For four years now, I've been teaching a graduate course at Juilliard, called
"Breaking Barriers: Classical Music in an Age of Pop."
 It's a response to the well-known
crisis of classical music -- the aging audience, the need to find new listeners, the
oddness (as I see it, and as many of my students do) of classical music existing in its own little bubble, divorced from
the current world and even in many ways from much of 20th century art and culture.
But this is not a course in my
ideas. The emphasis is on the students -- what they think, what their questions are, what
they need as musicians embarking on their own careers. I've outlined a curriculum, which
starts with a look at three moments in history when what we now call classical music
functioned, much like current pop, as a commercial art. We then take a whirlwind tour
through the history of rock & roll, from Chuck Berry and doo wop to hiphop, techno,
and alternative. This is needed, I think, because it shows the background -- so varied, so
lively, so very different from high art -- against which classical music now functions.
And I've found that many people in classical music don't know much about current pop,
which limits them as they try to understand where classical music is going. They make
mistakes about pop when they refer to it in their advertising (see, for instance, my 1996
look at classical music marketing, "Behind the Tuxedo
Curtain")
More crucially, people in the classical music world don't know how the
commercial side of pop functions, which -- though they often don't know this -- leaves
them helpless when they try to guess what will happen if classical music gets more
commercial. Besides, to put this all in the simplest terms, my students
(or most of them, anyway) know pop, like or love it, and often are
inspired by it.
But again, the formal curriculum
isn't the center of the course. Class discussion is, and I won't try to guess where it's
going to go. In various years, I should note, we've had interesting guests. One was Peter Gelb,
the president of Sony Classical records, controversial because he builds his company
around crossover new music. Another has been David Lang, a composer and one of the founders
of Bang on a Can, an organization that demonstrates one way of creating alternatives to
the established classical music world; a third was Edgar Meyer, the bass player and composer,
who's almost a poster boy for the course, since he crosses between
classical music and bluegrass without skipping a breath, and without
finding it anything but natural. He and David both demonstrate that
careers can be built, even in classical music, on wholly individual
terms.
In 1998, I posted a partial week by
week summary of what we discussed in the course, all of it still
available here. An only slightly condensed version was published in a
special issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies, devoted
to curricula (Volume
9-10, 1997-1998, which despite its date appeared in 2001). I was greatly
honored by this.
Much material
from this course is available here:
1998 course overview and classwork and assignments
2001 course overview and classwork
and assignments
Rock & roll listening assignment
1998 class summaries:
First class: September 14
Second class: September 21
Third class: September 28
Fourth class: October 5
Fifth and sixth classes, October 12 and 19.
Much of my writing on this site is relevant to this course:
Why Classical Music Needs Rock & Roll -- an
article, unpublished, that became a lecture at Juilliard, which led to this course.
Behind the Tuxedo Curtain…About new ways to
market classical music and how the New York Philharmonic just doesn't get it.
"Titanic" Floats Sony Classical --
Peter Gelb's Sony Classical label released the Titanic soundtrack, which took it
to No. 1 on the pop charts. I defend Gelb's decision to go in this direction, and explain
-- controversially, no doubt -- why it's good for classical composers, who currently make
nearly no impact on American life.
The Classical Color Line --
about African-Americans in classical music.
My panel in Cleveland…where I chaired a discussion of
classical music and rock, sponsored jointly by the Cleveland Orchestra and the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame.
Beethoven Howls -- one of several pieces I wrote
some years ago, examining the standard classical repertoire in a contemporary light. How should
we play Beethoven, and why is this an issue?
The Shock of Contemporary Opera -- how opera has
lost its bite, and how contemporary opera could restore it. But only if it opens its arms
to the non-operatic contemporary world.
Cultural Revolution --how New Jersey Performance
Arts Center, located in Newark, needs to (and sometimes even does) attract a new kind of
audience.
Inner City Symphony -- the St. Louis Symphony,
unique among American orchestras for its relationship to its community, and with its
musicians.
Pickin' and Grinnin' at Lincoln Center -- Edgar
Meyer opens the 1997-98 season at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with music
that's not exactly classical
Bach on Bass -- how jazz bassist Ron Carter plays
Bach
One more thing we look at in this course is alternatives to mainstream
contemporary composition. Some pieces here that relate to that are:
A Fine Madness -- quite apart from its
formidable technical structure, what does Milton Babbitt's music mean?
Settling Some Old Scores -- how Milton Babbitt and
Philip Glass stand the test of time
Three essays on Meredith Monk:
my contribution to a recent book about her
an examination of her music
a review of one of her theater pieces.
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