[Harp-L] Why is intelligent music is dying

[Doug Schroer <dougharps@xxxxxxxxx>]

Here is one over simplified way to look at it.  It creates a false
dichotomy of extremes when actually it is a range of musical forms with
much falling between those extremes:

There has been an artistic and musical divide for centuries, if not
longer.  There are folk forms that reflect the common life experiences and
emotions of average working people, that are used as celebration and as a
reflection of their life circumstances and experiences.  Dancing is often a
big part of enjoying this music.  Sometimes the music is a mourning of
horrible circumstances, be it blues, country, or folk music.  Floods, mine
disasters, romantic relationships, heartbreak, murder, perseverance through
adversity, etc. are reflected in these forms.  While there are highly
skilled musicians performing this music, the performance of these forms
remains accessible to everyday citizen musicians and even hacks.  The
enjoyment of this music is accessible to a wide range of people.

Then there are the "elite" forms supported by those with power, money and
influence.  Those with the gold and the power have used these forms of
music to differentiate themselves from the masses.  Rulers supported
performing artists and commissioned symphonies, which reflected upon the
importance of the rulers.  Classical music is the prime example of this
form, with opera and ballet also fitting the elite art category.  Folk
dance and folk music was looked down upon by the elite and their
sycophants.  It was a mark of success and importance to attend the symphony
and disdain the lower forms.

In America and other nations the burgeoning middle class adopted some of
the elite forms and subsidized them as a group endeavor, though the wealthy
continued providing much of the support.  Government arts grants later
became a factor, and gaining the favor of bureaucrats became important in
supporting the arts.

Jazz started out as a music form accessible to a wide range of listeners,
and was a form encouraging social interaction and dance by average people,
not just the elite sitting in an audience, listening for chordal
subtleties.  The bands were supported by the people who came out to dance
and party.  As jazz increased in complexity and required increasingly more
educated listeners, leaving dancing behind, it limited it's audience and
achieved the status formerly held by classical music.  It is now an elite
form.  It is unrealistic to expect a large portion of the population to
learn to sit and listen to these forms in a concert hall.  They want to
celebrate, escape day to day life, and party.

In America, African music became blues and combined with European forms in
America gave birth to jazz.  Blues also gave birth to rock and roll.  R &
B, soul, funk grew out of this stew.  Rap came out of the combination of
rhythms and the spoken word expression of life experiences of the
non-elite.  At this time much of jazz and much of classical music has
become a cerebral endeavor reserved for a diminishing group of elite
educated music listeners.  One might dare to apply the labels of Apollonian
and Dionysian to the extreme examples of the cerebral vs. celebratory
forms.  The populace wants to party and dance.  Jazz today seldom supports
this.

If jazz is to survive (or classical music, for that matter) beyond being
background music for advertisements or an art form with few listeners,
there needs to be movement back toward accessibility by the general
population.  This means it needs to become part of social interaction and
perhaps even dance.  Jazz was originally a dance music, and a party.  Only
in late night sessions did the musicians play for other musicians with
educated ears, and only then did they push the boundaries of the form
beyond what the general population could understand.  Now, all jazz
musicians want to be those players, but there is not a large audience
clamoring for such performances.

As noted, this is one way to look at it, and an over simplification at
best.  The issue of visual art forms supplanting the auditory experience is
not even addressed.  At a recent live performance I witnessed a large
portion of the audience holding up smart phones to record the performance.
The recording was more important to them than experiencing the music in the
moment.  This was rock and roll, not an elite form.  Technology is becoming
a barrier between musicians and the experience of live music.  That is
another topic...

Doug S.