The Demands of Music

The proliferation of classical music radio stations and resources on the Web has to be experienced to be believed. A visit to one blog which takes this development very seriously is On An Overgrown Path. Recently I posted a link to the Arnold Schoenberg Jukebox discovered by Bob Shingleton. Now on his blog, he considers the question: Is recorded classical music too cheap?

The whole of his post is well worth reading, as it raises many varied and fascinating questions about recorded music in general, and also draws attention to the relatively unnoticed but extraordinarily comprehensive Naxos Web Radio.

I'm particularly taken by a quote from the composer Benjamin Britten, cited in the post. Long before the advent of Internet classical music radio, Britten was pointing to the dangers inherent in recorded music:

Anyone, anywhere, at any time can listen to the B minor Mass upon one condition only - that they possess a machine. No qualification is required of any sort - faith, virtue, education, experience, age. Music is now free for all. If I say the loudspeaker is the principal enemy of music, I don't mean that I am not grateful to it as a means of education or study, or as an evoker of memories. But it is not part of true musical experience. Regarded as such it is simply a substitute, and dangerous because deluding. Music demands more from a listener than simply the possession of a tape-machine or a transistor radio. It demands some preparation, some effort, a journey to a special place, saving up for a ticket, some homework on the programme perhaps, some clarification of the ears and sharpening of the instincts. It demands as much effort on the listener's part as the other two corners of the triangle, this holy triangle of composer, performer and listener.