The Appreciation of Classical Music: A Need to Change Gears for a New Listening Habit

It is a popular cliche to say that music is a bridge across cultures in a way that language can never be; this refers to music as it is said to reach out to people wordlessly in a universal language that is common to all humanity. While this sentiment is not without merit, it is really not to be taken literally. Music from the Far East is never known to sell in Africa or Europe; African music is not appreciated elsewhere without fundamental modifications to its structure to adapt it to the form of other cultures. Music, depends on cultural orientation in an audience just as any other form of human expression: language, architecture or anything else. The cultural orientation required for the appreciation of a foreign art is not served by a simple broad exposure to that culture either; any person who wishes to appreciate a new kind of artistic expression needs exposure to a specific way of life, a way of thinking and of spiritual existence to be able to accept and appreciate the cultural cues that are the lifeblood of any art.

The experience of an art is so narrowly dependent on the culture that it comes from that it is not even possible usually for a follower of one kind of music in a society to appreciate another kind of product of that very same culture. Consider the very passionate advocacy that people practice for their liking of classical symphony, the opera, and rock music. Supporters of rock, from the same society, are often bitterly critical of the opera or the symphony for what they consider to be elitist displays of elaborate emptiness. Opera enthusiasts however see very deep spiritual meaning in the music, the words, and the entire experience of the opera, and dismiss rock music as a vulgar indulgence of base instincts.

Classical music is hundreds of years old and the style and repertoire today are not all that different from what they used to be in the 16th century. This music is a tradition that has survived the test of time. Why is it then that classical music finds its audience dwindling among large parts of the population today? The answer could be found in the guilty pleasures and the instant gratification of popular musical forms such as rock or pop. Popular music such as in these styles are known to make little or no demands on the listener: these are purposely styled with simple themes and repetitive rhythms. The low-level charms of cuteness or attractive-sounding rhythms have an effect on the listener of tickling his senses rather than tickling his cerebrum.

The benefits of the simple pleasures of popular music are not to be dismissed; there is fun to be had with a bopping tune or rhythm. But the choosing of simple pleasures to the exclusion of more complex grist for the mill is an unfortunate tendency in the entertainment-saturated world of today. But there is hope Most people have grown up with some exposure to the classical musical traditions of our society, even if they never actually spent time listening to it. This sort of exposure is enough to make a beginning in appreciating classical music. Serious music of this kind requires only a little reorientation. If you would like to broaden your tastes, try listening to classical music that is considered simpler and more readily appealing than some of the deeper masterworks. Tchaikowsky's Sleeping Beauty is one of the most enduring classics ever composed. This music exhibits many of the qualities admired in popular music; there are simple melodies and identifiable hooks or motifs, appeals to grandeur, and meanings that are easily accessible. These qualities in this music are only the ones on the surface though; as in all great classical music, Sleeping Beauty holds deeper meaning within. Listening to it with attention reveals complex little techniques at play. Cultural references are drawn from ancient musical traditions, emotional touches abound everywhere that call emotions to mind: childhood fear, pretty exuberance, magical intrigue, and so on.

These are the ways in which classical music expresses itself. Classical pieces are under no compulsion, as popular music pieces are, to finish up in an allotted five minutes. Traditional music can take up to an hour to finish a theme; themes can be introduced, they can have alternative points of view brought on top of them; the main themes can be reintroduced after a break in re-worked fashion, ideas can be quiet as they can be boisterous; it is of the essence to classical music, to grant enough time to each idea for it to be fully explored.

Thorough exploration is not an important quality in popular music; the idea in popular music is to catch the attention of the listener; once the attention is obtained though, there is nothing much it has in mind to do with it. The idea in classical music is to gently attract the listener's attention and then to hold it to help explore an idea over and over to help him see deeper into himself. Classical music in its truest sense cannot ever be Muzak played in the background; if there is a place in the world for background music, music to be exercised to, be partied to, to do housework to, that job certainly belong to popular music. Classical music is for the times when music is listened to for itself and for the upliftment of the soul.