On the globalization of European classical music. “Will the

On the globalization of European classical music. “Will the future of Western classical music lie outside the West?” * (*Based on a presentation by Muziek Centrum Nederland during the General Assembly 2009 of the European Festival Association, Vilnius, May 14th 2009) In the context of its international projects, Music Center The Netherlands recently developed several projects in the Middle and Far East and is initiating projects in South-America and South-Africa. This is a short keynote, regarding possible consequences of the empowerment of western classical music in countries and regions outside Europe. A trend which will increasingly confront the European classical music market in the coming decades. From a historical perspective the European music tradition is of course rooted in a remote Greek past that has undergone influences from Africa and Asia and in the traditions that arrived with early Christianity and early Islam from the MiddleEast and North-Africa. However from a certain point on for centuries there has been a mostly independent development that led to what we now refer to as the Western music tradition in Europe and with a derivative in Northern America. This Western tradition that we call classical music tradition has developed and delivered a great number of masterpieces and performances that we all know. Composers and performers worked throughout Europe and Northern America and were active on a regional, national or international level throughout the West. Meanwhile compositional influences found their way from outside Europe, for example Turkey, North-Africa, Indonesia, India, Japan, South-America and the more Southern regions of Africa, to for instance Rameau, Mozart, Debussy, Holst, Strawinsky, Ravel, Messiaen or Reich. Sometimes they were incidents, even just gimmicks, but gradually, in the permanent search for new content in Western classical music, the adoption of ‘foreign’ elements became more structural. Composers like Saint-Saëns, Bartok, Messiaen, Ton de Leeuw and Reich went ‘outside’ to undergo experiences, although gradually with the availability of recordings and films it became possible to absorb the experiences next to your working desk at home. More are more composers from outside the Western world joined. Composers around the Western outposts in the rest of the world, around missionary posts in South-America for instance, first were incidents. But Villa-Lobos, Khatchaturian, Qara Qarajev, Fikret Amirov, Chavez, Sorabji and Takemitsu became part of a trend, leading to a now globalised industry in which Tan Dun, Frangiz Alizadeh, Bechara El-Khoury, Guo Wenjing, Nouri Iskander, Gia Kancheli, Tigris Mansourian and Zad Moultaka have become to a lesser or larger degree household names in the international repertoire. Then next to the composers there is the world of the performers. That has catered from outside as well. Leila Gencer was an exception for a long while. But then came for instance Seji Ozawa, Nelson Freire, Jorge Bolet, Abdel Rahman El Bacha, Kyung Wha Chung, Myung Whung Chung, Daniel Barenboim, Martha Argerich, Placido Domingo, Yo Yo Ma, Sumi Yo, Mitsuko Uchida, José Cura, Yundi Li, Rolando Villazon, Gustavo Dudamel and Lang Lang. We often halfignored their backgrounds but with the fact that they are just born in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Caracas, Shenyang, Chongqing, Seoul etcetera it becomes increasingly difficult to deny that classical music practice is being ‘outsourced’. On the globalization of European classical music. - “Will the future of Western classical music lie outside the West?” Muziek Centrum Nederland -1- What will happen to the European classical canon if it gradually grows apart from its origin of birth? The opera houses of Buenos Aires, Manaus and Cairo were always satellites, but Tokyo since long has emancipated into a highly diverse and strong music performance market per se and China’s affluent upper-middle class has a more autonomous appetite for high-class performances. Demographic changes, shifting politics and economical recession in the western world including Europe, as opposed to the fast growing and upcoming economical high potential countries, such as Brazil, China, the Far East - and since recently the Gulf region as well, changed the balance. And in this process classical European became a much-desired art-product. New ways of communication, TV, CD’s, DVD’s and internet, made the world smaller, quicker and easier to do business with. As an individual you could suddenly access the market through your laptop, reaching out to an enormous amount of information and a huge number of other individuals. Suddenly we found ourselves in a position that we at any time and instantaneously are able to communicate with colleagues all around the world, through mobile telephone, conference calls, webcam meetings, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc., you name it. This situation results in major palpable changes in the professional classical music life. There are those who defend the idea that due to all these developments, image, life-style, instant emotions and marketing began dominating the market, above artistic quality. Nowadays, we live in a globalised world with a highly urbanized structure and a multiform social, religious, capitalistic content, in which there are no limitations only opportunities and in which there are no threats, only chances. For some these developments might be scary, but let us not forget that for the true original music lovers the arrival of the gramophone record was a threat as well. Given that fact that we can’t set back the hands of time anyway, let us see whether these developments could rather be seen as challenging. Today’s globalisation can create mass hypes and manipulated information, but also give greater access to critical media, and due to wider access, the general attitude, including that of artists, has become more critical. We hope. To start with a striking positive side of this globalised scale, let us think is the enormous growth of the music market in Brazil, China, Japan, Korea, South Africa and the Middle East. As a result in countries and regions outside Europe the A.I.D.A.