Classical Music FAQs

Q. What is so special about classical music? How does it work the particular WAY it does?

A. Virtually EVERYONE enjoys music. It is the most popular art form because it touches each of us directly. Surely singing and dancing are humanity's oldest entertainments. With the literal EXPLOSION of entertainment technology we have today, MANY have access to an overwhelming choice of musical genres and styles, instruments and performers. These TOGETHER LIVE and PLAY and get us worked up into our FAVORITE MOODS! We feel that our favorite music SPEAKS FOR US and that it could quite possibly SAVE THE WORLD! This is what our grandparents wanted for us, right? More choices? More happiness? More FREEDOMS! Well... why would ANY musician who grew up on popular soul, rock, jazz CHOOSE to pursue something seemingly CONSTRAINED as CLASSICAL music? Well, never MIND my opinion that even the last bass player in a full orchestra STILL has some amount of ARTISTIC FREEDOM to do his job. Never mind the considerable salary of a Top 10 orchestra like DSO. It's the music ITSELF that's the big PAYOFF!

While to the UNINITIATED it may seem outdated and irrelevant to modern living, the classical music tradition, the VAST historical collection of the Western world's fine art musical works and adopted practices for presenting it, STILL INSPIRES people to do great things! While aged HUNDREDS of years, it BREATHES LIFE ANEW with every upbeat and final chord, achieving IMMORTALITY for its best creators. It speaks to us in a language BEYOND words, in a dialect beyond CULTURE. Like receiving a great massage, it MANIPULATES us psychologically into RELEASING HIDDEN TENSIONS. It suspends before us a model of PERFECTION... a CHALLENGE for us to do BETTER. From Haydn and Mozart to Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Bartok, this music reflects both the lightness and darkness of life and every shade in between with a NATURAL progression of emotional experience. Much like a great novel, this music offers an EXTENDED MIX of COMPLEX DRAMA. It offers an infinite VARIETY of balanced combinations of instruments (orchestration), keys (pitch centers) and tempos (music speeds), dances and songs, surprises and inevitabilities. What makes this music "classical" as we call it today is its NEW DIRECTION in the Age of Enlightenment to reflect certain CLASSICAL GREEK ideals.

Classical music is a multi-faceted art form, like a DIAMOND. There are many colorful facets to observe, consider and appreciate, which will make it rather overwhelming for the newcomer to think about. For example, we COULD view classical music composition as a defacto musical LANGUAGE where just 12 NOTES (A-natural thru G-sharp) are the alphabet... spelling words as harmonic CHORDS... which, given their psychological weight RELATIVE to the home KEY, function like nouns, verbs and modifiers. The MELODY and HARMONY together form musical SENTENCES (PHRASES), in which the performer must decide WHICH word gets the most EMPHASIS... much like a Shakespearean actor would decide. These sentences explore (DEVELOP) a single idea (THEME or a fragment called a MOTIF) to some intermediate conclusion (either HALF-CADENCE or FULL-CADENCE) before either introducing a new and contrasting idea or returning to the first idea. Contrasting two ideas allows for the creation of an infinite variety of artistic dramas.

Another major facet to classical music is its use of the principals of TENSION AND RELEASE. Like a good author a good composer BUILDS AND SUSTAINS PSYCHOLOGICAL TENSION over a long period of time. Keeping in mind that dramatic tension as it builds from start to finish only to be released near the end reflects the human NEED for resolution and redemption... the SEARCH for PERSONAL MEANING. But this psychological principal also drives music in short periods too. Within each musical sentence some chords carry more tension than others (DISSONANCE) relative to the home KEY. The performers intentionally LEAN ON these chords to heighten the INEVITABLE RELEASE. Much like BREATHING or WALKING, music is a cyclical process... constantly ALTERNATING between two themes and modes.

Q. If the conductor is so important to the orchestra, then why don't the musicians ever look up at him/her?

A. Conductors, their beat, and the many subtle directions they indicate by gesture, facial expression or rehearsal comment are ESSENTIAL to make a large orchestra sound UNIFIED and INSPIRED. Classical music has a great variety of changes in tempo (speed), mood, character and instrumental balances that would be hard to execute without the leadership of a CLEAR and CONFIDENT conductor. A great orchestra can reflect the slightest musical nuances from a conductor; as if they were all connected by some invisible device. But while you might think the musicians are staring a hole in the music and not paying attention, in fact we are SPLITTING our focus between several elements. Firstly we have to play beautiful sounds on our instruments; secondly we have to listen carefully to the rest of the orchestra and neither drag nor push the beat; thirdly we glance or look up when we expect the conductor will give new or inspiring changes. Unfortunately in classical music, we can't memorize all the music and so have to read our parts without getting lost: this third element then complicates the others. However since the conductor's movements are usually discernable without looking directly at him/her, by using our "peripheral vision" we can split our concentration between the page, the instrument, and the podium. (Another reason why playing music is such a great exercise for kids!)

Peripheral vision is much like if you read a book while walking down a quiet sidewalk. Having faith in the evenness of the pavement, you can walk without thinking about it much while reading your book. (I'm a bookworm myself and do this fairly often!) You keep in mind of course that crossing the street will require you to look up. And so WE have faith in the evenness of the tempo and look up when we EXPECT or notice that the tempo is changing.

