“$280,000 For a Tuba Degree?!”

 

The title popped up in the recommended videos on the right hand side of my laptop. Tabs of classical trombone players and cast-iron skillet recipes were littered throughout the computer screen, and emails for chamber concert performances flooded my inbox, casting notifications in the top right corner of my laptop. 

 

I don’t need this shit right now, I thought. I’ve got so much fuckin’ practicing to do. This is an utter waste of time. I promptly clicked the video title and kicked my feet up on the table.

 

Awkward electronic music probably intended for some kid’s Bar Mitzvah party plays over a gradual closeup of an aging bald white man with what looks like a gamer headset and a blue construction vest, sitting at a desk as he fiddles with his wedding ring. A tender voice appears over the audio; clearly, someone is calling in. An older lady, it sounds like, and from the start of her inquiry she sounds concerned.

 

It’s her son. He’s a classical musician. Cool! He plays tuba? Rad. He wants to study it in college? Coolio….or at least, that’s what I thought. A begrudging look settled upon the man’s face.

 

“This isn’t against tuba players or his gift of music, but I wouldn’t want to usher my son into a bear trap that tears his leg off”. The mother and man go back and forth for a few minutes before the mom concludes that she’ll try to dissuade her son from pursuing a career in classical music, and to pick something more practical and malleable in today’s professional climate.

 

One of the more uncomfortable parts of being a classical musician is settling with the reality that, unless you’re a prodigal performer, society will scarcely proscribe any value to your craft. When I first deliberated over what my major should be in college, I didn’t see myself seriously pursuing any other vocation with the same energy and vigor that I had put into classical music hitherto. It was an oft repeated joke amongst music educators and students that the phrase “I went to study music in college” was always followed by, “Also, would you like fries with that?” I tried not to give much credence to those jokes. Fuck ‘em. Don’t need ‘em.

 

I’m in my 4th year of studying classical music now. I’ve performed professionally. I’ve met some of the greatest players and teachers for my instrument. I’ve advanced in competitions and professional auditions. The goal has always been to get into a professional orchestra; or, at least to somehow scam society into giving me money for playing the trombone. I never really had any qualms about making your passion your vocation; if you enjoy what you do, who gives a shit? I certainly didn’t, and even now I have no doubt that if I were to invest most of my professional and creative energy into my music career, I could certainly make a living out of it. My project question isn’t one of numbers, but of ethics. Is it ok for our society to pay artists in this way? Should I be allowed to make a living playing the trombone?

 

The guy in the video, Dave Ramsey, doesn’t necessarily think I should be barred from such an opportunity. I mean, if I’m good and people want to pay for my product, then who cares? The problem isn’t the product; it’s the total lack of interest. It doesn’t take a social scientist to understand that interest in classical music has been waning for years, and that if you think of enjoying classical music as a niche…well, you’re probably in the majority. I like classical music. Am I a sophisticated and hyper-intellectual culture consumer? FUCK no. I’m a pretty silly person. I watch Bob’s Burgers, play trombone, and cook in my cast-iron skillet; I cannot be further from the mainstream perception of classical music consumers/producers. And yet I’m somehow shoved into the conceptual smorgasbord of people that like hearing orchestras play for a living, and, believe it or not, that’s most people that enjoy this music.

 

So why is it dying? It makes more sense to prove that it is, indeed, dying, before attempting to understand why that’s the case. When we discuss the idea of a certain cultural edifice “dying”, it’s often not really the cultural item that is going away, it’s just the people that make it. Either they quite literally die, or they stop receiving an incentive to continue producing it. The idea behind classical music has hardly disappeared from the mainstream consciousness since its inception, and I cannot fathom it going away soon (for all intents and purposes of this piece, the phrase “classical music” is often going to refer to music played in an orchestral manner, typically devoid of the song style chord structure and longer in nature). Radios, movie scores, commercial-friendly soundbites (think

 

Tchaikovsky’s 1812 cannons in car commercials), wedding string quartets; all of these things will continue to play a significant role in society. Regardless of whether or not it satisfies the artistic itch some of us feel, well, that’s not really its concern. Even if orchestras do perish financially, I am convinced that the idea of classical music will persist for generations to come.

 

But ok, maybe you don’t really care about Beethoven’s 5th when the first 8 notes are played in your local film trailers and you’re convinced that the lifeline to classical music is being pulled. Alright, but who is pulling it? The people. For most of its duration, classical music has owed its existence to the patronage of wealthy donors. Kings, presidents, multi-millionaire executives and philanthropists; all have kept the due date for orchestral musicians another season away as long as their favorite groups played their favorite tunes. This patronage was reflected in the way classical music was presented; even from its early years, the string quartet was heard not in the town squares or local theaters, but in royal palaces and private garden shows. Violins and pianos garnered looks not from lower-class children and the dreary eyes of underpaid workers, but rather from primadonna heiresses and haunchy land owners. I do not necessarily see this in poor taste, mind you; I’m just laying out the facts here. Classical music was very much a class based consumption. 

