Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it — and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections.
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I love TED, I’m crazy about classical music (used to be a professional choral singer until I got hijacked to the boonies), and this guy has got it SOOOOOOOOOOO right!Unfortunately, the classical world has done an awful lot to give itself the reputation of being a bunch of stuffy, nose-in-the-air elitists by enshrining the “Greats” – I’m reminded of a remark Mozart is said to have made about the Big Names of his day being “so holy, they shit marble” – and obscuring the flesh-and-blood humans who wrote the music. (I also used to write program notes. A lot of those guys were nuckin’futs.)And God forbid that they recognize the humor in centuries-old music, or remember that just as Shakespeare was popular entertainment in his day, this was the popular music of its day, with everything that entails. Once I sang in a concert of secular madrigals by Josquin des Prez and his contemporaries. The lyrics were irreverent and even downright bawdy, but when I tried to put together translations that would reflect that, I caught all kinds of crap from my fellow singers! Fortunately our director agreed with me.
Also, by giving short shrift to the “lesser” composers, they’ve narrowed the scope of classical music even further, to the point of near-homogeneity. At that point it becomes boring, or simply high-class Muzak.I’m in my mid-50s, and I remember hearing Antheil and Var�se on the radio along with Bach and Beethoven. But aside from some very rare exceptions (such as WNYC2 24/7, which plays some WILD SHIT!), you won’t hear that any more – not even at 3 am. There’s so much amazing stuff out there that almost no one knows about! IMO it’s tragic.Having said that, I pride myself on having gotten several people into classical. I dragged my ex out of the doldrums of Easy Listening (which I can’t stand; it reminds me of going to the dentist) and into classical very early in our relationship. One of the first investments we made after we got married was a pair of season tickets to the orchestra. Our son grew up with classical and sang in a top-notch children’s choir for several years. I’m currently working to broaden a friend’s musical horizons; he’s been into Romantic for quite a while, but I’m gradually introducing him to the whole classical spectrum. I’m especially pleased to say he’s getting more and more into choral music!Classical music tewtally RAWKS. We need a lot more evangelists like Ben Zander to spread the word!