The American Spectator : Classic Collapse

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Classic Collapse

By Michael Johnson on 1.24.11 @ 6:07AM

The market for classical music in the U.S. is in deep trouble.

The music industry has been charting the decline of classical market in the United States for at least a decade, attributing it to aging audiences, crashing CD sales and shrinking private subsidies. Music lovers beware: there are signs now of an accelerating downward trend.

The root of the problem, musicians tell me, is a plague of pirated Internet downloads and a spreading anti-intellectual climate in the U.S. music world, especially among the young. Further pressure, as if any were needed, comes from the current economic squeeze.

Several of the nation's leading symphonies are wholly dependent on private donations. As the recession has taken hold, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Pittsburgh orchestras are in dire financial difficulty, and Louisville last month filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Honolulu Symphony, the oldest orchestra west of the Rockies, went broke and shut down in December. In music-mad New York, many second-tier orchestras, including the Brooklyn Philharmonic and Long Island Philharmonic have stopped performing and others are downsizing, curtailing their season and asking players to take salary cuts.

Highly trained instrumentalists complain that the demand for their services is eroding year by year as job opportunities evaporate. Moreover, the arrival of Chinese, Korean and Japanese virtuosos from the top U.S. conservatories has heated up the competition both for permanent and freelance work.

It looks like a perfect storm has hit the business of serious music, so far sparing only the major orchestras in New York, Boston, Chicago and a few other cities. Some say they see an end of an era coming.

"It's a tough time for great music," says Melinda Bargreen, a composer and former Seattle Times critic who was recently sacked in a cost-cutting campaign at the newspaper.

The New York Times has called it the Classical Music Recession. This time, however, the recovery may come too late for city-based orchestras and players throughout the country.

It is already too late for some. A typical case is a professional cellist in New York who has seen his income plunge by two-thirds, forcing him to sell his home to feed his family and stay solvent. Another musician, a New York percussionist, has gone public with his plight, calling his once-busy life now haunted with "long stretches of quiet."

Even light-hearted classical concerts such as Peter Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach have stopped, not for quality reasons but because dumbed-down audiences miss his wisecracks due to poor musical knowledge.

A pianist friend, Ivan Ilic, says the pervasive public ignorance of serious music has been a major factor in the current crisis. "It is naive to pretend that people will spontaneously flock to concerts because, say, the harmonic progressions are worked out in more detail in a Schubert symphony than those is a song by Lady Gaga."

People need context to understand the music, he believes, "and the older the music the richer the context."

Reaction from residents of the cities worst affected has sparked emotional debates on the Internet over how much subsidy makes sense when audiences and benefactors are turning away. Many residents favor market forces as the main indicator in deciding whether an orchestra deserves to survive. In Detroit, where a crippling strike over wages has shut down the orchestra since last October, one local reader wrote to the Free Press website:

"Given the high (too high, actually) ticket prices for the DSO and those high salaries for what basically is part-of-the-year work, I have almost zero sympathy for a symphony that has more or less struck itself out of a job."

Wrote another reader:

"I don't need an orchestra in town and apparently I am not alone, otherwise enough paying customers would attend. The DSO loses money. It is not a compelling value proposition in the competition for the entertainment dollar of enough metro Detroiters to justify its survival. Take the pay cut, or shut it down. Simple as that."

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About the Author

Michael Johnson spent 17 years at McGraw-Hill, including six years as a news executive in New York. He now writes from Bordeaux in France.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (79) | Leave a comment

Appleby| 1.24.11 @ 7:18AM

Locally we have been saying for a long time that if there is no market for something, the taxpayers who have opted not to voluntarily support it should not be forced to do so either. I am a classical music fan and have a good many CDs that I enjoy -- but our local concert hall is the only place classical CDs are sold, it is downtown, and it is only open on the days when concerts are performed, making it difficult to impossible for the casual classical fan to attend.

Sadly, but truly, H.L. Mencken was right -- nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. Music has survived this kind of thing before, and with ingenuity it will survive again. However, methinks the days of unionized orchestras, as in unionized anything else has gone.

Darcy| 1.24.11 @ 7:32AM

Honestly, it's hard to see how "classical" music can survive without new music that people love.

Modern music is not audience-friendly. Simple as that. But just how many times can you drag people out to the concert hall to hear the Eroica? Even the players get sick of it after a while.

These people have written their own death-warrant. They wanted to be the avant garde. Nobody followed.

cuban pete| 1.24.11 @ 9:30AM

You could "drag" me once a week to hear number three-the greatest symphony ever written.
But that's personal and your point is well made.
I believe all human endeavors have cycles. We're in a down trend now but we'll be back. I hope.
Also, Dave you are correct. I heard the Chicago Symphony do the premier of a Carter piece. Unfathomable.

Stormzeye| 1.24.11 @ 10:46AM

Good point Darcy. As someone who grew up with the Boston Symphony since my mother took me to young peoples' concerts decades ago, I have to say that the BSO does a great job of including one piece of "new music" with every concert. The musicians actually get bored playing the "old warhorses" and look forward to playing something new once in a while. Pieces by Bartok, Stravinsky and Prokofiev were actually commissioned by the BSO in the 1920s and today these pieces are regarded as masterpieces though difficult to appreciate by some. I blame parents for not exposing their children to "serious" recorded music at a young age and taking them to live concerts once in a while. We can't rely on the schools. They're beyond hope.

