Monday Musical Moment: MMM: Music is for Everyone
Happy Monday!
One of the most wonderful things about music is that it is available to everyone. No matter your background, level training, or musical tastes, there is something out there that connects you to a larger group of people. Music connects us to our heritage, traditions, and culture, and is in all our DNA!
Did you know that the first available fossil record dates musical activity to at least 45,000 years ago? The earliest humans expressed emotion and told stories through vocal and percussive music long before any numbers, currency, or even a cohesive language was developed. There are some in the Western cultures that consider music to be an exclusive domain for professional musicians, who have honed their skills over many years of practice, but did you know that infants often hum or sing before they can even utter their first words? Because music is not for a select group of a privileged few. Music is for everyone.
Over the years, the audiences for musical performance have shifted. In the Renaissance, music was used as a social and class divide, with the religious and elite enjoying unaccompanied choral music, and poorer non-religious groups playing instrumental folk music. It was common from the 16th to 18th centuries for royalty to pay for their own composers and musicians to live, play, and compose music exclusively for themselves and their rich friends, increasing the separation between classes. Today, it is unfortunately too common to hear comments disparaging those who either do not have musical knowledge, like someone who has season tickets to go to the symphony bashing those who enjoy pop music or hip-hop. Or someone in an opera who stands up and cheers receiving death glares from that person down the row who has been going to the Houston Grand Opera for years.
Just like people of all races, religions, cultures, and beliefs, music should always be a means to come together, and not be used as a wedge to keep people out. Too often in “classical” music events, there is an expectation to maintain proper etiquette, but that can sometimes be antithetical to an audience’s natural reaction. For example, the music from West Side Story, composed by American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, has been enjoyed for decades and is often performed as concert music by symphony orchestras, especially the exciting “Mambo.” If you are not familiar with it, the piece is by no means meant to be enjoyed sitting still, quietly listening intently, but it often is in concert halls all over the world.
In 2012, Gustavo Dudamel (Venezuelan conductor of the L.A. Philharmonic) and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra (the apex of Venezuelan’s youth orchestra system) gave a performance of the mambo that is a perfect snapshot of how music should be enjoyed by performer and audience alike. The way the performers and audience of all ages are singing, clapping, and dancing together represents the best capabilities of music. Music allows us to share a common humanity with each other like few things in life can.
After all, music is for everyone!
Justin