Aisle Say, The First Post

One of the first classical music records I enjoyed featured the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. “Concertgebouw” seemed like a wonderfully fantastic name for an orchestra. Not just a city name – yawn. But a tricky-looking word that felt pretty fun practicing saying it out loud. I was in 8th grade or so.

So last year, I visited some friends in Amsterdam. My dear friend Karen took me to concert at the home of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Now the Concertgebouw were out touring in Japan (damn them), so instead, we heard a pretty good concert by a Romanian orchestra. But while we were there, it suddenly dawned on me that the wonderfully sophisticated sounding word “Concertgebouw” actually means little more than “concert building.”

That was kind of a let down. But it also reminded me that sometimes classical music has a veneer of pretension and a wall of terminology that nudges – if not shoves – lots of people away. Whereas so much of classical music, opera and other arts can be enjoyed as ordinary everyday entertainment. So much of it was created as the popular music of its time. So much of it can be listened to, or watched and enjoyed without any preconceived notions. Of course, understanding and enjoyment can be more deeply appreciated with some information. Just like we enjoy reading interviews and articles in Entertainment Weekly, Spin, and People or watching them on Oprah, or the Today Show, it’s often more fun knowing more about the actors, musicians, and directors who create the entertainments we enjoy.

I’m not saying that classical music and other arts shouldn’t be considered extraordinary – much of it is unbelievably extraordinary. But I’d just like to suggest that we keep things grounded. Let’s not be exclusive with the arts. Unless you’re a scholar, let’s keep discussions about whatever we’re discussing, light, accessible, and yes, even informative.