Kevin Scott| 1.24.11 @ 4:40PM

Darcy - I don't know what music you have heard in recent years, but within the last thirty years or so, much new music has become more and more tonal, more and more melodic, and a lot more listener-friendly than what you imply.

I suggest that you listen to the music of Michael Torke, James Barnes, Adolphus Hailstork, James Macmillan, Eric Whitacre, Morten Lauridsen, Arvo Part, Bill Banfield and others who bring modern sensibilities to their scores, yet at the same time display beautiful colors from the ensembles they write for, alongside some very lovely melodic lines.

Not everyone is a Boulez, Babbitt or Wuorinen, and they're considered passe by most nowadays.

Dave| 1.24.11 @ 7:50AM

Darcy, you're right. For several years my wife and I subscribed to a monthly concert series with the Minnesota Orchestra. It was a fun date night; dress up, get away from the kids, have dinner and top it off with some fine listening.

But over the years things changed as more and more modern pieces entered the program. Modern music is indistinguishable, one piece to the other, and a person can only sit through so many renditions of the sounds of a machine shop in full swing before you decide to spend your money elsewhere.

Serve's 'em right.

Alert1201| 1.24.11 @ 9:30AM

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra did the same thing with a very popular Christmas concert. When I moved to Dallas in 1989 the concert was full of traditional Xmas music, both popular (Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snow Man) and classical (Handles Messiah). The event was huge with all the Dallas glitterati attending and it was even televised. As the years went on they started integrating more international/modern music such as African chants, Kwanza celebrations and strange modern dance pieces. However, as it became more modern it began to loose its appeal. Eventually it was no longer televised and within a few years they ended the performance.

Steve B| 1.24.11 @ 8:22AM

Some years back while living in Bulgaria, I noted the country had no native "high culture," probably due to centuries of subjugation by the Turks.

Of course I had to come up with a definition of high culture to justify that contention.

Try this: high culture is music, art, and literature that takes a certain degree of education in the structure of the art form to appreciate on a deep level.

Quite obviously, that education is not being provided in our time.

I remember fondly Leonard Bernstein's series of Young People's Concerts that actually explained on a beginners level what was going on in the music. As I recall, he even had some good things to say about some contemporary stuff like the Beatles.

If I am correct, it'll be a long time before the situation gets any better.

In the meantime, spread the word about The Teaching Company, and in particular the music appreciation courses they offer by Professor Robert Greenberg.

http://www.teach12.com/tgc/cou.....spx?ps=904

Because we can't wait for the schools to take up the slack.

albert constantine, jr.| 1.24.11 @ 9:16AM

I first remember Leonard Bernstein when I saw him accept a honor at an awards show (I think it was a Grammy) and announce that he had to leave because he was watching "West Side Story" (which he helped create) on another network. In many ways, he was probably a fine example of introducing fans of pop musical to classical stylings. At the same time, he was a noted "limousine liberal" noted for his Black Panther Party fundraisers. As a logistician in the culture war, he likely has significantly aided in undermining the classical institution he loved. Had he used his fundraising prowess for music instead of radical revolutionary politics, perhaps the dire financial straits currently experienced would be less so.

Bob K.| 1.24.11 @ 1:30PM

Not so sure about Bulgaria not having a "high culture" although I've never been there. Two of the greatest Bassos of the 20th century were Bulgarians: Boris Christof and Nicolai Ghiaurov.

Steve B| 1.25.11 @ 10:52AM

Excuse me, perhaps I should have explained at greater length.

I most certainly do not mean to say there are no cultured Bulgarians. I worked with quite a number of them, and the number of people you meet on the street (including grade school children!) who can speak excellent English is really astounding.

But, indigenous Bulgarian culture under the Turks was reduced to a village peasant/folk culture that modern urban intellectuals feel very little connection to. Other than the kind of sentimental attachment say, Irish-Americans feel towards the music, language and Gaelic literature of old Erin.

Bulgarian literature was preserved in monasteries and only re-emerged in the 19th century as an exile literature published in Romania and Russia.

I raised this point in several of my classes, and though the sample is small - the agreement was 100 percent.

One young lady made a remark that has haunted me ever since. She said, "Sometimes I think we will have to develop an aristocracy before we can have a democracy."

C. S. P. Schofield| 1.24.11 @ 9:10AM

Tom Wolfe has cogently argued in several of his books (The Painted Word being the prime example) that in the modern era The Arts went deliberately exclusive; making baffling the popular taste a point of honor. Howard Goodall also alludes to this in some of his BBC series about music.

Frankly, it seems to me that what needs to happen is for somebody to develop a method of musical notation that encompasses the Jazz/Blues/Rock idiom. Beethoven's music is possible because of musical notation; he could write down the complexity he heard in his head in an abstract form. Popular composers don't have a notation capable of capturing their music in the abstract, or at least not in enough detail to be useful to them. This seems to me to be why longer Rock compositions tend to sag in places.

Correct this lack (don't look at me, I can't even read standard musical notation) and popular music can grow into the place that elitist modern Classical has abandoned. Then we can leave the Modern Highbrows to the tiresome exercises in intellectual snobbery and musical in-jokes.

Patrick| 1.24.11 @ 9:50AM

There is notation for numerous rock songs. The problem isn't with the notation itself, so much as _how_ the instrument is played. The style of play is far more ephemeral in nature, and hard to even verbally express, and much of it is modified in an impromptu manner.

