Here is an article I wrote for the Canadian Music Educator / Musicien éducateur au Canada, volume 51 – number 4. I offer it to you with the kind permission of CMEA/ACME.

The musical black hole

Music courses in schools can be an excellent place for students to gain musical initiation to what is called the Repertoire – specifically, the music of Bach (1685 – 1750), Mozart (1756 – 1791) Beethoven (1770 – 1827) and other immortal composers. But there is a dismaying gap in the musical timeline students are exposed to. It seems the collective musical memory made an immense jump, leaving a significant portion of contemporary music badly neglected. Examples given in the classroom rarely go past 1940! Following immediately from that reference point comes popular music. Have more than 70 years of music been blacklisted and forgotten? It is as if an entire body of important work has simply disappeared into a bottomless pit, a musical black hole. It is an enormous absence in the chronology of music.

Music is present in all aspects of life. The difference between music’s role today and twenty years ago is that while music used to be sung and played by anyone and everyone, these days almost no one sings anymore. And yet never has Mankind been so intensely exposed to music in all its forms and attendant issues: internet, television, radio, movies, live shows and concerts, not to mention CDs and DVDs; and with all the magazines and publications, we think in terms of musical events as much as musical content. Add to that the dematerialization of music which has led us to reconsider complex and related aspects such as copyright and royalty payments to successors. What was previously a simple passion for music has become the consumption of products available in a thousand flavours and fragmented in a multitude of tiny, specialized niches.

Musical production is divided into two basic families: what we call “serious” music; and “popular” music. Each music family breaks down into several categories having, each in its turn, varying levels of development and complexity. Sometimes serious and popular music clash. But they often come together – to form the soundtrack for a film, for example; or in the creation of the musical element of other multi-media products.

Serious music is also called “contemporary” music, or it may fall under the generic term Classical music. Most of us can easily imagine a concert hall where silence is the rule and the atmosphere is heavy, filled with a respect steeped in tradition and ensured by a code of etiquette. What is most striking is the over-abundance of older people in the audience. From personal observation, I would say the average age is around 50. Where is the next generation of “serious” music lovers? What is the reason for this lack of young listeners? Whose fault is it – if indeed there is blame to be laid?

This situation was brought about in part by composers themselves. They pursued musical experimentation without regard for a public feeling increasingly lost and abandoned. Isolated in ivory towers, creators in search of the absolute such as Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951), Anton Webern (1883 – 1945), Pierre Boulez (1925 – ) and Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928 – 2007) became enshrouded in the veils of elitism. Far be it from me to denigrate the results of their explorations. To the contrary: these composers helped create new systems for organizing sound and expanding the palette of colour and expression, all the while extending the limits of the musical aesthetic. But we have to admit there was a rupture in the link between the composer and the public.

How to optimize channels of communication for re-establishing this fragile link? Two ways: By better educating young people, and by enhancing the knowledge of teachers.

For teachers: Organizations such as the Quebec Music Educator Association (QMEA) in association with la Fédération des associations de musiciens éducateurs du Québec (FAMEQ) are building links between educators and composers. These groups facilitate encounters enabling music teachers to take the perspective of music creators. Twice my colleague Tom Brady and I have had the privilege of taking part in these conferences. The goal is to help teachers gain a better understanding of composers and their creative process. The exchanges are fruitful for all involved. It is not just a matter of demystifying the creative aspects; there is also debate and exchange of ideas on ways and means of exposing youth to high quality contemporary music – a genre not well known by a public bombarded from all sides by far more accessible productions. I would also point to FAMEQ and la Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ), and their ongoing efforts to make room for local composers at festivals and in training programs.

I am currently benefitting from a Canadian Music Centre (CMC) program developed to enable schools to bring a working composer into their community. Montreal’s FACE School welcomed me in this context – an opportunity for sharing and creativity which takes the form of workshops and creating. In the workshops I provide young musicians with the chance to put into practical use contemporary techniques relating to the use of voice in choral training. On the creative side, I have composed a full suite comprised of six parts for various ensembles: choir, concert band and string orchestra.

A point I like to emphasize in class is music’s historical timeline. I will ask students who have just listened to Erik Satie’s (1866 – 1925) Gymnopédie No 1 to determine the date of composition. Invariably, the answer fluctuates between 1960 to 1980 – whereas the piece was published in 1888! This piece is part of our collective memory; yet often the first reference date we hear relates to its use in other media, such as film. Young people are so enclosed in the present and the immediate that they lose a sense of time and its cultural periods. To address this, for my first class I give my Trebas Institute students an unmarked compact disc. Their challenge is to identify each of the fifteen tracks, assigning a title along with the name of the composer or artist. The pieces included on this mystery CD will range from the ancient to the popular and may include classical, jazz, current popular, and even film music. Two weeks later the students submit the results of their research. They have had access to software enabling them to name and classify the fifteen recordings with a great deal of precision. When I ask for the composition date, they are surprised at how the music has evolved over the course of time.

There is another problematic area where music education has a major responsibility: How to appreciate an art if we do not know the basics of its language? Could we respond to a book if we did not know how to read? In like manner, we have to possess some notion of music theory in order to bring ourselves beyond a state of simple, passive listening. Like all languages, music theory is comprised of different elements: alphabet (names of notes, order of accidentals, intervals), vocabulary (musical terms), and grammar (basic elements of tone forming scales and their chords). It is always possible to appreciate music that has had the advantage of wide diffusion and broad, repeated exposition over the long term. An emotional attachment develops. But if young people do not have the chance to hear and equip themselves with the keys enabling an understanding of contemporary works, it will be difficult to criticize their lack of curiosity in this regard.

Young people are far more open to new experiences than we generally give them credit for. All we have to do is expose them to this music. Many teachers are making the most of the immense advantages provided by the internet to highlight uses of classical music outside of its original context. Whether it be in films, songs or advertising these educators are making their students understand that classical music is not dead, it is beautiful and well adapted to new sounds. If the same exercise were used to highlight the wide-ranging use of contemporary music – in films, for example – a big step toward its appreciation could be taken. We only have to consider the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick (1928 – 1999) which used and made more famous Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949), and the music of György Ligeti (1923 – 2006) – Lux Æterna, Atmosphères, and the music of Aram Khatchaturian (1903 – 1978) – Gayne Ballet Suite. And it would be better still if we can inspire music students to study our own composers, artists such as André Prévost (1934 – 2001), Jacques Hétu (1938 – 2010), Michel Longtin (1946 — ), Denis Gougeon (1951 —), Serge Arcuri (1954 — ), André Hamel (1955 —), Ana Sokolovic (1968 — ), Nicolas Gilbert (1979 —) and many others.

The best link lies in direct contact between young people and the creators. This is where organizations such as QMEA, FAMEQ, CMC and SMCQ take centre stage, promoting the presence of creators in the school environment, building knowledge and awareness that can put an end to the musical black hole that will drag us into its vortex if we do not pay closer attention to a music that is part of who we are.

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I welcome any comments on it.