# Classical Music: declining or rising...or neither...



## Noiseman433 (Feb 7, 2010)

Greg Sandow poses a question (or rather, series of questions) at his latest blog post "Why don't we know?" This one is probably the pin that ties them all together and is obviously something I've been blogging about and research for myself for years now:



> behind all of this - at least in my view - is a debate about the state of classical music itself. Is it (at least in its mainstream forms) declining, as I say it is?


I'm interested in seeing where this discussion will lead, but my own response is here below:



> Two words-Hedgehogs or Foxes. Philip Tetlock has discussed the phenomenon of expert judgement and the ability to assess information and take stances in [the fields of] political psychology and behavioral economics.
> 
> Foxes are cautious and tend to weigh all sides [of an issue] before making judgements or predictions, and hedgehogs were generally alarmists and took an entrenched side on the issues. The foxes, in general, [are] more often correct in judgements and predictions than hedgehogs. Foxes are also much more likely to change their mind due to increased knowledge or data while hedgehogs tend to discount any new data that challenges their position and explain it away. Hedgehogs, though, tend to get more of a public voice since they are inflammatory in nature. We see these phenomena in politics all the time, I think.
> 
> ...


There was some discussion on about Greg's post on his facebook page:



__ https://www.facebook.com/gsandow/posts/227153557366585



And a response I posted in it to some issues Alex Benjamin's concerns and issues is below:



> @Alex - You're right to bring up some of the issues you do. Conflating a wide range of economic and social activities to one particular subset of "Classical Music" can be misleading. Greg's wife, Anne Midgette (in this piece: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-classical-beat/2011/02/nea_survey_good_news_-_bad_new.html ) and Greg himself ( in a number of his responses to comments in an older blog post of his here: http://www.artsjournal.com/sandow/2006/05/new_book_episode_and_allan_koz.html#comments ) highlight some of the good things that the data does tell us about the field as a whole.
> 
> Sure, it's increasingly more difficult to make a sustainable living doing classical music if the career choice is one of the typical big three (orchestra, opera, ballet companies) but at the same time, there's a proliferation of newer and smaller venues for classical music; and as Anne mentions in her blog, the NEA data states "Arts participation" in classical music (as opposed to attendance at "benchmark events" like symphony concerts) is actually up, which gels well with much of the data regarding classical music leading the charge in digital downloads (at least until 2006). Also, the business of music schools and conservatories isn't slowing down the number of graduates they are pumping out; there's been the growth of music programs (some of which are for-prof orgs); pre-schoolers (I used to teach for one of those nationwide companies); the huge influx of non-prof organizations until around 2008 (when the laws for non-prof incorporation were changed); and the increasing number of adult beginners which have necessitated a growing number of private instructors to market themselves as specializing or catering to that new demographic of music students-I think there's possibly even more interest now than ever in classical music.
> 
> ...


This blogpost was originally posted here:
http://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/classical-music-declining-or-rising-or-neither/


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

We've mused on this topic in so many threads on TC... There is no simple, black and white answer to the question. The question, indeed, seems to be legitimate in two fronts: The state of "Contemporary CM compositions", and the state of "CM as a performance art" - if I can use those terms.

Conetmporary music is caught in a tug o' war when it coimes to "public acceptance" - on the one hand, what some folks would call snobbery but I would call affection for the mainstream composers of the Past and on the other the need for the audiences to broaden their tasttes and sample new things, new ideas, new concepts. Not easy to resolve those two very different tendencies, and the so called rise or decline of Contemporary CM is based on very local responses, as different geograohical regions seem to be more open-minded about music than others...

The second consideration, CM as a performance art, is coming to grips with the economic reality of our times, the fact that orchestras and musical organizations need to "compete" for the entertainment dollars that individual households have set aside - typically spent on Cable TV, vieos, movies, sporting events... Again, each community has more or less success at this, and when you combine it to local governments investing more money towards healthcare of their aging populations, arts and music seem to lose favour when it comes to government spending. And don't get me started on Arts and Music education... One feeds the other, IMHO.

If there is a silver lining here, I do notice CM taking a bigger foothold in the new media landscape (Internet, Specialty TV, ...), many/many "commercial" music stations in my part of the world offer CM, which is a good thijng if you ask me.

My 2 cents...


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