Darrell Judd| 1.24.11 @ 9:16AM

I seem to remember that when TV was first marketed it was supposed to allow people out in Hayseed to experience the Philadelphia Orchestra. Well, as Dr. Phil would say, "How's that workin' for ya."

Cultural inflation leads to an immediate and corresponding decrease in intellectual density. (Fourier)

The triumph of popular culture was a mistake of capitalism.

Curly Smith| 1.24.11 @ 9:25AM

I think the story is really more of a commentary on "liberalism" than music. As the article says, the orchestras were funded largely by either a single private benefactor or the taxpayers but access was restricted to a select group in the community. It's the classic case of funding things that you want with other peoples' money. It's the same whether it's orchestras, bike paths, hiking trails, or recycling centers.

But it also proves once again how little we value free stuff. Whether it's a "free" public education or a "free" orchestra. By moving the funding, and all of the ancillary work, to "government" we've stripped ourselves of all responsibility. Somebody else will handle it, we'll just get to sit back and enjoy the show. But because it now belongs to everybody it belongs to nobody. It's the old village common story all over again. We value the stuff that we pay for, that we work for, that we're engaged in. There is no real opportunity for engagement when government runs the show. Because of the limited access and single point funding there's no ownership by the community. The concert attendees are just that - attendees, they're not stakeholders. They have no real ownership, the concert is put on for their benefit but they're got no skin in the game.

Stormzeye| 1.24.11 @ 10:34AM

Curley, if you think these orchestras are so subsidized that they're essentially "free" then you've never experienced the sticker shock of a ticket to a major symphony concert.

borninsocal| 1.24.11 @ 12:55PM

Exactly. I wanted to take my kids to experience a live classical concert. It cost over $50 a person and that was cheap. Then to top it off we got all kinds of disgusted looks and snide remarks uttered in our direction from other attendees because I had the audacity to bring children to the event. My kids were older, well dressed, and well behaved. That of course makes no difference to the crowd that attends these concerts.

Anthony| 1.24.11 @ 9:26AM

The music industry is not the only institution suffering from anti-intellectualism. All of the American left is infected with the disease and the current decline of our society and culture is the result.
Hopefully this American Dark Age will soon pass.

Baldy| 1.31.11 @ 9:04PM

Wait, you're saying that anti-intellectualism lives on the left? Are you serious?!?

Tiny Fidle| 1.24.11 @ 9:40AM

I don't know, yes there is less cash floating around right now for non-essentials but really, besides the formal attire, aren't we just talking about Cover Bands? Granted, really-really old covers, but how are Cover Bands ever going to go away? There is always going to be a guy who goes, "Dude, Speilberg's lookin for a classy movie score and we're gettin the band back together." Yeah, never goin' away.

Petronius| 1.24.11 @ 9:52AM

We are more fortunate than most fine arts markets. The SLSO has a heart and spirit all it's own, and many have turned down chairs with orchestras ranked higher on the critic's food chain to remain at Powell Hall. Subscribers get to hand pick their seasons from 6 concerts on up. Most musicians who play here want to, so Local 2 is very realistic. But face it: It's a labor intensive luxury. And like ballet and opera, selling every seat, every inch of program advertising, and gift items including recordings, it's still not a viable business. The orchestra's love and Taylor money keep it going.
Last year the Lutheran Church sold off our best radio station in the entire country, KFUO to some wowser lawyer from Nebraska. Their subscribers, sponsors, and members of the Symphony Society were so incensed, they confronted the Chapter and told them also to return their Guttenberg Bible to Germany as they are undeserving of ownership. They wouldn't accept another bid either. And it wasn't just about the money. There was social muscle at the back of it. After KFUO left the air, I played Verdi's Requiem.
There is some good news too. LP's are back. So revamp your systems with new belt drive turntables, top line pickups, and phono stage preamps. Next will be new NAB open reel tape decks. Then come to the Record Exchange in South St. Louis, or order from Acoustic Sounds in Salina Ks.
There's an apt quote from the Norse Sagas.
"If it be so ordained, another way will be found."

Paul Milenkovic| 1.25.11 @ 4:42PM

Chamber music. Smaller ensembles.

The full-blown symphony orchestra is in a way a middle class conceit regarding the way classical music is supposed to be. Good classical music can be played by smaller groups.

Richard Baker| 1.24.11 @ 9:56AM

I think that a renaissance for this music will occur sometime in the future as the world gets tired of the garbage masquerading as "music." As much as I like Rock n Roll, for example, it's become a spent force musically. Yes, classical music is now on the downswing but there will be an upswing as well. The orchestras and symphonies are disappearing because the cost of developing a musician capable of performing at the highest level isn't cheap. Takes more than purchasing an amplifier, a guitar, and a handful of chords to perform Beethoven.

Dave| 1.24.11 @ 11:47AM

David Frost in the introduction to one of his books ("America" I believe) described our era as a time when "... freakishness masquerades as art ..." That was in the 70's, it's even worse now.

Steve A| 1.24.11 @ 10:22AM

The decline of classical music can be traced directly to Sara Palin. She failed to include classical music as a soundtrack for Sara Palin's Alaska, thereby indirectly suggesting it has no merit to her legions of fans, who, in turn, have abandoned all things classical.

