Recordings the Death of Music?

On my way to work this morning, I found myself listening to Mendelssohn's first piano trio. It's one of the best. Beautiful melodies, clean form, just generally a blast to listen, especially while in rush hour.

In fact I was enjoying it so much, I couldn't help but wonder how our society in general had lost its passion for this music? Yes, there are those like me, who still seek out and enjoy this kind of music, but what of the saloon frequenters? I mean I could definitely see myself enjoying a fermented beverage to this stuff! Well maybe not Mendelssohn in particular, but Brahms? Liszt? (I know Brahms is rolling over, putting Liszt's name next to his) A lot of this stuff is good heavy bar music. At least I think it may have been. I'm not going to try to even remember the name of the parties that Schubert hosted, but they were drunken festivals dedicated to his 'classical' music!

What happened?! Even as few as 25 years ago, I remember the majority of homes I visited having pianos...now just giant televisions.

I believe I may have an answer. I once told others that the electric guitar destroyed classical music. I may have been a bit too harsh in that statement. Upon rethinking, I believe recordings destroyed classical music, and not just classical music, but our ability to truly appreciate any type of music.

Think about it. Before the invention of recording, the only time anyone could hear any sort of music, was through live performance. A few crucial points arise out of this fact:

1. People were generally forced to come together in order to hear music
2. Music was a living entity, impossible to duplicate.

These two observations show how drastically different our society now approaches music. There is no doubt that recordings have made music easily accessible. This fact alone is one of the leading proponents given to recordings. And now, with the iPod in every pocket, music has become even more accessible. But this access comes at an extreme cost; we lose the emotional and personal connection.

One can argue that we still have live performances. This is true. However, the fact that it is an option, not a necessity, reduces it to a form of entertainment rather than a true expression of art. I think we've lost our ability to truly appreciate music because we have made it too accessible. We have reduced it to background noise, occasionally brought to the fore, when it satisfies our desire. Because of this, I feel our music has gone toward the tendency of being composed in order to fulfill the need of filling the background.

I may be wrong. I hope I'm wrong. But imagine what our society would be like without recorded music. How often during the day do you listen to recorded music? If all that were gone, how much more appreciative would you be of live music? What sort of lengths would you go to hear a good piece of music? How much more would local composers shine? Would you learn how to play instruments? Would you gather in homes just to play music?

I realize it's a grand hypothetical question, and difficult to even imagine. However, this question has sparked in me an idea for an experiment. For the next undetermined length of time, I am not going listen to any recorded music. Well, I should say I will make an effort to not listen to any recorded music. I realize that in this day and age, this is close to impossible; however, I believe I can say, I will not initiate of my own will, listening to any recorded music.

What does this mean? I can only listen to music that I myself create, or that someone/something creates for me. I'm curious to see what happens as a result of this experiment. I will try to update as often as I can as to the progress of my new approach to music appreciation. Stay tuned...