-cycle of demand (i.e. Attention, Interest, Desire and Acquisition) expanded in a spectacular way. They went hand in hand with a huge growth of infrastructure, venues, festivals, media, the amount of agents involved, etc. Globalisation also influenced the supply, both coming from composers and the interpreters. For centuries composers and interpreters had to go into a lot of effort to look outside their own tradition, nowadays they use elements from different continents, traditions, styles, genres through discs, clips, samples, foreign instruments that are ready at hand, and every background and example can be explored through Wikipedia and YouTube. There is no purism possible any more, eclecticism is the mode of the day! The diversity of classical musical traditions all over the world, with its richness in colours, rhythms, harmonies and timbres provided a fantastic source of inspiration for the European musical traditions. Both composers as well as interpreters began using these treasures, incorporating them in symphonic and chamber music repertoire or other artistic products On the globalization of European classical music. - “Will the future of Western classical music lie outside the West?” Muziek Centrum Nederland -2- from the European classical tradition. As a result: ‘crossovers’, fusing all sorts of elements from different sources and contexts popped up, in classical music. Moreover there are the simple numbers both in terms of human resources and of financial capital. The European classical music market is undergoing competition from huge numbers of new market participants, both professionals and consumers. As a result: the classical music professionals of Europe are facing major competition from outside. Now what does this all mean for classical music life in Europe? What does it mean for composers? What does it mean for musicians? What does it mean for venues and festival management? Classical music-wise probably in a few decades we would find ourselves as if on a different planet (if our planet still exists). Composers, some of whom are still infants now, or who haven’t even been born yet, will grow up with the result of the cultural changes we are now facing and will take what we now still may be wary of as a starting point they will take for granted. They will be inspired by impulses from all around the globe, on which the regional focuses will have shifted, or perhaps even completely vanished. Composers, interpreters and entrepreneurs from all around the globe will participate in the music market worldwide, and the borders between what is now considered as Western classical and Western modern classical music in comparison to other genres and music from other regions might have disappeared. In other words: the classical music market (including early- and contemporary music) will be a global market to a yet unknown extent and Europe or, the western world, will loose its exclusivity. Artistic elements and attitudes originating from sources outside Europe will influence the repertoire, will influence music interpretation, and will influence the way of doing business. As a whole, the market will change in a new direction. th th How exactly this will happen, no one knows. But in Amsterdam, next October 10 – 12 we will zoom in on this issue during the Dutch Chamber Music Meeting 2009. While showcasing Dutch musicians we’ll talk about details and strategies that matter; trends that reflect directly on the classical music market; details that are worth sharing. Programmers, agents, musicians are cordially invited to join us during the DCMM-09 conference in Amsterdam. Music Centre The Netherlands will invite professionals both from Europe and from countries outside Europe with whom we are developing projects or on whom we are focusing in other ways. Colleagues present their written feedback or present their own keynote in short speeches regarding their specific musical, social, political context, regarding their specific style of presenting, organizing and artistic decision-making on www.mcn/dcmm2009/conference . They’ll inform us about the situation in Istanbul, Damascus, Tehran, Cairo, Baku, Abu Dhabi, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro etc. Professionals from Europe are invited to feedback on the internet discussion, to come to Amsterdam, to join us in meetings and discussions, Dutch Chamber Music Meeting 2009 will be a perfect moment for networking, for getting acquainted with global colleagues working in the same classical music field. They are people who share a passion for music but are dealing with completely different sets of circumstances in terms of programming and organization. It’s our challenge to build bridges between them, creating a better understanding between professionals and to support creativity. On the globalization of European classical music. - “Will the future of Western classical music lie outside the West?” Muziek Centrum Nederland -3- You can respond to this text! We appreciate your feedback on this text ,your thoughts on globalization of the western classical music tradition, the description of your own musical environment or any other ideas, views, essays that you want to share related to the subject of this text (or details from it), up to a maximum 500 words! All contributions can be sent to dcmm@mcn.nl . They will be presented on the DCMM conference webpage for all participants and visitors of the website) to read th See: www.mcn.nl/en/dcmm/conference. The conference takes place on Sunday afternoon, October 11 in two short sessions from 1.30 - 3 pm, and 4.30 - 5.30pm. We’ll keep the discussion on the web going until the start of Dutch Chamber Music Meeting 2009. On the globalization of European classical music. - “Will the future of Western classical music lie outside the West?” Muziek Centrum Nederland -4-