So on Friday I zipped down from DC to Baltimore to attend the League of American Orchestras conference. Whose theme this year was diversity, aka “The Richness of Difference.”
A three-day conference; I was there for only one day, so of can’t know everything that went on.
But one thing I’m sure of. Symphony orchestras — or just about any major classical music institution — can’t match the diversity impact of Hamilton, which (not exactly to anyone’s surprise) just won the Tony award.
And demonstrated so powerfully the richness of difference, which, with all respect, the League can only dream about.
Here are two tweets I saw (and I’m sure there were many more), which show how rich the Hamiltondifference was:
from @WendyRosenfield:
…best #TonyAwards in years and it’s because work abt and including many ethnicities made it that way. Attn must be paid!
from @TheClariceUMD:
showing us that EVERYONE can be, and should be included in theatre, and that all stories matter. #TonyAwards
Why can’t we do that in classical music?
Why — instead of just talking about these things — why don’t we have a classical music event with Hamilton’s richness of difference?
So many reasons.
First, hiphop..
One reason Hamilton hit so hard, and seemed both so current and so right, was that its music was hiphop.
But classical music doesn’t do hiphop. Or any other African-American musical idiom. Oh, something might creep in, now and then, but it’s coming from outside.
IDENT You could say — and people did — that hiphop was a surprise on Broadway, and that a musical with music of a kind that gets on the pop charts was a return to past glory, and greatly refreshing. All true. But Broadway at least is open to popular culture, in ways that classical music isn’t.
Second reason: Broadway is open to African-American culture.
I’m not saying there haven’t been problems, and that Broadway could go much further. But going back many years — A Raisin in the Sun, August Wilson, The Wiz (and, I’m sure, much that I don’t know about) — we’ve had, on Broadway, prominent African-American voices.
We don’t have that in classical music.
And at the bottom of this…
…lies the deepest problem, which is how attached we are to the classical canon. All those great masterworks, which — through no fault of their own — are lily-white.
I won’t blame our masterworks for that. But if our main mission is to perform those them — to keep our canon front and center — then of course we don’t generate Hamilton, or anything like it.
That’s not what we do.
Which then means that to be more diverse, we have to change what we do.
Easy to type those words, but to put them in action — that would be a deep, systemic shock, to everything the classical music world holds most dear.
Point taken regarding diversity in classical music. While this is upsetting to some people, there is more than meets the ire. The greatest composer, Beethoven, was not lily-white, and had black or mulatto ancestry on his mother’s side. Contemporary composers have incorporated music of various ethnicities in theirs. Among these is Christopher Theofanidis, some of whose works have native American themes and idioms (Rainbow Body, Viola Concerto). His opera, The Refuge, chronicles immigrants to Houston from seven different nationalities and incorporates as many ethnic musical groups. It was a way to engage a potential new audience for whom opera had been completely irrelevant. One should not overlook the large and growing number of Asian classical musicians whose talent is recognized in numerous international competitions and orchestra auditions. Before we reflexively seek to change what we do, the bigger question may be if what we do excludes any group or stylistic concept. I believe that for some time now, the answer is no. As always, education is the key.
The people to decide whether any group or stylistic concept has been excluded is not me, a white person, or you, if you happen to white. The people to ask are the groups in question, the ones who might be thought to be excluded. Your view is that what we do doesn’t exclude any group or stylistic concept. But if you ask people from the groups in question, they would differ with you. And they’d be in a better position to know, don’t you think?
Thanks, Greg, but why not address what I have written? As they say, attack the idea, not the person. But since you have asked, I have been a music educator for 40 years, so I believe I know a little bit about the subject. I am also white. So what? Does that mean I cannot support diversity or differing styles within classical music? Some would see your point as reverse racism. You have said we (classical musicians) should change what we do. Would you ask the same for a jazz, rap, country, folk, or soul group? Each genre has its own identity and audience. No one goes to a jazz concert to hear Brahms, and no one goes to a rap concert to hear lieder. Just as with all races and ethnicities, we should celebrate the differences. Don’t you think?
I wrote quite a long reply to Larry, when I saw the same questions to me on Facebook. Can’t at the moment put them here — busy parenting day today — but later I will. Important issue, good questions. And I do think i was peremptory in my first reply to Larry. Apologies for that.
Yes, Greg, you did indeed give a very thorough and thoughtful reply on Facebook. I also wrote a bit there, and not always in agreement. These are important issues. Thanks for bringing them up and keeping the discussion going.
Our Oregon Symphony invites and plays with a wide variety of guests, and combines their styles with the orchestra’s, sometimes with wonderful results. Pink Martini, for example, brings musicians and singers from countries like Japan and Brazil and includes influences from many cultures in their pieces.
From the few snatches of “Hamilton” that I’ve seen on TV, I’m impressed with how it seems to me to reprise an element of the very first Florentine opera. From what I’ve read, those very first opera audiences were astonished — not by the arias (there were none as we’d conceive of them); it was by the recitative. That is, by the idea that the drama could be advanced by a kind of declamation that was rhythmic and that had some of the melodic contours of dramatic speech. Recitative was notated with enough accuracy to allow it to be coordinated closely to stage action, to other singer/actors, and to sparse instrumental accompaniment. I believe this was a new idea, one that defined the new art of opera.
I assume the creators of Hamilton were aware of this historical correspondence. If not, they at least arrived at something at once very new and very old
Brilliant, Bill Brice. A similar parallel may be made between the baroque trio sonata and the modern jazz combo. Two melody instruments, a keyboard and bass, with improvised melodies grounded on chord progressions. The modern addition of drums reflects the importance of rhythm. While both genres have quite different DNAs, there is much in common. Similarly, rap and Florentine opera have quite different DNAs, but perhaps they too have much in common. Which, not coincidentally flows to the discussion about diversity in music, which is perhaps unduly (unfairly?) limited to classical music. Perhaps it is not the output of the creators of “classical music” that needs to be broadened, but the input of those who would judge its merits.