 

I’ve struggled to answer this question since I chose to make my way into the classical music industry, and yet it persists in me whenever I pick up my instrument or head to a local orchestral performance: why? Many believe that the intention of classical music has been to economically segregate since the beginning. By clearly alienating the working class from an artistic and leisurely experience, the musicians themselves sequester their being into one of observation and niche; they cannot be understood, but only studied. I’m around these people all day, and I can honestly say that those types most definitely exist. There are tons of people that want to seem special because of their talents and abstraction abilities. Regardless of whether or not they truly are special or even see themselves as such isn’t the present problem; it’s merely the facade that they pursue. I was speaking to a friend the other day who shall remain anonymous about the idea that musicians may have more trained ears than the average person listening to concerts.

 

“Do you ever wonder if all people experience the same things from hearing music?”, I asked him over a late lunch.

 

My friend looked up from his grimy mug of green tea and gave me a disheartened look. “Avery”, he started, “I am just firmly convinced that most people will never understand what we do. Our ears are just so much more developed. Classical music appeals to us not because that’s what our ears prefer, but that’s what our ears need to be satisfied.”

 

Damn. Alright. 

 

I mean, on a fundamental level it’s tantalizing to agree with him. The evidence is clear to all that this music is enjoyed by a minority of people. Perhaps it’s because the marketing of classical music has failed on laughably catastrophic levels, and that’s not particularly hard to imagine. The same conductors doing the same pieces every year with almost the same interpretations offers no value to a lot of people that aren’t already inducted into this culture. It’s a trite account, but it holds truth; you walk into a concert hall, and the two adjectives screaming at you are “white” and “old”. Trends are impossible to miss in this domain. But maybe it’s not because we’re not pushing out enough music education to the masses; perhaps my friend is right, and we really are special, endowed with a talent that we were given to help the world abstract the same joy we find from making noise.

I think there may be some merit to this idea. Yes, yes, before you start, I do think that music education should be accessible to all people because it’s music; its only purpose is to further enrich the lives of those who engage in it (unless you’re using it for political propaganda, in which case, oops). I think that there would be a subtle increase in people attending classical concerts if we showed them what the instruments could sound like when played together. Hell, I think a lot of people don’t even know that seeing an orchestra is even an option. In which case, yeah, sure, let’s get those people over. Maybe once they’re hit with that sound, then they’ll start to feel hooked, and they’ll get the same jitters that I do when I hear a good ensemble play together.

But that probably won’t happen. It certainly didn’t happen to me. I never had an aptitude for classical music when I first started. In fact, I hated listening to orchestras for a while. I saw the local Detroit Symphony Orchestra a number of times as a kid, but I never saw the appeal in it. Rigidity, tradition, being super serious for a super long time - why would anyone choose to spend their time like that?

 

It wasn’t until I was around 15 years old, when I had found a piece on YouTube by Rimsky-Korsakov called “Scheherazade” that I was swept away. The gushing strings, the brilliant brass, and the passion of the conductor floored me….on my 5th or 6th listen. The first 4 times through were pretty rough. I didn’t like it. In fact, I had to really force myself to sit through it until it finally clicked. Why would I put myself through that? Well, it was initially to impress a girl that I had a crush on (she liked classical music). After the first few listens, I started to pay attention more to the trombones; not necessarily because I was really invested in the artistic expression or the sounds, but more so because one of my best friends and I competed with each other in our high school band to see who would get a higher chair placement in the trombone section. 

 

It looks like I had gone into it for all the wrong reasons: lust, competition, and arrogance. So what happened? I dunno. Something inside me completely shifted by that 5th listen. Strings were no longer laborious or excruciating. Melodies from “Scheherazade” started to flutter in my head throughout the day. Homework and class lectures were inundated with frequent trips to the bathroom just so I could put in my headphones and revisit my favorite recordings. Ennui and boredom were replaced with the Chicago Symphony and the Vienna Philharmoniker. I tried to get some of my friends to listen to it with me, but they didn’t really have any interest. It’s just noise. Takes too long. 5 listens? Fuck off. 

 

But throughout all of it, I knew that something was a little different from how I approached it. Not only could I follow the rhythms and sing back the melodies with ease, but in thinner veiled sections of the music I could easily identify various chords and eventually reconstruct segments of the piece with each section of the orchestra. It would take time, but if I had to I could probably transcribe the music without the reference of a score. The colors of each instrument section leaped out at me; warmth? French horns and clarinets at measure 294. Brilliance in timbre? That’s the trumpets and percussion over here. I think that Ab 6/4 chord is being played by - yep, that’s the strings. I had a private music teacher, and although he was helpful in showing me how to better play the trombone, he never taught me how to do these things. I just did them. 

