Donald Satz replied to my meanderings with some interesting brain-storming.

>The above is a decent start, but something much bigger is needed.  The
>concert-going environment and services provided must change.  A totally
>different seating arrangement is a must, one which is user friendly.
>Kitchen/cooking facilites are needed, fine drink and food provided at your
>seat, perhaps a "raffle" with cd's and/or meetings with artists the prize.
>What's needed is an environment where folks can have a good time.

I think that the raffle idea has some possibilities (public radio and
TV stations run such things all the time), but the consumption of food
and drink during performances bothers me a bit.  Of course, this is not
unheard-of at pops concerts (and informal summer under-the-stars concerts),
but what I was thinking about was helping build the core, "serious" concert
business, and I think it is fairly well established that there is a
constituency for pops concerts that is not at all interested in the
serious stuff.

The problem with eating and drinking during, say, Mahler's 9th, is fairly
obvious and need not be discussed at length.  There is already a trend to
restaurants closely associated with concert halls, convenient for patrons
to visit before and after concerts, and I expect that this will increase.

It seems to me, however, that the main problem lies elsewhere.  The
assumptions behind my concerns are the following.  First, CM will never
become "popular" in any real sense.  When I was a kid, ages ago, only a
small fraction of the public patronized it, and I think that that fraction
was probably about at its greatest possible limit then.  But (I believe,
but can't prove it statistically) that fraction has decreased considerably
in recent decades, and what we need to do is to get it back to where it
was.  (Today's New York Times, for example, happens to have a story on
Robert Spano and the Brooklyn Philharmonic, describing its perilous
financial condition: it "began the 1990's with 3,000 subscriptions and is
ending the decade with 400," the Times says.) Most people will, I believe,
always prefer entertainments which allow them to jump up and down, make a
lot of noise, and in general display themselves in greater prominence than
the ostensible performers: rock concerts, basketball games, etc.  (Come to
think of it, "classical" concerts in the 18th and much of the 19th century
were like that, too.) There's no way you will get such people away from
their favorite pursuits and into a classical concert, and I wouldn't waste
any time and money trying.

Secondly, the fraction of the public we are aiming at is the group who
would be serious listeners to, for example Mahler's 9th, once they heard
it, but who at this point have never even encountered it for the first time
because such music is currently walled off from the general public by media
barriers.  Where marketing efforts need to be concentrated, it seems to me,
is in getting through those barriers.  I assume that this can be done
without having to perform the 9th in ways that would ruin the genuine
musical experience.

Thirdly, I think one thing that would help would be to change the image
of CM from something alien to ordinary life, and vaguely toxic to it, to
something that ordinary folks can enjoy and derive great benefit from.
A very great change from U.S.  culture as I remember it being some
decades ago (I won't say how many!) is that CM was not necessarily widely
understood or appreciated then, but it was generally respected, or at least
tolerated, by the general public; now it is too often treated with contempt
and even feared.

I don't understand how this change has come about, or what exactly could
be done about it, but something has to be done.  One possibility (to do
some brain-storming of my own) is to go after more celebrity endorsements:
sports heros, movie stars, etc.  In Philadelphia, the public radio station
WHYY, which used to carry CM but switched to all-talk quite a few years
ago, has started carrying Opera Company of Philadelphia performances,
announced by (believe it or not) a local sports announcer.  Not quite the
dulcet tones of a Milton Cross, but at least it may get across the idea
that this stuff can be associated with ordinary life and ordinary people.

Another interesting thing which will occur next spring is an open-air
performance of Beethoven's 9th by the Phila.  Orch.  right in the middle
of town, next to City Hall, billed as a "thank-you to the city." I don't
understand exactly what they are thanking the city for, but at any rate
it is a nice gesture and a step toward bringing CM down to earth and
into everyday life.  Perhaps we can get back to the Renaissance Italian
city-states' sponsoring of fine music as a matter of civic celebration.

In addition, a somewhat more subtle change that would help a lot is for
us CM connoisseurs to stop sneering at people who "only like" the Four
Seasons, the first movement of the 5th, etc.  (I must confess to having
been guilty of this sin somewhat in the past, but I hereby promise to
reform.) The whole realm of CM is like an enormous continent with
mountains, deserts, forests, ocean beaches, etc.  Plenty of room for
everyone, and no need to make those who prefer the beach feel unwelcome
because they don't want to take up mountain-climbing.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]