Bob Miller| 1.24.11 @ 11:38AM

Moose mating calls sound better than a lot of recent classical compositions.

Jen C| 1.24.11 @ 11:55AM

LOL--where once everything was Bush's fault, now it's Sarah's!

davelnaf| 1.24.11 @ 10:23AM

“Dumbed down” is the operative phrase. Popular culture has been devolving itself for decades. The fifties and sixties saw the creation of real songs made by people with real talent; light years away from the zero-talent, professional exhibitionists of today.

It’s a wonder that Washington has seen fit to subsidize “Crucifixes in Urine” and Christ figures made of excrement rather than symphony orchestras. Maybe this was their clever way of hiding subsidies for NPR and a myriad of other liberal propaganda organizations.

Seek| 1.24.11 @ 5:29PM

Aren't we a bit selective with our indignation? I think there is more real culture in a single summer seasoin at Wolf Trap than there is at all the megachurches in this country out together.

squalis| 1.24.11 @ 10:37AM

Too bad GM and Chrysler, als of Detroit, were not subject to the same logic.

Albert| 1.24.11 @ 11:05AM

The Vallejo (California) Symphony (one of the oldest Symphonies on the West Coast) just announced that it is cancelling its last two concerts of the season for financial reasons. The VSO is also dependent on donations to function and donations are in decline. They "expect" to continue next season, but we'll see. I hope they do. But the decline of classical music is depressing. It is easy to get in recorded form, but live performances are not economically viable in many cities. Personally, I believe this is just one more symptom of a more serious and pervasive disease, the decline of Western civilization. It is depressing to see great wealth slathered over truly disgusting acts calling themselves popular music, while the classics are cash strapped.

Yukon Jack| 1.24.11 @ 11:16AM

I noticed this phenomenon at least ten years ago:

The section of classical music in any and all the most popular stores selling music decreased by leaps and bounds, to virtual non-existence.

I am glad I am old and will not see the day when hip-hop or rap or American Idol will replace Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, or even Lehar, Kalman and Strauss.

Sadly, it will also be the day when Grisham will replace Dickens and Lady Gaga will replace Joan Sutherland.

Old Soldier| 1.24.11 @ 12:16PM

How many versions of the same Bach or Mozart piece do I need?

I'm waiting for more classical on Blue-Ray audio to come out - and for them to straighten out formats so I know I can hear them.

Yukon Jack| 1.24.11 @ 12:39PM

How many of the same cacophony, described or masquerading as rock and roll do we need?

Paul Milenkovic| 1.25.11 @ 4:51PM

I want or need, a version of the Bach Brandenberg Concertos, played by musicians who, if they haven't bought into Bach's tuning systems completely, have respect for Bach's "original intent" regarding the 7'th chord harmonies. Many performances by the mainstream conservatory-trained musical community, with its emphasis on rendering musical pitches with the tuning system of the modern piano (equal temperment) turn this work into harmonic hash.

The closest I have come to what I want is the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. When I am on my death bed, "locked down" by the neurological disorder my parents died from, I would like someone to play me the Brandenburg Concertos, the closest thing to my imagining of the Celestial Chorus, which I humbly pray I may be able to hear in the hereafter.

Eric Rasmusen| 1.24.11 @ 11:30AM

London, arguably the music capital of the world, "is doing pretty well," says leading British music critic and writer Jessica Duchen, partly by "paying their players one heck of a lot less than the Americans do -- possibly a quarter as much."

As an economist, I can see that this sentence totally destroys your thesis. Notice what it says: American orchestras are vastly better funded than British ones. They are swimming in about 4 times as much money per capita.

Bob Miller| 1.24.11 @ 11:37AM

We clearly need some new warhorses.

Christopher Manion | 1.24.11 @ 12:10PM

You can hear glorious, licensed music worldwide from Naxos, the largest classical music label -- for a very reasonable annual fee at http://naxosradio.com/home.asp.

Their companion site, classicsonline.com, has the widest selection of classical music in the world, as digital downloads. Better than iTunes, and more savvy about the music.

Musical taste has not gone "lowbrow" -- at least worldwide; rather, in the past twenty years the number of world-class musicians has multiplied, leaving the old American business model of highly-paid prima donnas with limousines and penthouse suites in the dust.

As in other fields of production, the market is now worldwide, and so is the talent. Prices, players, and sources have adjusted accordingly. Dr. Bose remarked to the WSJ some years back that the best source for (paid, licensed) classical music was the Internet. And he should know.

Drew| 1.24.11 @ 12:40PM

Classical musicians who believe that illegally downloaded mp3 files are behind their current financial woes are kidding themselves.

Any true classical music afficionado will tell you that the fidelity of pirated music files is usually terrible. And classical music's awkward metadata makes finding the performance you are looking for all but impossible.

France, Germany, Italy and Austria will keep their classical musicians employed thanks to Government subsidies. Not really an option in either Britain or the United States. Nor hsould it be. It seems the height of absurdity to have scare Government dollars used to subsidize concerts attended by people who are usually at the high end of the income spectrum.

Every other industry in the world has to adapt to chaging tastes and technologies. I see no reason why classical music, its creators, practitioners, and patrons - should be any different.

PJ| 1.24.11 @ 12:44PM

IMO, Mr Johnson briefly alluded to why classical music industry is collapsing--------tickets to see these concerts are just too expensive. As a matter of fact, tickets for Broadway plays, professional sports, NCAA competitions, local orchestras, -----------all public access entertainment including museums are also too expensive!!

