What Future for Classical Music Broadcasting?

[Mr Pee]

Interesting column here from The Arts Desk about a debate at the ISM conference on the way forward for classical music broadcasting across all platforms:-

http://www.theartsdesk.com/classical-music/what-future-classical-music-broadcasting

A shame Classic FM couldn't be bothered to send anybody along, because whatever we think of them, they are a major player, and surely one of the main reasons for the BBC's recent dumbed-down approach - although, as the article states:-

A question not discussed was whether the BBC should be thinking about wider audiences and mass markets at all, since, as you may recall, there used to be a theory that the licence fee insulated the Corporation against vulgar ratings-chasing.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

thanks Mr Pee an interesting piece ....

i had a daydream about the R3 station .... i think we are too taken with the notion of DIrector or Controller [ i reftain from referring to the odd notion about leadership prevalent heretofore in parts of central and eastern Eurasia] ... so a softer caring figure with her arms around a half dozen or so creative personalities pursuing their idiosyncratic approaches to live and recorded music ... good old fashioned tenure for the personalities so they can make mistakes ... but no one approach, rather a polymorphism of expertise and styles ........ an experimental channel in a phrase but concomitantly serious , creative and uninterested in audience scale except as a long term trend ...

this would need a certain confidence and assurance that the budget would be stable for five years ... and then a brief musical chairs exercise and a new budget and another five years .... wot larks we could all have complaining eh

[EdgeleyRob]

Chunks, it's the future.

[french frank]

An interesting piece. The ISM did have a few critical things to say about R3 in their submission to the Trust's consultation ...

I'd have loved to have been there to put some questions in the presence of what seemed like a sympathetic gathering, in spite of Mr Service's chairmanship.

I liked Jan Younghusband's comment that 'the BBC was careful not to lavish public money on marketing its programmes'. Erm ...

I'm not sure that CFM would have had a lot to offer, and think that, not because I disparage what they do: au contraire, they have their function in a commercial world and cannot be expected to have different priorities. But serious classical music broadcasting it isn't. Nor are Classical Idol, Maestro, Maestro at the Opera, and possibly not even, judging from opinions here, the BBC Young Musician competition which at one time was eagerly awaited viewing in our (if I may say again) non-musical family.

As for:

A question not discussed was whether the BBC should be thinking about wider audiences and mass markets at all, since, as you may recall, there used to be a theory that the licence fee insulated the Corporation against vulgar ratings-chasing.

this is where wool-pulling over eyes occurs. Making policy sound as if it's not 'vulgar ratings-chasing', oh no, it's the worthy aim of 'bringing classical music to a wider public'. Which is much like turning a university into a primary school on the grounds that there's a crying need for new primary schools.

[ahinton]

Yes, an intersting piece indeed and thanks for posting it. This nonsense of "bringing classical music [whatever that is] to a wider public" is nonsense only because of its word order which should, of course, be such as to read "bringing a wider public to classical music"; the implication otherwise is that the music itself might somehow be inherently incapable of drawing people in (regardless of their levels of past listening experience) which, if true, would signal the impression that it was something not especially worthy of anyone's attention in the first place. I wonder what (if they knew about the state of music dispensing and distribution today) Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Wagner or Schönberg would have made of the idea that music needs a panoply of marketing tools, "dumbings-down", outreachings and the rest in order for it to have any realistic expectation of grabbing anyone's attention? - in other words, is the music istelf not good enough to be expectged to stand on its own two feet (at least when well performed) and therefore in need of some kind of external series of handmaidens in order somehow to make it more palatable to this "wider public"? How wide is this "wider public" for "classical music" anyway - and how wide should it be? It's no eartly good trying to deal with such fundamental questions without a "wider" approach to the subject; give every schoolchild an instrument and encourage him/her to study it for at least one year and there's already some perceptibvle chance that more people will be more amenable to listening to "classical" repertoire. Encourage them to listen to CDs and broadcasts and that chance will be expanded a little. We're still talking "minority interest" here but it would be a larger - or, if we must - more significant"(!) minority than otherwise. I don't wish to state the obvious by pursuing the Venezuelan argument too far but it cannot be dismissed out of hand. Undermine the importance and power of such repertoire by "dumbing down" and too much "let's make classical music easy" attitudes of mind, however and the likelihood is that the opposite effect will be achieved.

[teamsaint]

the considered thought required by, and passions provoked by the very best music absolutely terrify those at the top Those who would have us all as unthinking worker drones know that they need to neutralise the effect of the music, and the weapons they use are clear, and can be seen in action every day.

They simply cannot afford to let the revolutionary power of the music loose..........so they try to kill it by turning it into a mid market product.

This is they way radio is going /will go. The internet may save us,if we are lucky.

[ahinton]

the considered thought required by, and passions provoked by the very best music absolutely terrify those at the top Those who would have us all as unthinking worker drones know that they need to neutralise the effect of the music, and the weapons they use are clear, and can be seen in action every day.

They simply cannot afford to let the revolutionary power of the music loose..........so they try to kill it by turning it into a mid market product.

This is they way radio is going /will go. The internet may save us,if we are lucky.

I think that the above is an overly emotive statement but, if ever it turns out to contain so much as 20% truth, we've had it, frankly...

[teamsaint]

I am glad you think it is emotive. I often post the way I feel. But I do believe in the essence of what I say....and you know it is true...they want our "entertainment" bland, mass produced, and shorn of intellectual content and real passion.

[gamba]

I have been spoiled by being old. When I was young you switched on the radio & out came 'classical' music. You had the opportunity of hearing an extremely wide selection, from Bach to a handful of ( then ) present day composers. Almost everyone was exposed to such music. Even my friends at school would actually be humming tunes & engaging in discussion about what & why they liked certain 'pieces.'

We also had to contend with a fair amount of Henry Hall, Roy Fox & Jack Payne, but even they were providing quality, albeit, with music of a more popular nature.

Ignoring music for a moment, I'll have to honest though & admit I still miss Larry the Lamb !

[pmartel]

I have been spoiled by being old. When I was young you switched on the radio & out came 'classical' music. You had the opportunity of hearing an extremely wide selection, from Bach to a handful of ( then ) present day composers. Almost everyone was exposed to such music. Even my friends at school would actually be humming tunes & engaging in discussion about what & why they liked certain 'pieces.'

We also had to contend with a fair amount of Henry Hall, Roy Fox & Jack Payne, but even they were providing quality, albeit, with music of a more popular nature.

Ignoring music for a moment, I'll have to honest though & admit I still miss Larry the Lamb !

That's how I developed my love of classical music.

Back in my college days when I got my first real radio, a Grundig table radio, I first heard classical music in the morning. I was hooked.

Through various programs on CBC Radio 2 (Stereo then) I got my education in classical music.

Jumping ahead to current day, I truly despise the dumbing down of English classical music broadcasting now. It's really tacky and does NOT provide an education as we had.

[Chris Newman]

I am old enough to remember Sidney Torch, Vilem Tausky and Charles Mackerras doing Friday Night is Music Night and was introduced to quite a wide range of the lighter end of the classical repertoire. There are some good composers in the film world but they only get brief hearings on R2 and CFM whilst the film is being promoted.