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Home > News > Views > Reinventing Classical Music

REINVENTING CLASSICAL MUSICposted December 28, 2012 / No Comments

When I first started going to orchestral

concerts I noticed that the music was

presented without any real explanation.

Unless youd studied the history of music you

might not really understand the significance

of whichever Beethoven symphony you

happened to be listening to. It felt like

classical concerts were an exclusive club

and unless you were involved in orchestral

music you were on the outside.

When I was going through un iversity and

music college I spent a lot of time composing

for theatre and, after graduating, started working in film. There is a lot that goes on in those worlds that I think

classical music can learn from. Both disciplines use visual and aural media to enhance your experience of an

evening. That can apply to an orchestral concert too. You go to the Royal Shakespeare Company to watch old

iterature being performed in the most fantastic three dimensional way and browse an a rt gallery while listening on

a pair of headphones to biographical details and interesting stories about the artwork. Im experimenting with some

of those methods in orchestral concerts.

Lets create and promote orchestral experiences where we assume no p rior knowledge from audience members;

where they dont need to do anything before they walk through the door because we wil l deliver a complete

concert experience.

Cross-arts performance is a rea l buzz phrase a t the moment. One thing Im very keen to do is make sure were no t

dumbing things down. Whatever youre doing , whether its serious or light hearted repertoire, you should treat it

with same level of engagement. You need to offer a point of entry for audiences. If you are performing one o f

Beethovens nine symphonies, why have you chosen that one? What is it about that one which makes it different?

What was Beethoven doing at the time of writing it? Who commissioned it? You can take those facts and treat them

n an artistic way, without losing any element of finesse and precision to the musical performance.

There is always demand for pure musical performance; undiluted, undisturbed, traditional. But I do believe there

s a place for both types of concert. As a musician, I love going to hear Londons finest musicians performing, to

shut my eyes and just listen. But at the same time there are people who find that particular concert environment

ntimidating or dull. We need to change this perception. We should be aiming to attract as many people as

possible. At the moment, orchestras generally do one performance of a particular programme. Thats due to lack of

demand. We should create demand by creating more performances that are engaging to more people. Its about

encouraging a wider cross section of society to enjoy classical music as an experience. At the moment its

polarised; you either have Classical Spectacular with canons or uninterrupted Mahler Symphony without one

single word spoken.

A way of engaging people is by playing more recently composed and cul turally re levant music. London Arts

Orchestra just performed the War Horsesuite by Adrian Sutton; a fantastic piece of orchestral music rearranged

from the score to the sell out National Theatre production. Playing new music i s a fantastic way of getting people

nto orchestral music as an art form.

think there are two types of composer that come out of the music college education system in this country; those

that take the artistic route and those that take the commercial route. When I talk to my friends they tell me o f all the

millions of people who have listened to the film score they have produced. Then I talk to the classical composers

and they tell me how two hundred people attended their one premiere performance. Of course, the numbers alone

dont mean everything, but I do think more can be done to take an amazing art form to more people. We live in a

world where more people listen to orchestral music than ever before through its use in film and videogames but

we must bring that audience to the concert hall. We shouldn t just accept that classical music is a niche art and

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think that its OK that only a few people understand it and go to the concerts.

t takes two to tango. Its about the orchestras taking a brave approach to programming and actively looking for

pieces by current composers that will engage aud iences. Its also about the composers; there are some for whom

the number of people in the audience just isnt a consideration. Many create music that can seem academic and

mpenetrable, which is fine, but if the result is that it only gets one performance in their lifetime, is it really worth the

effort?

More of the composers on the commercial side in theatre and cinema need to be looking a t the orchestral scene in

Britain all the fantastic new orchestras being created alongside the old o rchestras and writing music for the

concert stage. I often think, What would Mozart be doing if he was a live now? Hed probably be writing film music!

But Im sure hed also be finding opportunities for his music to be performed on a concert platform. So much

amazing music is written for films and then just disappears. People should hear that, and hear it as music that isnt

drowned in sound effects. It would be g reat for composers to also think about the performance as a reason to

compose. Writing pieces that include a narrative or scene setting is certainly nothing new, but its a tried and tested

method of reaching many more people through music.

am perhaps caught between two worlds that of the traditional musician addicted to the buzz of high level

musical performance, and that of the cross-arts enthusiast who understands the exciting relationship between

music and storytelling. Whatever the mix may be, I hope contemporary composers and performers continue to look

beyond the status quo because it will en liven and enrich orchestral music in Britain.

Edward Farmer is a British conductor, composer and co-founder of the London Arts Orchestra. Since its

formation in 2009, the orchestra has experimented with visual media and theatre to create inventive concert

experiences. Previously, he was a member of a Royal Opera House composer scheme to develop music with

ts singers and musicians. He has also written music for short films, documentaries and theatre shows.

After first studying as a pianist and double bassist, Edward attended the composition class of the Royal

College of Music with the support of a Constant and Kit Lambert Scholarship, the Kit and John Gander Award

and the Worshipful Company of Musicians.

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INVENTION TEST ANNA MEREDITH

"in Annas world,

commissions are often only publicly

performed once" This certainly isn't

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