But this has been going on for yrs; the economy is not totally at fault here. To me it all boils down to greed & narcissism, from the unionized entertainers (athletes & artists) who want money above to what the market can accept if it's to include all types of people in the audiences to art patrons who want to see their names "in lights" from donating to high profile projects. Is their money ever used for the low profile, day-to-day expenses that might keep tickets prices low?

Has anyone ever wondered why live audiences do not include working people on a tight budget?

james wilson| 1.24.11 @ 1:23PM

Classical music died most of a century ago. I consider that a great loss, but an era did end. It is a testament to its greatness that recorded music did not kill live performance sooner. We are jaded by our riches.

sestamibi| 1.24.11 @ 1:35PM

Perhaps not PC to mention this, but a growing non-white American population is not going to appreciate classical music. Even those among their number who do would not admit to doing so in public because they would be guilty of admiring "dead white European males."

Kevin Scott| 1.24.11 @ 6:10PM

Unfortunately, this is a sad chapter in classical music, where a burdgeoning public who is not white feels that classical music is not a part of their heritage, culture or current trend.

African-American composers have been around since the early 20th Century, most notably William Grant Still, who was a pioneer in many ways: the first black composer to have a symphony played by a major American orchestra, the first black composer to conduct at the Hollywood Bowl and in the deep south during Jim Crow, the first black composer to have an opera programmed by a major company, and the first to have an opera aired on PBS. Unfortunately, many African-Americans of all generations are not aware of his music nor his legacy and its impact not only on the American music scene as a whole, but upon successive generations of other black composers who write serious concert music, from Ulysses Kay up to Ozie Cargile.

Even sadder is the fact that conductors, administrators and other musicians barely know this aspect of American classical music, and when it is known and performed, it is usually done either on Martin Luther King's birthday, or during Black History Month.

As a composer-conductor of color, I always admit that classical music is my first love, and I am not ashamed of it one damn bit!

Julie| 1.25.11 @ 10:21AM

I absolutely love Still's music, but I am ashamed to say I only recently discovered it. I have been a professional classical musician for 25 years and have three degrees in music, and his name was only mentioned in passing in my education. I have never performed his music on any of the hundreds of concerts I have played over the years. It was only when I was searching for new music for my chamber ensembles that I found his stuff.

Gretchen| 1.25.11 @ 2:10PM

Keven Scott

Have you thought of contacting George Shirley at U. Mich.?

sinanju| 1.24.11 @ 2:00PM

I have a twenty-something friend who has a selection of music themes from his favorite video games on his i-thingy which he loves to listen to just as much as his rock and hip-hop. I myself have been utilizing YouTube to track down all the soundtrack themes from the seventies, eighties and nineties flicks that stayed in my brain. This includes music from some otherwise spectacularly awful flicks as well as great flicks and flicks in-between (If anyone out there has the soundtrack to the Chuck Bronson, Lee Marvin 1981 bloodletter "Death Hunt" let me know. The opening and closing themes are sublime). For a serving suggestion I would recommend punching up:

"Hamburger Hill"; a great Viet Nam movie that sank without a trace as it was released in the immediate wake of "Platoon". It is probably the one listenable piece of music ever written by Philip Glass. Pull it up on YouTube and read the commentaries. It has probably become the unofficial war theme for several generations of veterans. Seems like everyone who's been to war and heard the piece has to weigh in.

Henry Mancini's score for 1985's "LifeForce", an excellent, rousing score for an hilariously bad movie (think "Naked Space Vampire Chicks").

Also, for another 1985 cult, sci-fi flick, try the John Charles theme for "The Quiet Earth", a little-known Last Man on Earth piece from New Zealand.

"Luke and Leia"; from "The Empire Strikes Back" my favorite piece from the John Williams' Star Wars ouvre.

Ennio Morricone's compositions for "The Untouchables", Main Title, "Strength of the Righteous", and "Al Capone". Great stuff there that really make you feel something.

John Barry's theme from "The Deep". I confess I like the romantic, disco-overlayed version played for the end credits best.

I cannot comment authoritatively on the subject but I am convinced that snobbery killed the orchestra star. I'd say it took about seventy-five years but the rise of the ghastly atonal garbage and the snooty attitudes designed to turn away the hoi polloi. Dunno about musicians unions but I do know that any art form that relies on taxpayer handouts and the patronage of a few moneybags does not feel the need to appeal to us ordinary schmoes and produces accordingly. Now, the elitist well is running dry.

That there is an inherent desire for what was once called "music" still exists. Just whistle the "Bridge over the River Kwai" theme and watch ears prick up. Over the course of the twentieth-century all the real composers worked for Hollywood. If any struggling orchestra wants to get butts-in-seats they might want to broaden their appeal and play the sort of stuff people actually like to listen to.

PJ| 1.24.11 @ 3:07PM

Your comments are very interesting & I have to agree.

A lot of good music is played in the movies, not just from USA but all over the world. 1 of the reasons I would like a movie is because of the music.

Al Adab| 1.24.11 @ 3:20PM

It goes back much farther than just the 80's. Listen to The Agony and Ecstacy or Ben-Hur scores. Magnificent Seven and the like as well. Composers of the "classical school" have been writing for the screen for many years. After all, what better patron than one where millions hear your work. Bach wrote for the churches and Beethoven for the concert halls. Now our classicists write for mass market cinema. One positive result of Hollywood.

