I can’t believe I’m actually blogging (and why the GSO is important)

The first time I heard that blogging was actually becoming somewhat of a popular phenomenon, I was sitting in my hut in Africa listening to the BBC World Service on my short wave radio.  Now a few years later, living back in the world of electricity and internet, I’m posting one for the Greenville Symphony. 

 The first entry on this blog, posted by my friend and colleague, Dr. Bo (Braxton) Ballew, somewhat jokingly referring to the GSO’s remarkable leap into the present, carries with it more truth than you may realize.  Orchestra’s live and die under the retrospective glance of tradition.  We live because we perform what many consider to be the greatest music ever written – principally the 17th, 18th and 19th century orchestral cannon.  We die when we fail to realize how to disseminate the message of their greatness in an ever changing technological landscape.

Some rashly state that what’s old is old so let’s stick to the contemporary instead of what was written hundreds of years ago by dead Europeans.  The past was simply the building block for what’s being created today.  There is truth in that paradigm, but, alas, little practicatily, because contemporary orchestral music intimidates people and the audience is too small in communities like Greenville to make productions possible.  It intimidates people because loving and understanding the music created today requires a significant amout of exposure to, and education about, what led to its creation, which is, fortunately, the music the Greenville Symphony plays at every concert. 

Listening to orchestral music is an education.  Sometimes simple, elegant themes appear in pieces that everyone knows and loves, but other times there are much more complicated themes that one can’t simply walk out of the theater whistling.  That music must be paid attention and actively listened to in order to extract its elegance.  That’s not easy, and in this world of two and three bar pop tunes that repeat every twenty to thirty seconds, it can even be offputting to some for music to demand that level of rapt attention.

 The closest comparison I can think of is classical litterature, but Shakespeare, Ovid, Molliere, Steinbeck and Hemingway aren’t going anywhere.  They will always remain in classrooms and taught to children because their value is unquestioned.  To an untrained reader this can be very difficult material, and to a certain extent that’s why it’s taught.  The goal is to teach children how to think critically and analytically and to understand the written word, which will carry you successfully through life.  In that regard Harry Potter will most likely not find its way into syllabi in the same way that Jay-Z probably isn’t too often performed in band class despite their entertainment value.  My point is simply that “Classical” music is absolutely no different in this regard than classical literature and yet it is being wiped from our school’s curricula despite countless studies citing its cognitive benefits.

So here we are, back in the 21st century, and it’s becoming clear that if people are to be educated about music it is up to orchestras to do it.  What I’d like to discuss with those of you who read these postings, is what the Greenville Symphony is doing right, what we’re not and how this old, beautiful and important music will continue to fit into our lives today and in the future.