 

So how can I say with confidence that not only is it going to be difficult to teach students these things, but also that it won’t increase classical music consumption? 

 

Firstly, there’s not really any way to teach people these skills. You can teach anyone how to play an instrument because it’s a very mechanical and technical thing. The magic happens when the music comes from within the student and there’s a brief moment of unity between what the student conceptualizes, or abstracts, from their mind, and the technique being the conduit for that expression. Professionals strive their whole lives to nurture this connection and work on it everyday. Yes, the top players have innate talent, but it’s the years of dedication and commitment that allows them to churn out a product of such high quality for others to enjoy. You need talent. You really do. But you need a lot of commitment. And that’s the value that’s missing. It’s not that people won’t enjoy classical music because they’re unable to. It’s because they shouldn’t enjoy it. 

In a capitalist society like today, people cannot afford to have time. They really can’t. They either work or go to school for 8 hours everyday, save some time for leisure and socializing, scrap together enough junk to nourish themselves in an astonishingly poor quality, and then they repeat until they have kids to live the same way. And then probably die. If you take the time out to truly immerse yourself in one of Beethoven’s late string quartets or a Mahler symphony, what it says most about you isn’t your temperament or your innate ability, but that you must have a LOT of free time on your hands. Yes, those who are less introverted and possibly more intelligent are slightly more likely to spend their time doing this, but I do NOT think that it has anything to do with classical music itself. These kinds of people just have more time on their hands and were probably introduced to classical music from a friend or family member (or are also trying to impress prospective partners, which, by the way, did not help me). 

When the mode of transaction is money, time is what truly matters, and becoming a classical musician is almost its own revolution against that adage. It takes many years for most professional classical musicians to rise to the upper echelon of skill and connect with the music in a way that deeply affects their audience. If you want to reach that level, you’re going to need a lot of time, and if you want a lot of time, you NEED enough money. I think that this is why classical music has always been funded by private donors; these people quite literally have enough time in the world to sit down and enjoy the music for what it is. The working class don’t have enough time because they are working, not because they’re incapable of getting the same fulfillment. 

 

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As a 17 year old high school student, I was faced with a dilemma that most students face: picking a major for college. It was always ingrained into me that university was the next natural step in my development as a young adult, and that a degree was pretty much essential for whatever I wanted to go into. Blue collar jobs were basically dismissed, and despite my indecisiveness or even ambivalence towards a white collar lifestyle, I needed to have the option for the future. I didn’t feel any compulsion towards a particular field of study; I had just gotten a D+ in Pre-Calculus so STEM seemed to be off the table, and most other majors seemed to fall under an ambiguous “academia” approach that didn’t seem very tantalizing. My sister, who at the time was studying music performance, encouraged me to investigate college auditions and to take prospective lessons with teachers to see if it was something I’d be interested in. Although  was dedicated to the trombone and getting better at music, I never felt the compulsion to study it in college. What would I do with it? Play in an orchestra, I guess. Do I want to do that? I dunno. I’m 17. I can hardly pick out what clean clothes I have from my closet. 

 

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It’s 6:55 PM in the theater. Venetians are beginning to take their seats across the aisles, hushed whispers and spatters of excitement filling the hall. I look to my left to see a wild grin on my friend John’s face; he’s looking at the back trying to get just the right frame of the trombone section of the orchestra. The full orchestra takes the stage to thunderous applause, and the conductor makes his trek to the podium to begin the show. It’s spring break, and we’ve spent the last few months curating a week-long trip to Venice. I’ve been saving up money for recreational expenses like the one we’re indulging in tonight, and just as I check my phone for the time the conductor raises his baton and begins tonight’s program: “Music for the Carnival of Venice”. Classic pieces familiar to both local and international listeners are performed, like Rossini’s “La Gazza Ladra”, Offenbach’s “Can Can”, and various arias from Verdi and Puccini. Each sequential segment of music elicits uproars of cheers and applause from the audience. To my right, elderly couples leaned over the balcony to get a glimpse of the solo soprano singer of the night, only to be repeatedly asked by security to remain in their seats.

Despite being in the cheapest seats in the whole theater, our tickets were still kind of pricey. $60 per ticket for about an hour and a half of straight music was a little shocking for me. Most tickets I’ve gotten to the Detroit Symphony, currently one of the leading orchestras in the country, hover around $20-30. A student subscription gets you a free ticket to almost every concert; sometimes, they just want to get rid of tickets they don’t need and will let you in for free because no one is buying them. And yet here in Venice, albeit at a particularly festive time of year, almost every seat is filled with families of young, old, and everything in between.

