Martin2020
- Joined: Jul 6, 2020
- Last Login: Jul 6, 2020, 5:00am EDT
Will Youtube's Symphony Orchestra Bring Classical Music a Bigger Audience? Those who aren't fans of the classical music crowd, and who think that crowd is nothing but a bunch of stuffed shirts, hearing about a Youtube networking project for the music genre might incite a jab of thinking it's a last-ditch effort to save face. After all, when you continually see statistics stating that the more cerebral type of musical genres (meaning Jazz and Classical) only consist of 1% in all international music sales, it might seem like desperation to put together a Youtube channel that could connect all classical fans worldwide into one place. For fans of classical music, it might be a chance to bring those individuals who want more thoughtful music in their life together in symphonic form...literally. In one of the more creative ideas from Youtube, classical music musicians will be able to showcase their musicianship by adding their own part to a massive symphonic work being written by Chinese-American classical and film composer, Tan Dun. Called "Internet Symphony No. 1 (Eroica)", we'll soon see the first symphony performed by classical musicians all over the world via the ability to video themselves playing one instrumental part. Once all the parts are cobbled together, a performance will take place at Carnegie Hall in April of 2009 showcasing the videoed parts that managed to make the cut. Consider this to be one of those epic avant garde art projects if you want, with a touch of Beethoven what with that "Eroica" in the title. However, it's also the brainchild of the very accessible and long-respected conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. With his input, it nearly places this through the prism of a modern day Leonard Bernstein educating a new generation on classical music, but through the use of technology the new generation uses on a daily basis. The clout behind it also gets more credence when you see the names of London Symphony Orchestra and the above-mentioned Carnegie Hall. Despite the very mainstream sources putting this together, even the organizers are a tad confused over how the Youtube project is going to work. Considering everybody willing to participate will have access to the music of each individual part to this new Internet Symphony, the results of how those parts will be utilized is full of unknowns. Are there really enough professional classical musicians out there willing to spend that much time participating in this experiment? You could look at it as an opportunity for struggling classical musicians to have a video audition with the eventuality of their video performance presumably being seen in Carnegie Hall and perhaps possible employment with a major orchestra as the result. The unknowns, however, are what the quality of the performances will be when world class musicians aren't going to be the ones participating since most of them don't spend time watching videos on Youtube.