musical week everyone! Blessings,
Syre Byrd
PS You will have noticed hopefully many new poems on the Poesy Tab. I will not send emails with them. I think getting one email a week (approx) is enough with this newsletter/blog. Yet please check that tab out and let us know what you think. This week’s poem is about Sciatica and Socks! Dedicated to my Cousin Karen.
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So, there is nothing better than putting your ideas into practice. Thus today I am offering classical music to students in my school who have an hour a week to select an extra curricular programme. Let us see if they are prepared…..to choose it and then….listen!