FEATURE:
Classical Gas
IN THIS PHOTO: American French horn player, Kyra Sims/PHOTO CREDIT: Kyra Sims
Injecting New Sonic Invention and Variation Into Modern Music
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AS I have been listening to The Beatles…
PHOTO CREDIT: @gwundrig/Unsplash
even more than I normally would for research purposes, I have been noticing various songs and marvelling at how they are enhanced by some Classical music strings. Maybe it would be a bit overdone is modern music was drenched in strings and had that Classical vibe. I do think that the worlds of Classical and all other genres seem to be separated. I have been listening to some classic film scores and iconic Classical artists and enjoying how varied and captivating the songs are. If you want beauty, terror, joy and every other emotion know to man, then Classical music has it all! I think that, as we do not hear sampling much these days, there is a certain layering and cross-pollination that is missing. Artists do splice genres and sounds but, to me, there is something lacking - a space that can be filled and a potential that is not being fulfilled. I am just trying to cast my mind back to the last song or album I heard that utilised Classical music and mixed in those sounds to the blend. I know it can be expensive booking these musicians and finding the space to record during a pandemic. That said, one would not need to bring in a full orchestra or necessarily find a large recording space to record in. Maybe this is for post-lockdown but, as Classical music is always evolving and there are so many great composers and musicians around, it would be incredible hearing their influence across multiple genres. Even if you do not like Classical music and want a brief sprinkle, there is this perfect opportunity to broaden and enhance music.
IN THIS PHOTO: Catherine Martin, a violinist, has been doing delivery shifts at weekends/PHOTO CREDIT: Andy Staples
I say this because Classical musicians have especially struggled during the pandemic. I guess their careers rely more on live performances and they might be performing more concerts than writing and recording their own songs. I associate Classical musicians as being together and needing a lot of space, whereas most other musicians can record remotely and do not have the same specifications. The situation has been bad in the U.K. and the U.S. The Guardian published an article last month where they spoke to musicians who have had to take other jobs to make ends meet. Catherine Martin told her story:
“The violinist described the poignant moment when she was sent to deliver Waitrose groceries to an address near London’s Wigmore Hall, a venue she had graced as a professional violinist only months earlier. “You take it for granted what you do. It has been difficult, but I’ve tried to find positives.”
She said she was not aware when she decided to stop working as a professional musician – a career she has had for 25 years – that a grant would be introduced for self-employed people. Even if she was, Martin said, she would not have been able to take the money and do nothing.
“I actually found that, without concerts in my diary, I totally lost my motivation. I got quite depressed and I really realised I needed to do something.” On top of the weekend delivery work, she said, she also took on volunteer work at her local Oxfam shop while it was able to open.
Despite a distinguished career that has taken her all over Europe, she was quite pessimistic about returning to music. “Concerts and festivals are organised years in advance. So, usually at this point in the year, I’d have a pretty firm idea of what I’m doing for the rest of the year, and some things into next year … But these things are not coming in.
“At the moment, I’m not looking at the end of the pandemic and then we’ll all start doing concerts again because the concerts already have all been cancelled.”
Martin said many people have assumed that life will return to normal soon. “But, for us in the arts, it’s a different story”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Choral singer Alexander Blake is leading a movement for anti-racism in Choral music/PHOTO CREDIT: Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times
In the United States, there are similar struggles now that concert halls and venues are closed. The Los Angeles Times spoke with a range of Classical musicians as they discussed loss and hope during the pandemic:
“In January, Kyra Sims was hired to perform at the Grammys with Lizzo. That same week, she played with Tituss Burgess at Carnegie Hall.
“2020 was going to be my year,” Sims says. “I felt like I was really starting to arrive professionally. Everything was going up, up, up.”
Sims also had been hired to play in a Broadway musical. Then, for no reason that she could discern, she got fired from the show after the first rehearsal.
“I’m a Black woman playing a brass instrument, and as of right now, I don’t think there are any Black women playing brass instruments on Broadway,” she says, declining to name the show from which she was fired. “Was it implicit bias? I don’t know.”
That happened three weeks before New York shut down and the show closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During her conservatory training, pianist Sharon Su had been taught to stick rigidly to the classical canon, which prompted her to pose the question: “Why have I only ever played music by white guys?”
Recognizing systemic bias, Su began playing and recording work by female composers, including Clara Schumann, Louise Farrenc and Cécile Chaminade.
PHOTO CREDIT: Joshua Woroniecki/Unsplash
In the months leading up to the coronavirus shutdowns, she was working with a composer to transform a sonata by 19th century German composer Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, sister of Felix Mendelssohn, into a concerto. But the pandemic put a grand concert tour on hold.
“We’re back in talks to get that concerto tour up and running, but only one ensemble has committed, because everybody’s budgets are shot,” Su says.
Within a two-hour span in March one year ago, Corinne Olsen lost all her gigs for the month.
Soon enough, cancellations started on her April jobs, and by mid-April, the L.A.-based freelance viola player’s entire calendar for 2020 was gone.
Over the summer, a few one-off jobs began cropping up here and there. The problem was that they were often attended by people not wearing masks. “Is my health and safety worth the $200 to play a half-hour at a wedding?” she asks”.
I actually keep abreast of The Guardian’s section on Classical and what is happening right now. Many musicians are able to survive but, with restriction in place, we have not seen the same sort of activity and growth that we would have liked. I hope that, post-pandemic, there is a new appreciation of Classical musicians and money is provided by the Government so that there is not too much loss.
Whether it is some eerie strings, sweep scores or tender piano, the influence of Classical music is huge! There has always been a connection and link between Classical and other genres, yet I think that many artists today are either relying on technology or more traditional sounds (suitable to their genre) and not experimenting in that way. As I said, costs might be prohibiting a lot of artists when it comes to merging Classical music into their world. I feel many people assume Classical music is a thing of the past or that it is very samey or unappealing. It is a changing and broad genre where old impressions of snobbishness and elitism. There are some great shows and podcasts regarding Classical music. BBC Radio 3 is a precious resource. I hope that many artists reach out in months to come and we do get these intriguing collaborations. I think there is so much untapped potential when it comes to joining together Classical and other genres. Whether it is bringing strings and more drama into Grime and Hip-Hop or augmenting a Pop hit with a quartet, so much more richness and variegation can be created. I feel for Classical musicians during an especially tough period. I just hope that, when things get better, we will not lose too many…
OF these fantastic musicians and composers.