Another word about memorization though - Some of us have very good memories and can manage to memorize/recall several measures at a time, particularly if we play recurring patterns. Most of us however simply memorize a bar or two only when we need to look directly at the conductor (usually when he/she changes the tempo or is animatedly trying to show us something). At those times we must be very careful not to play a wrong note, lose our place on the page, forget which direction to move the bow, or play a wrong articulation while attempting to play from memory. Our audiences may not be able to hear mistakes, but to the trained ear, we could sound rather UNprofessional to play ANY mistakes. (Some mistakes are bigger than others!)  It should be noted however that concerto soloists are expected to perform completely from memory unless the work performed is very new or exceedingly complex.


Q. Why is the conductor so important? It seems like the musicians could easily perform without one!

A. A good orchestra could indeed perform several works without a conductor: and in fact the magnificent Orpheus Ensemble does precisely that. But like any chamber group they need to spend many HOURS discussing how any given music will be played; (drawbacks of a democratic system) and so cannot (perhaps) rehearse music very quickly or thoroughly. A good conductor not only keeps our ensemble TIGHT (sounding perfectly together) but inspires us to give appropriate character and weight to the music.

Our former music director Neeme Jarvi is a GREAT conductor in this respect. He is a person of tremendous musicianship and conducting ability. No two performances of his are quite alike. He literally DANCES on the podium, revealing alternate musical ideas to us as quickly as he can think of them and FLESHING OUT all the dramatic characters of the music. He also demands that we play faster/slower and louder/softer than we thought possible. Those exaggerations, we agree, best serve the music and our audiences.


Q. So how much DO those instruments cost?

A. String instruments, bassoons, gold flutes, harps, and the many percussion instruments are shockingly expensive! Certainly you've heard of violins by Stradivarius, Amati, and Guarneri selling or valued for hundreds of thousands if not MILLIONS of dollars: well this represents the extreme high end and obviously few professional musicians can afford to FIND much less to pay down a loan like that! Most quality string instruments that are actually played by professionals range widely from $25,000 - $500,000. Still a shocking figure but the investment usually proves worthwhile as great instruments are easier to play well (however they can't really play themselves!), and they also blend in with the orchestra better or they can produce exaggerated dynamics than lesser instruments. Brass instruments are probably the least expensive in the orchestra but they often purchase a new instrument every five years or so as used ones become slightly warped and dinged. By the way a good BATON runs about $45!


Q. What are "movements" and why are they so important in classical music?

A. Ever since the prehistory of classical music (say the Renaissance period), composers sought to STRETCH music into longer and larger compositions... to sustain the beauty. Thus a Medieval song with alternating choruses and verses (Cantata) may not have been quite as grand as a Baroque multi-movement suite for violin or orchestra (Sonata). Separate and contrasting movements allow the composer to COLLECT a wider variety of music together into one larger composition that, taken as a whole, display more contrasting moods, tempos, instrumental colors and forms. VARIETY of course holds the attention of the audience; but the composers have to be careful to somehow RELATE these movements to one another. Initially in the Baroque and Classical Periods this was accomplished by related key signatures or a musical character; but with Beethoven's famous 5th Symphony we began to have movements related by THEMATIC material as well. And this is why we the audience have to check out the written program at classical music concerts; to count how many movements will be performed in a composition before we should applaud. It is somewhat DISRUPTIVE to interrupt the "flow" of one movement to another with applause. Symphonies generally have four movements, while concertos will usually have only three. (Anything called a suite will have at least four, but perhaps a few more too!)

Actually much of the first multi-movement works were indeed dances; hence the use of such a term. In the Baroque Period the European bourgeoisie were expected to dance so many forms of the day. Collections of popular French dance movements (Suites) helped satisfy their cravings for such entertainment. (J. S. Bach's 12 suites for violin and cello are but two famous examples of movement-oriented works. Each movement after the initial introductory movement lists the name of its characteristic dance and their particular rhythm; such as Courante, Bouree, Allemande, and Gigue.) Read more...


Q. What's the best way to enjoy classical music?

A. It becomes obvious to those who grew up WITHOUT exposure to classical music that it might be very difficult to appreciate. It may seem SURREAL to come sit quietly for 2 hours without eating and drinking while musicians play 200 year old music in 300 year old CLOTHES!  But even those who've only heard the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky can appreciate that the music can be very dramatic and AROUSING, even surprisingly FAMILIAR! And it's not just because of the cannons; but also because they can recognize the famous French anthem! When people learn even just a little bit of the music, they are more likely to enjoy it. In turn, they will always find SURPRISES mixed in! So I advise people to familiarize themselves with music by listening to CDs REPEATEDLY and listening to classical radio stations like WRCJ in Detroit.

Now... when you can listen to music uninterrupted, CLOSE YOUR EYES and try to follow the TENSION LEVEL of the music as it RISES AND FALLS from start to finish.