Kevin Scott| 1.24.11 @ 4:47PM

And it should be noted that the "theme" to Bridge On (not Over) The River Kwai was a march by Kenneth Alford written in 1914, namely "Colonel Bogey," which was a staple of many British and American concert bands long before David Lean put it to great use!

Moreover, I do agree with you - many of the finest composers of the last century did contribute to Hollywood. Not just Herrmann, Korngold, Rozsa, Tiomkin, Waxman and Newman, to name a few, but Goldsmith, Williams, Elmer Bernstein, Fielding, Rosenman and Raksin.

Even composers like Copland, Virgil Thomson, John Corigliano and Tan Dun have contributed fine scores to the cinema. Very few of today's current composers for the movies, however, can match the voices of yesteryear. I hope this is only temporary.

Purple Lips| 1.24.11 @ 3:25PM

Classical music will always survive. Maybe the West will abandon it, but it will probably find its way into cultures that are anethema to its themes. I wouldn't in the least bit be surprised if pirated classics from Bach or Mozart are being played secretly in Tehran, Kabul, or even Cambridge Mass.

Douglas| 1.24.11 @ 3:40PM

My sons are 7 and 3 and both know who the real masters are. We have played classcial music for them since before they were born and will continue to do so. They both enjoy the music and we have fun trying to guess which composers music is playing by listening and trying to guess the style or recognize the piece.

CopyKatnj| 1.24.11 @ 3:46PM

For my less than 50 year old friends I always recommend Disney's "Fantasia" and the film "Immortal Beloved". Gary Oldman as Beethoven tells us what classical music is when he first meets Schindler. The Schindler character responds to this revelation the same as I did and still do when listening to the classics. Apparently some of my less than 50 years old friends get it too.

albert constantine jr| 1.24.11 @ 10:33PM

In the early 90s I was in the seaside market in Pohang, Korea during a hot humid August day. As I wandered about, I kept hearing the strains of "Fuer Elise" playing on what sounded like large music box fading in and out. After a while, I discovered the source of the sound: the market trash truck played it to alert the merchants when they were coming near so they would have their refuse ready to be loaded. I couldn't help but think that if Chuck Berry's earlier musical exhortation had not got the process started, that the Rollover of Mr. Beethoven would have been taking place now.

Vehmgericht| 1.24.11 @ 3:48PM

Musical taste is a reflection of society. Classical music was a reflection of Western civilization. The decline of this music has more meaning than just the decline of one form of entertainment. Parents are not exposing their children to more than just “serious” music. They are not exposing their children to many aspects of civilization. Money is not the problem. How do concert tickets compare to football game tickets? Demographics are not the problem. Sudanese immigrants will not be attending concerts. However, nativeborn Americans are attending in fewer numbers. Boredom is not the problem. The Chinese do not appear to be getting bored with the classics. Sorry Yukon Jack. Lady Gaga, Kwansa carols, and rap have replaced Mozart, Beetoven and Strauss. It is not a coincidence that the Chinese are producing tens of millions of classical virtuosos and hundreds of thousands of engineers.

Kenneth E. MacAlister Jr.| 1.24.11 @ 3:50PM

For those interested who have a problem finding a good selection of classical music cds in their area a great alternative is the cd club Musical Heritage Society which also includes the Jazz Heritage Society cd club. The cds are reasonably priced & the selection of classical, jazz, & world music cds is very good.

Kevin Scott| 1.24.11 @ 4:35PM

Michael Johnson's letter, while raising many pertinent and significant points, fails to mention, like many other critics and connoisseurs of classical music, that while the orchestra seems to be on its last legs, another time-honored ensemble is thriving and still very much alive, bringing new concert works to the masses, while also keeping significant works of the standard repertoire in focus. It's called the symphonic band and the wind ensemble.

Those who were weaned on hearing symphony orchestras and feel that they are the king of all instrumental ensembles seem to forget that at one time, the concert band ruled American communities, bringing not only marches and lighter fare of the day, but also important compositions originally composed for orchestra in places where you couldn't find one. Today, the number of community, high school and collegiate ensembles still outnumber orchestras by a significant ratio, yet because our self-imposed elitism feels that no great composer can write an important work for this medium, and that no prominent scores have the same allure and hold on an audience than those written for orchestra, the band is nothing more than a second, if not third, tier ensemble in some minds.

As a composer-conductor who listened to both bands and orchestras since my teens, and at present a conductor of a college-community concert band, I have no doubts that as long as you find composers who are willing to have their music heard, they will always find a home with a band before having some of their music played by an orchestra. Audiences who come to hear band music are more likely to welcome a new work not only by young composers, but also by the likes of Michael Colgrass, Joseph Schwantner and Karel Husa who come to challenge the minds and ears of the lay listener. That we have very few professional symphonic bands and wind ensembles in this country is part of the testament that we, the American public, need to look into further.

There is nothing wrong with doing a Sousa march and a symphony for band by James Barnes alongside a Mark Hindsley transcription of Haydn's "Military" Symphony or a classy transcription of Lady Gaga's Alejandro on the same concert. Perhaps that is what is wrong with the orchestra, that they are not broadening their listening base, and continue to only program a select few new composers along with the dessicated chestnuts that receive routine performances.

