Why isn't classical music more popular?

[SlaveOfSeven]

Generic? Yeah, Stockhausen and Bach are virtually indistinguishable.

 

[Goliath]

I also really like harpsichord. Don't know why, but when played well it's great.

I really like the harpsichord as well. Good harpsichord music rewards both active and passive listening. Since it lacks the dynamic range of the piano, I find that it's less distracting and makes better background music.

But the harpsichord seems to have some unfortunate connotations for some people. One day, when I was a graduate student, I was listening to a harpsichord suite when one of my rommates brought a friend over. She looked puzzled, and asked: "Who's listening to the snobby music?"

Which brings me to another possible reason for classical music's limited appeal: namely, that it was ever thus. A lot of classical music was composed with a very limited audience in mind. Handel's and Rameau's operas, for example, were composed for the commerical stage--but Lully's were composed for an aristocratic audience at the court of Versailles. Similarly, Haydn and Boccherini composed a lot of their music, not for sale, but for their aristocratic patrons.

In fact, a large part of Haydn's output is never performed because it was composed for an audience of just one person. Haydn's patron, Prince Esterhazy, loved to play an obscure stringed instrument called the baryton--half viola da gamba, half harp. As a consequence, the Prince had his servant Haydn compose 126 trios for baryton, viola, and cello. Almost nobody knows how to play a baryton nowadays--and to make matters worse, the Prince was not a very skillful player, so Haydn kept this music fairly simple. Those trios are still very nice--I don't think Haydn was capable of writing a wrong note--but they lack the depth needed to appeal to most listeners.

And of course, after the Second World War, many left-wing European composers associated tonal, Romantic music with fascism, and embraced pure serialism as a "progressive" alternative. And since none of them were geniuses like Schoenberg, they wound up composing a lot of stuff that had a very limied appeal even then, and is now just unlistenable noise.

 

[Daedalus12]

As for the Harpischord I especially like to play Clementi's works on that instrument even though most of it was written for the grand piano.

 

[Othello]

I prefer Classical and itis pretty much the only music I listen too.

Classical is a title and really should be broken down into individual types. Each developed at it's own time of appreciation and was the Pop Music of its day. As a new style emerged it was greeted with scorn by the establishment and usually embraced by the younger generation. This is how music evolves and is true still today.

your local classical radio station is really a greatest hits station stretching over a broad spectrum of music and generations. It will play everything from Bach (early 18th century)to Paganini (ear;y 19th century) to Copland (mid 20th century) all in one series. This would be like a pop station playing Buddy Holly, Kool and the Gang and Linken Park while claiming they are all related. they are but only in the broadest sense of definition.

For those who claim it is all stodgy or dull - I challenge you to listen to Grieg's "in the Hall of the Mountain King" or Rachmaninov's 3rd symphony. Go for a walk through the woods while litening to Copland's "Appalachian Spring,"

Not everyone will like every style, but there styles for everyone. You just haven't discovered it yet.

In the Hall of the Mountain King is great!! I always suggest to people to get the Time Life series Classical Thunder. http://www.amazon.com/Time-Life-Presents-Classical-Thunder/dp/B00081U6XC as it has rather high intensity classical songs that people will recognize and enjoy. Compilations or mixes of some of the greats (Beethoven, Bach, etc) or various movie soundtracks are always a good bet too as people here have suggested. I've never had anyone who I either bought for or got to pick it up themselves not enjoy the Classical Thunder discs.

 

[Goliath]

Generic? Yeah, Stockhausen and Bach are virtually indistinguishable.

I especially like Bach's Helicopter Cantata.

But seriously--I think any music sounds "generic" to people who aren't intimately familiar with it. I'm sure if you played some Indian classical music for me, I wouldn't be able to tell one piece from another. I wouldn't even be able to recognize the instruments, let alone if they were being played well.

 

[Goliath]

Oh, man--I just checked my email account, and Arkiv has shipped my Ligeti discs. I can hardly wait.

(Wipes drool from chin)

For people who don't know Ligeti--think of the weird, ethereal music from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ligeti's Requiem is one of my very favourite pieces of modernist classical.

 

[Othello]

While my taste in rock and pop and jazz and blues is quite varied, with classical I'm basically a 'Greatest Hits' kinda guy. Mozart, Beethoven, all that jazz. Or classical. I've found a few things I really enjoy, like a Prelude by Kiril, but in the main I like it in the background. My alarm clock starts on the classical station in the mornings.

But opera? Forget it. Two people shouting in melody at one another doesn't do it for me. There used to be a show on Aussie radio called 'Singers of Renown' and I tried and tried to 'get' it, but never could. The presenter obviously knew and loved his subject, but it never reached me.

I'm not a fan of opera at all myself BUT there is one track of Opera I LOVE and it's on the Classical Thunder cd. It's called O' Fortuna and it's been in many movies, tv shows and promos for sports and such.. Take a listen set to a tribute to the game Halo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szxZr6jPhdI

 

[Deckerd]

Carl Orff.

which sounds like an insult

The Carmina Burana is filthy, btw.

 

[ITL]

Oh, man--I just checked my email account, and Arkiv has shipped my Ligeti discs. I can hardly wait.