Q. How does someone develop their listening skills?

A. Good listening skills are essential to the enjoyment of classical music. A listener should be able to distinguish between what is melody and what is accompaniment at the very least. But further listening skills will enable you to appreciate such musical devices as counterpoint, orchestration, harmony, phrasing, and even FORM. Listening to FUGUES will help you internalize COUNTERPOINT. HARMONY is perhaps best heard in CHORAL SINGING. And PHRASING is front and foremost with a SONATA SOLOIST such as the Mozart Violin Sonatas. FORM is the OVERALL STRUCTURE of any movement (song) concerning the recurrence of its 2 or 3 MAJOR THEMES. MOST movements have a DEVELOPMENT SECTION in the middle, which is an opportunity for the composer to ROCK THE HOUSE!


Q. This may seem obvious but how is classical music different from "pop music"?

A. While it may indeed seem obvious, it might help to acknowledge some of the major differences between art forms. Growing directly out of the Western development of MUSIC NOTATION after 1050AD, this music is completely WRITTEN OUT so someone OTHER than the composer may RECREATE it. Perhaps the most dramatic differences for people are that classical is a completely ACOUSTIC (unamplified) medium. Classical music seeks to entertain listeners by a pleasant (or NOT) PRESENTATION OF CONTRASTS; contrasts of speed (tempo), instrumentation (color & texture), volume (loudness), even contrasts of movements (pieces). Even VARIATIONS are contrasting STYLES applied to the same theme. Classical (esp. orchestral music) comes in very extended forms; seeking to "embrace the world" as Gustav Mahler put it.
I think of pop music as a MOTORBOAT and classical as a SAILBOAT. The motorboat moves powerfully, loudly, and quickly along, propelled by chemical reactions and mechanical means. The DRUMS act as the propeller, literally DRIVING the music forward. The sailboat moves quietly, gracefully, ADVENTUROUSLY along, propelled by physical leverages of its plane forms against the wind and water. The HARMONY tends to leverage the music forward like the SAILS of some sleek sloop! Furthermore sailing requires a learned SKILL SET, patience and is ALSO popularly viewed as OBSOLETE. Classical music, being acoustic music, is closer to nature. Cradled on a the WARM SILENCE of a good hall, sound is produced by HUMAN mechanics and BREATHES of air.

But WHAT ARE THESE if not THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED? POP music is by definition that which is EASIEST TO ACCESS. Therefore fine art music is at least in part defined by its LACK of accessibility. There's no doubt about it... the MORE YOU LEARN about fine art, the MORE REWARDING become your experiences! I often advise people to TAKE UP an instrument if they want to go deeper. But just attending LIVE CONCERTS is THE BEST WAY to appreciate this incredible LEGACY FOR ALL of mankind!


Q. What are some IMPRESSIVE things I can tell my date at an orchestra concert?

A. Here are ten!

1.	"I love how the conductor drew out that big climax in the third movement!"
2.	"It was great the way the soloist really nailed those tough licks in the concerto!"
3.	"I thought the brass were too loud in first movement: I couldn't hear the woodwinds at all sometimes!"
4.	"Man, the acoustics in this hall are amazing! You could hear a pin drop and know which end hit first!"
5.	"I wish Schubert (or whichever composer you liked) had lived another twenty years. I can't get enough of his music."
6.	"The cello section is my favorite. When they play the melody, my heart starts to melt!"
7.	"This conductor really makes the finales of symphonies very exciting! Probably because he picks up the tempo toward the end."
8.	"This orchestra gets a very rich sound! You'll notice that the strings use a lot of bow and the woodwinds and the brass are rather dark sounding."
9.	"Look, they're playing Mahler 5 in two weeks! His music expresses the gamut of human emotions and experience: it's very uplifting! Let's come back for that one!"
10.	"Y'know, I have a CD of that last piece I listen to alot; but I enjoy live concerts so much more, because the musicians find so many different ways to phrase the music: I'm always moved by it."

Q. What are some things I SHOULDN'T tell my date at an orchestra concert?

A. Here's another eight!

1.	"I wish they'd fix the sound system: sometimes they play so softly I can barely hear 'em!"
2.	"Y'know, I used to play string bass back in grade school and they never let me use a bow!"
3.	"I saw that movie Amadeus back when it came out and I thought it was MUCH more entertaining than this!"
4.	"Y'see that cute girl playing the fiddle over there? I like to watch her chest shake when they play real fast!"
5.	"Hey I know THIS tune! It's the background music to my favorite hemorrhoid commercial on TV!"
6.	"Y'know the musicians aren't really following the conductor... he's only up there because he can't play so good!"
7.	"Could you ask the guy sitting next to you if he's got a spare set of earplugs so I can listen to the game with him?"
8.	"Hey WAIT... I thought Aretha Franklin was supposed to conduct!"

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for coming! I hope I've been able to write some things helpful to your discovery of classical music. I firmly believe that if we can't get more people to appreciate classical music then we're not working hard enough! Concerts by CutTime Players are indeed an educational experience as well because you'll hear most of the players speak from deep personal experience! We will cut YOUR time to enjoying this fabulous resource!

I encourage you to submit questions by email which I may post up here!

Take care! - Rick