Mazzuchelli| 1.24.11 @ 4:39PM

While living in St. Louis we subscribed to several concert series year round. Slatkin and the orchestra were sublime and I suspect remain without Slatkin.
It's not about upbringing since both my sister and I were surrounded by the classics growing up. My sister remains unimpressed. My husband on the other hand had only pop radio growing up and loves classical music.
Nobody cares if real divas are arrogant. I do however care if an orchestra player feels too superior to have a courteous conversation with their public, a longstanding problem with the SLSO.
And those who can afford the tickets are getting older and still working as hard as ever. So, U. S. orchestras, how about earlier start times, shorter programs, fewer obscure and atonal works. Let's hear some big band works as interpreted by a full orchestra. Let's group old masters in context with each other or just with themselves. Be intelligent and play to the audience and not to the critics. Anything really good, the critics will pan. I'm the one that needs to be impressed, not the narrow echo chamber emanating from the Coasts.

Gretchen| 1.24.11 @ 4:41PM

As a former professional classical musician, (former due to illness rather than financial problems) there are a few things that the audience may not be aware of that I would like to point out.
1. Training -- a classical musician spends YEARS training, a study done many years ago showed that a classically trained musician spends at long in studying as one did to become a medical doctor.
2. Instrument(s) -- every musician has AT LEAST one instrument which can cost from several hundred to over ten thousand dollars -- and I'm not talking about instruments by Stradivarius -- just good quality instruments.
3. Upkeep of the instrument(s) -- reed players often make their own reeds, so I don't know how much that costs, but in the case of my own instsrument (the harp) I had to keep a full set of strings (46 or so), right and left pedal springs, miscellaneous tools, ets. (The harp, by the way, has OVER 1400 MOVING PARTS!

Gretchen| 1.24.11 @ 4:49PM

Oops!
As I was saying, before I hit the wrong key, 1400 moving parts, any one of which can go wrong or break at any given moment -- one has to be as much a mechanic as a musician. The cost of these strings, parts, tools, etc. comes to several hundred dollars.
Other string players (violin, viola, 'cello, bass) have fewer strings to cope with, but good bows are costly.
I don't know about the care and feeding of brass instruments, but I dare say the initial cost of a decent instrument is not peanuts.

aw| 1.24.11 @ 5:16PM

Europe was greatest culturally when Catholic, less so with the advent of Protestantism. However, the influence of Catholicism continued well into the 19th Century upon European culture and music and that influence provided the basis for the music we cherish today. It is no secret this type of music cannot be recovered. With the ascendancy of secularism, music naturally reflected the ethos of this movement--chaos, relativism, an atonal quality, and a sense of isolation. Certainly more could be said on this topic.

JimE| 1.24.11 @ 6:18PM

Classic music is alive and well, RUN DMC and NWA are touring as we speak.

Killerman| 1.24.11 @ 9:11PM

...and Blondie is still touring! "Panic Of Girls" album is due for release this year!!! Debbie Harry... mmmmmmmm!!

Stan Redmond| 1.25.11 @ 9:24AM

Golly, and I thought Eazy E left NWA....

And that'll be pretty amazing to see Reverand Run perform again...

Pcp smoker| 1.24.11 @ 8:13PM

Shut it down. That's why they made CDs. I'm going to see Rush in Austin for $79, and no unionized , lazy stagehand will earn half a mill for it.

Bob Cratchett| 1.24.11 @ 8:19PM

Not just orchestras, but classical radio stations, too. In addition to the causes adduced above, I'd add that the more the orchestras and radio stations panic, the more they play the same old warhorses, which is self-defeating: you can buy digital copies of warhorses, legally or not, all day long, so why go to a live concert? Is it really going to be a 'fresh new interpretation'? Not likely. Try offering some good NEW music, guys -- there's a lot of it out there, and not just Gorecki.

Jon Wexford| 1.24.11 @ 9:50PM

I have some background in the so-called classical music world. I don't profess to know it all, but I know the biggest problem with the classical music world, which wasn't really addressed in this article, well, not directly. It's a one word problem—UNIONS. Yes, classical musicians in orchestras have unions. Non-union musicians are far better off, but there's a stranglehold on the industry. When are we going to start waking up to the union problem in this country? 2012 I maybe.

Gretchen| 1.25.11 @ 2:14PM

YES! And Local 802 is probably one of the WORST!!!

Vern Crisler| 1.24.11 @ 10:55PM

Aren't the new classical-crossover artists such as Celtic Woman, et al., reviving interest in classical music? I know that I only got interested in classical music back in the 70s after listening to the rock group Yes (which used a lot of classical themes). Don't despise the middlemen.

How about corporate sponsorship? If orchestras pursued corporate sponsorship the way car or bicycle racing, or Olympic competitors, do they'd probably be rich now. Or is that too undignified?

mames| 1.24.11 @ 11:51PM

Please no more corporate sponsorship of anything. What gives the right of a few on a board to spend the share holders profits outside the company. Let the free market dictate. Period. And yes I love classical and jazz, two forms that are hard to access in live formats so i miss it too but believe it will rise again without unions and taxpayer monies.

scythe| 1.25.11 @ 9:07AM

Maybe when 50 Cent weighs in with a "sin-funny" of his creative genius, the lumpenproletariat will begin to respect classical music once again. Don't count on it. Its main "problem" it that it is viewed, as everything else in the Gramscian culture wars, as the creation of white imperialist Europeans and therefore devalued and ignored by each succeeding generation. We have been lectured that equal time and equal merit must be given to "composers" whose music is frequently hideous beyond words, just to be "fair" and politically correct. In other words, the problem with classical music is that it represents high culture, and in the last half century when so much of what high European culture has produced has been flushed down the drain, should it surprise anyone that Mozart, Chopin, and the rest of those dead white males have become out of date? Furthermore, if you want society to appreciate what it once did, it might help to selectively import people who would have the tendency to appreciate it. And not those who are more preoccupied with getting away with an "honor killing".

