3 Random Ideas …

Leonard Norwitz

— Classical music could be understood as European culture’s most exquisite response to existential chaos. Throughout medieval times and the Renaissance, music composed for the church service was largely absent tension, gliding blissfully over potential dissonance in a musical response to suffering. In a prelude to the scientific and social politics of The Enlightenment, early 17th century opera began to introduce melodic and harmonic tension as if to provide metaphorical commentary on life’s complex contradictions.

Since the early 20th century there has grown up alongside whatever we might think of as “popular music” a more internalized listening experience, a classical music where we are expected to hold our collective response until the end. Disciplined. Civilized. Instead of outwardly expressing our response, as we do at popular music venues, we allow the inner experience to layer and multiply, much as we might at some church services.

The music we listen to or perform or live in or dance to says a lot about our class. (Consider the various pop musics.) The Mendelssohn family and Gustav Mahler felt social pressure to convert (vide: Felix’s “Reformation” and Gustav’s “Resurrection” symphonies), which did not prevent them from composing some of the most rapturous music of their day. Post-WWII classical music has had some difficulty maintaining its footing, while performance has been taken up gradually by persons of other hues and genders. So there’s hope.