(Wipes drool from chin)

For people who don't know Ligeti--think of the weird, ethereal music from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ligeti's Requiem is one of my very favourite pieces of modernist classical.

The Ligeti stuff in 2001 is nicely schpooky.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Oh, man--I just checked my email account, and Arkiv has shipped my Ligeti discs. I can hardly wait.

(Wipes drool from chin)

For people who don't know Ligeti--think of the weird, ethereal music from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ligeti's Requiem is one of my very favourite pieces of modernist classical.

Wow...now here you have hit in something I am not familiar with.

I'll have to write this down for when I'm in the mood to try something new.

I'm generally not a huge fan of the more modernist stuff...but it's certainly worth a listen.

 

[JonathonWally]

Classical tends to be very situational. Other styles of music can be played in at a variety of events and occasions. I think that tends to be one of the reasons. I do dig classical music and I especially dig a lot of Opera.

Growing up, I went to the Met a lot, I used to go to the Opera at least 3 times a year.

 

[Derishton]

People who hate classical music may be afraid to say so because they think it will make them look like an uncultured Philistine.

If there's one thing I know about our culture, it's that "fear of looking uncultured" is not a major source of concern for the majority of people. I've always thought it was the other way around: nobody wants to be a snob.

Otherwise, Fat Camp and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader would likely not exist.

On a more serious note, I want to like harpischord and baroque more than I do. I tend to gravitate either towards bombast (Gliere or Prokofiev) or vaguely modernist (Takemitsu, Part). I bought Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man a few months back, and can't stop listening to it.

 

[zakkrusz]

Classical music is like chicken. Good but generic as a meat.

If you think chicken is generic, you don't know how to cook.

Nope I don't cook either aside from about 3 complex dishes I made a point to learn because I liked them so much. I meant to make reference to the old saying "Tastes like chicken" which implies that chicken is unremarkable and other things taste like it. In music terms classical music is a baseline product from which other more interesting forms of music evolved. Just like you could make chicken more interesting by adding soy sauce or other things. That being said Chicken and Turkey are my favorite meats and all of that doesn't neccessarily make classical music bad (I like it too sometimes espicially modern movie music) just that there are other musical forms I prefer over it. Does that clear things up?

 

[Goliath]

In music terms classical music is a baseline product from which other more interesting forms of music evolved.

Well, I would respond to this in three ways.

First, what is "more interesting" is a matter of taste and opinion. What you find interesting I might find quite dull. In fact, looking over your list of musical groups, I'm sure of it.

Second, I don't think it's correct to say that today's popular music "evolved" from classical. Popular music is highly syncretic and has incorporated elements from several musical cultures and traditions.

Finally, given the way classical music is marketed and consumed, I think it hardly makes sense to compare it to a commonplace grocery item like chicken. In today's musical marketplace, country music would be chicken, heavy metal would be hamburger, hip-hop would be pork chops, and classical music would be--I don't know--live lobster, or something.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

^ Well, that is certainly true. In my experience, if you want a particular recording of a particular composition, you may have to look around a bit. It's not like iTunes...or even Amazon, has everything.

Shopping for classical music...and even listening to classical music, is not like any other sort of music.

Not unless you have a single rock song, for example, that about 25 different bands have recorded yet none of them wrote or otherwise 'own'...so there is no established 'right way' of playing it and it's all about what you personally like about this band or that; this interpretation or that.

The marketing of classical music cannot be approached like the marketing of any other sort of music, because the consumer of classical music is faced with many decisions that are not faced but the guy going out to buy Bon Jovi's next album....a much more straightforward purchase.

 

[M'Sharak]

Oh, man--I just checked my email account, and Arkiv has shipped my Ligeti discs. I can hardly wait.

(Wipes drool from chin)

For people who don't know Ligeti--think of the weird, ethereal music from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ligeti's Requiem is one of my very favourite pieces of modernist classical.

The Ligeti stuff in 2001 is nicely schpooky.

It is, but there's Ligeti from other periods of his career which is very different from Lux Aeterna or Atmospheres. Very interesting composer, he was.

 

[ITL]

Excellent!

 

[Kirby]

I've tried many times to get into classical music, and I do enjoy it as background music, but I have a very hard time actively listening to it. My wife is a fan, she played the viola for 10 years, and I know she listens a lot at work, and has numerous CDs, but it just isn't my cup of tea.
I love jazz and rock, but something about classical music always screams pretentious and unaccessable to me. But then I'm a huge Journey fan, so what do I know...

 

[Spot's Meow]

I enjoy classical music, especially after my music appreciation courses in high school and college. I especially love anything by Mozart. It's so catchy and easy to listen to, and I often get the tunes stuck in my head for days.

Unfortunately, Holdfast's points are all true, and are reasons why I don't listen to classical as much as I'd like to. I can't really listen to it in the car, music distracts me while I am working/studying (especially classical since it has to be actively listened to), and usually I just don't have the time. Plus, as others have mentioned, it's not exactly easy to find pieces that you enjoy. There are so many out there that it wouldn't make sense to blindly go buying classical CDs. So the only songs I really listen to are ones that I heard in my music appreciation classes because it's just too overwhelming to try to find new ones.

 

[Paxil]

Because it doesn't have words. I hate instrumental music of any type.