Stan Redmond| 1.25.11 @ 9:08AM

WHOAS ME!!! Gnashing of teeth and wearing of sackcloth.

People aren't buying as many fedora hads and flapper dresses either.

This is a poorly disguised attempt at a taxpayer subsidy to pay people for doing jobs no one asked to be done. People have bailed out failed companies long enough and not one penny should bail out the classical performance industry.

This following statement really ticks me off and reeks of the author's (Michael Johnson) sense of entitlement:

"Reaction from residents of the cities worst affected has sparked emotional debates on the Internet over how much subsidy makes sense when audiences and benefactors are turning away."

Stan Redmond| 1.25.11 @ 9:22AM

And another thing... (this article really got my blood hot)

If you are a fan of classical music, and I am, how many times do I need to buy a Chopin or Mozart CD? ONCE. Do I really need to buy one CD of the same song by each city's orchetra?? Not really. BUT, because my tax dollars will be extracted from me and given to the NEA and whatever subsidies an orchestra receives I am forced to buy that CD over and over and over.

Appleby| 1.25.11 @ 4:39PM

Yes and I had to pay to educate your children. And here in Kanukistan I have to pay to feed, clothe, entertain and discipline your kids, plus send them to hockey camp and the Olympics (in sports that I do not recognize, much less watch) and keep them in jail for the few days Canada allows criminals to be locked up.

If we'd all be allowed to pay for only what WE use, I'd have a symphony orchestra in my living room and a matched pair of Audi R18s in my driveway.

scythe| 1.25.11 @ 9:30AM

I don't believe they should be bailed out either. The point being made is that they are in dire financial straits. In another time, they would be flourishing. The heart of the argument is why. As far as fedoras and flappers are concerned, their disappearance is not quite the same thing nor carries with it the same impact should classical music be relegated to the dustbin as well.

BerlGoetz| 1.25.11 @ 10:26AM

Heard Rudolf Serkin play Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto with the Louisville Orchestra. I owe my interest in classical music to my parents, the church, and a few college instructors. Now I buy my music from iTunes because I live in the rural south. I don't miss concert halls.

Ken Flagg| 1.25.11 @ 5:34PM

The classical music establishment approaches its audience with an off-putting sense of entitlement. The same pieces are recorded and performed relentlessly, the repetoire roughly correlating to the period up to and including the point at which the symphony orchestra stopped being a relevant cultural force. It is analogous to a library that ceased accepting new books after 1945, yet demanded in a patronizing way that peope pay a premium to enter and re-read the dusty old tomes it held. There is really no mystery as to why it has been rejected.

My degree is in classical composition, and it became clear to me during my studies that pursuing orchestral commissions would be an excercise in futility. Where is there room to innovate when you are constrained so tightly by an ensemble whose sound is, in the parlance of our times, played out? Not to mention the extremely limited availability of both performance opportunities and listeners. If I, a trained classical composer, find the medium barren and dead, what hope is there for the "layman" as elitists would say?

Couple this with the fact that America's culture, in sharp contrast to China, puts a heavy focus on individualism. Rich, intelligent, well-thought-out music has not vanished; it is simply not in Carnegie Hall anymore. Composers and artists with a burning desire to be heard and seen have flocked to the popular mediums of the day, as they always have. If you aren't finding them, it is because you aren't putting in the effort. Sound famiar?

I have no pity for those who bemoan the death of "high culture." Culture is alive and well; it has simply left you behind due to your failure to adapt. It is not too late to save the institutions of cultural preservation, but stomping your feet and whinging about how dumb the public is won't help a bit.

Koblog| 1.25.11 @ 7:37PM

Beethoven and Bach before him were once cutting edge modern. People wanted new music then, and got it.

We can't expect audiences to flock to "modern" 18th or 19th Century music any more than they would flock to modern 5th Century music, if we even knew what that sounded like.

We have modern music today. However, today's "modern" music reflects the hopeless hihilism of the age, and people for the most part don't really want to leave a concert in a suicidal frame of mind.

It started in the 20th Century with guys like John Cage who "wrote" music by picking random notes from a hat. To them, life is random, a giant accident, the product of a Godless explosion. Why shouldn't his music reflect that? Ironically, Cage loved mushrooms. If he approached eating them the random way he wrote music, he would have died a lot sooner.

Then there's Edison's invention of the wax cylinder that limited song length to about four minutes. That's still with us.

Koblog| 1.25.11 @ 7:46PM

If I'm not mistaken, serious music has always had rich patrons to support it. Ain't you seen the movie "Amadeus?" The genius died a pauper for lack of funding...and perhaps too much partying.

If the elite rich really think "classical" music is so valuable, subsidize it. Soros, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet or Bill Gates could fund all the orchestras in America with their pocket change.