Vienna Live with Simeon Morrow – Weekly interactive Show

The string quartet genre may define classical music better than any other.  Its four musical parts are played by two violins, one viola and one (violon-)cello.  Together, those parts can perform both monophonic music (i.e. all parts play the same rhythm in unity – like a church chorale) and polyphonic music (i.e. each part performs independently of the others).  Most string quartets we love are considered inspired combination of the two.  “Well, those terms are a bit out-of-date, just like the word classical!” you are probably thinking to yourself.  Maybe, but the social construct the string quartet is founded on is as contemporary as it gets: offices to institute diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging have sprung up in every sector of American commercial and non-commercial industry and are directed by fancy-named officials who oversee million-dollar annual budgets.  New name, old problem: those offices have been created to figure out the age-old Enlightenment quandary of how to appreciate difference and bring the excluded into the fold to share wisdom.  Joseph Haydn – considered the Father of the String Quartet, and most other classical music genres – experienced this Enlightenment issue firsthand, during the chamber music salon concerts he attended and he eventually developed the string quartet to show off an impressive “DEI” strategy.  Whereas the first violin dominates in his string quartets, Op. 20, and the other parts mostly nod in agreement, the four parts become equal discursive partners in his Op. 33 quartets, all the to the benefit of an enriching musical conversation.  The Arianna String Quartet is in its 30^th year now and the Quartet – the resident chamber music ensemble of the University of Missouri-Saint Louis – joins our show to discuss the extraordinary string quartet genre with us and why it is so relevant to our current moment. 

WHEN:

• Wednesday, April 5th, 2023, at 19:00 Central European Summer Time / 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time / 10:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time

WHERE:

• Join the Arianna String Quartet (you can interact with them and participants from around the world) in the Vienna Live Zoom Meeting

• Watch it on LinkedIn live

Music unites us, but it also divides us.  We unconsciously foster strong associations between music, gender and race.  Just close your eyes and think about Beethoven’s Choral Symphony: it celebrates music’s unique power to unite disparate individuals into one universal human family, but how many women do you see?  And how many of those women are black?  Now think about the blues and, right after, Madonna’s music.  In the case of the former, do you see any white men?  And of the latter, do you see any Asian men?  Which gender and racial profiles seem to belong to each music and which seem out of place?  Keep in mind: if you have trouble simply imagining those music outsiders, how daring it must be for an outsider to show up at a concert!  Professor Francesca Royster’s new book is a diary-like account of her journey to find belonging in a music world not known for including black women – especially lesbian black women – that of country & western.  Her discoveries are at once insightful, exciting and painful. Who knew that Tina Turner used country & western to perform female liberation and independence from male domination?  Yet it is reconciliation and not retribution that Royster really wants.  In line with the promise of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony, she deeply wishes that music’s magic would dissolve the barriers separating her from fellow fans.  But, for the time being, she finds her place with like-minded (-gendered and -raced) musicians and resigns herself to attentively listening for the revolutions of the next generation.  Come welcome Francesca to our show and she will introduce us to country & western music!

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The classical music “industry” is an intriguing one.  It is a complex of professionals from many different disciplines working together.  Of course, it’s the musicians who perform it and the instrument makers who manufacture and maintain the instruments those musicians perform it on.  But don’t overlook the publishers of the printed music “compositions” that make up the concert programs musicians offer, as well as the recorded music publishers whose sounds influence the performance decisions musicians make as they read the printed music notes placed on music stands in front of them.  The classical music industry is at once extremely conservative –  indeed, musicians are trained at conservatories – and daringly innovative – it was Octavio Petrucci’s reverence for yesterday’s hits that led him publish music notes printed from movable type.  So how is the classical music industry currently situated?  We hear a lot of concerns coming from professionals working inside it; about the “graying” of classical music audiences generally and, specifically, how mp3 files and music streaming have decimated recorded music profitability, on the one hand, and the Pandemic taking an unprecedented toll on live music profitability, on the other.  But we also hear about the unforeseen opportunities these “gales of creative destruction” – as the economist Joseph Schumpeter calls them – offer all those with an interest in classical music.  Waves of consolidation have created new industry models, like the one Pentatone, a classical music recording label, now operates as a part of.  Pentatone recently forged a unique partnership with two of the largest classical music management companies in the world, all three partners of which are owned by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.  Sean Hickey, Managing Director of Pentatone, is at the center of the action and he’s coming on our show to discuss all of what’s happening today and what that means for the classical music of tomorrow.  Whither, then, are you speeding, O classical music?” 

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