Must a Post-Rockist embrace classical music? Part I

Clarinet Concerto in A Major
Wolfgang Mozart
The Best of Mozart

Must a Post-Rockist embrace classical music? The intention of this site is to write about music sans the snobbery of the High Fidelity-esque record store clerk or the critic who only likes the “true” punk or “true” music or whatever. But is it possible or even necessary to move beyond rock snobbery by exploring the critical and aural space occupied by classical music which, of all music genres, enjoys snobbery and exclusivity even more than rock music?

In a recent Studio 360 interview, classical composer William Bolcom speaks about the intersections between classical and pop, how they influence each other often, and how, in America in particular, there is a reluctance by most classical and pop musicians, critics, and fans, to acknowledge each other in any non-derisive way:

“Our [musical culture] has always been sort of exclusivist. There’s high-line music over here and there’s that lousy pop music over there…We’re supposed to enjoy it so therefore if it’s enjoyable then maybe it’s suspect–that’s part of the protestant tradition. I’ve always been an enemy of that. [And] that’s the problem with composing. They don’t know what to do with your complicated side versus your pop side and [don't] realize you’re the same person. That whole wall has been, I think, a great enemy to both our classical or serious art institutions on one hand and I think it has empoverished pop music.”

While I disagree with Bolcom’s unconscious (or perhaps conscious) designation of classical music as the “serious” musical institution, I do agree that pop fans have much to love in classical music and that classical fans have much to love in pop music. Although certainly many of you out there enjoy both, I would aver that the majority of music listeners in this country do not even try to listen to both (especially those people out there who “love all kinds of music,” an exclamation that, in my more rockist days, used to make my blood boil and burn).

In the year ahead, the Post-Rockist will occasionally offer reflections upon the intersections between pop and classical music, to find if there is a common ground, if a Post-Rockist must embrace classical music, or if it would be best if never the twain shall meet.

Exhibit one: Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A Minor. I’m an amateur to classical music, and so I went directly to Mozart since he’s, like, famous or something.

Holy molley this is a fantastic piece of music. The clarinet lifts my soul out of my bedeviled chest and lays it upon the softest of pillows. The concerto is a blanket, it is a parent’s lap, a love-soaked bath of sound, clothing your entire being, forcing your eyes closed, and leaving you tenderly in a fetal position. I don’t really believe too much in an afterlife, but if one exists, it will sound like the Second Movement of the Clarinet Concerto in A Minor.

I hope you’re not too much of a rock snob to give it a good listen. It does the same thing to me as Jeff Buckley’s Grace.

If you have any ideas about the relationship between pop and classical or if you want to share your relationship to either, please share in the “Comments.”

Posted by Scotter