 

What the LITERAL FUCK. I don’t get it. Am I missing something here? This is a (sorry not sorry) just above average orchestra playing very average music, to an audience that will quite literally kill someone to hear the Can Can played for the umpteenth time. Orchestras in America are starving themselves dry while barely managing to fill half of the freaking seats. If a single note is chipped by any instrument in an American orchestra, the local paper has a field day with it and suddenly the money stops coming in. I cringed during the Venetian orchestra concert as several players came in at completely wrong times, throwing laughs to one another across the stage as the audience hardly batted an eyelash and proceeded to clap and embrace one another.

 

What is the connection that this just-decent orchestra is establishing with its people? Maybe it’s the repertoire? Increasingly special pieces that capture the heart of Italians, beckoning them to the concert hall? Nope, scratch that one off. All of the pieces being played aren’t particularly close to the Italian people. That exclusivity belongs to opera, and there’s only one piece with a solo vocalist. The pieces being performed tonight are standards, so most people are going to be familiar with them regardless of their involvement with classical music. Maybe it’s a difference between American and Italian people. Does one value music more than the other? Hardly. Music plays a prominent role in each nation’s citizenry, and although Italy has a much more intimate relationship with classical music, there are other countries with a relationship of a much more personal character. 

 

I think, just maybe, it has to do with what I mentioned earlier: time. In Venice (end of thoughts)

 

Why should society care about classical music?

 

Well, maybe it shouldn’t. It hasn’t for quite a long time now. Like I’ve established earlier, it’s basically sustained by a minority of people FOR a minority of people, and executed by a minority of people with a particular skill set. It has been this way for centuries. It probably won’t change. Sure, film scores and pops concerts can help keep the concept of orchestras afloat for the time being, but we all know it’s just not the same.

 

And that just might be ok.

 

Classical music shouldn’t stay the same. Not to say that we shouldn’t keep programming Beethoven’s 5th. In fact, we absolutely SHOULD program it in conjunction with education to understand just exactly why it’s such a marvelous artifact of human abstraction. I truly believe that it’s necessary to keep these composers in the mainstream consciousness because they are geniuses, and the value one can gain from them will always outweigh the necessary input to receive it. But, like, there’s more than that. A lot more. People are turning to other modes of music because it moves their souls in ways that classical music has failed to do. And unfortunately, the main pieces that we continuously push to newcomers of the classical orchestral tradition are still trying to speak to the average hearts of the 19th and 20th centuries. People change. It’s ok for music to change with them.

The thing is that classical music has been changing. A lot. When people typically conceive of classical music, they imagine a barrage of powdered wigs, rich white men, and trite symphonies recycling the same ideas until your grandfather drops dead in his seat and the usher has to collect his dentures from the aisle floor. There are quite a few rich white men, though I can’t speak for the powdered wigs or geriatric morbid mishaps. What’s also prominent, however, is the massive amount of new works that are premiered by the top (and, may I add, affordable) orchestras. A glance at the Detroit Symphony’s calendar offers a look at the kind of repertoire that’s generally being performed; on Thursday and Friday of this week, a classical program of Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky leads the stage, whereas a different week has a program consisting of a world premiere cello concerto, works by underrepresented composers, and even collaborations with current artists in different genres. 

 

And yet this isn’t really enough. Just about a month ago, I went to one of these concerts with a nice blend of old and new music. Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony was accompanied by a premier of a piece by a prominent black American composer hailing from the Detroit area and a piano concerto of a prominent soloist. The audience was decently filled…with old people. Mostly. I saw a few younger faces, albeit it was primarily the other students in my group. No, the audience was, you guessed it, pretty old. And I just couldn’t understand why there weren’t younger people. Money? My ticket was free with a student subscription. Normal tickets are, like, $20. Taste? This concert didn’t have a single moment of stereotypical orchestra music. There was something for everyone. 

 

And yet the situation couldn’t have been more dichotomous in Venice. The tickets were more expensive, the pieces were mostly bland, and the performance itself lacked total structure and the same accuracy as American orchestras. People of all ages showed up, however. Roars and thunderous applause echoed from the purple laden chairs that were almost entirely filled; encores were what they wanted, and it’s what they got. It couldn’t have been that these people’s ears were more developed than Americans; when the audience engaged in the “clap-along” piece that gets everyone together, they were, similar to American audiences and probably most others, about a beat behind. Some people rushed. Some people didn't clap at all.

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Do these people ponder the value of arts in society? Given the prevalence of European conservatories and the plethora of orchestras that survive in each country, it's probably widely agreed upon that classical music is at least important to the heritage and culture of each country. America has had a very ambiguous relationship with not just the value of classical music, but with the arts in general. My hope with this project is to explore the value of arts from multiple perspectives to gain a deeper understanding of the nuances, contradictions and beauties within this problem, starting with the industry side of the music.

 

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