the most rewarding experiences of being
a musician is sharing music with people
for the first time we going through a
really fascinating period of innovation
in the way that we present music which i
think is relevant to the way that we
present and share all subjects but
firstly why music why is music important
and why do people like me why we’re so
passionate about sharing music well for
me music is a form of storytelling music
has the ability to capture the human
experience and emotion of different
situations to understand fear and
oppression from the Soviet Union under
Joseph Starling what better place to
start than the music of Dmitri
Shostakovich any study of the social
revolutions of 1960s Britain would have
to make reference to the music of the
Beatles and anyone interested in the the
themes of loss and grief heaven and
resurrection very meaning of our
existence and find riches in the music
of Gustav Mahler it’s through
storytelling that we understand
ourselves our own realities and building
an emotional understanding with the
realities of other people but unlike
other forms of storytelling we’ve built
an imaginary wall around some forms of
music I’m talking of course about music
which falls under the largely inaccurate
term classical music I speak to many
people who frequent our art galleries
viewing art from throughout the ages
they’ll enjoy classic plays that are
theatres read classic novels but those
same people are often not quite as at
ease with music from the same period
just a few weeks ago I was listening to
the radio and the writer Ali Smith said
that for much of her life she felt
afraid to go towards classical music
because she didn’t know enough about it
it’s not an uncommon view but why has it
become a prerequisite for enjoying great
music that we know something about it to
answer this question I think it’s very
useful to look at the context in which
the music was created
and to see if there’s any knowledge that
an audience of the time might have had
that a modern audience might not
necessarily have now in the Cambridge
companion to Mozart Robert Levin writes
that Mozart’s music depicts a wide range
of dramatic and emotional situations
that are intimately bound up with the
social conventions of the day take the
minuet for example a minuet is a formal
dance a partner dance which was popular
in the 17th and 18th century it was
performed at balls and formal events
very elegant and graceful in character
and as a very interesting hierarchy as
to which couple would be allowed to
dance first
now the minuet became a part of concert
music it was integrated into the
symphonic form composers like Mozart
wrote 23 symphonies that include a
minuet his contemporary Joseph Haydn
wrote 96 symphonies which include a
minuet and both of these composers were
listed in the 2015 survey of the top 10
most performed composers in the world
and yet I wondered I wonder how many of
those audiences have ever seen a minuet
being danced or ever danced one
themselves it has it a guess that all of
Mozart’s audiences had giving them an
inherent connection with the physical
nature and the social function of the
music I guess what I’m saying is perhaps
if we can’t find a way of presenting the
minuet dance style when we perform a
symphony and we’re accepting that
there’s some kind of barrier between our
audience and the music a non-musical
example I was in a hotel earlier this
year looking for something to watch on
the television as you do before you go
to sleep and I came across a football
match between Liverpool and Borussia
Dortmund now I’m not really a football
fan but there was something incredible
about this match and it wasn’t
necessarily the quality of the football
which is also very good I learned
through the commentary that Liverpool’s
manager was playing against his former
club
I learned that about Liverpool’s
illustrious European Cup history and I
learned that this match was taking place
on the anniversary of the terrible
Hillsborough tragedy in which 96
Liverpool supporters lost their lives
there was something intangible about the
spirit in which the match was being
played and at the end when the crowd
came together to sing you’ll never walk
alone I was incredibly moved and I don’t
think it was the quality of the
Liverpool fans singing oh but I’m sure
they’ve got wonderfully trained voices
it was because I was familiar with the
context the story behind this match
this is something I’ve started to call
the power of familiarity you could just
call it knowledge or context there’s
something about the word familiar which
I like it suggests a relationship with
the fact it’s not just a pure knowledge
of them the challenge when we’re
presenting subjects is how do we present
this context how do we build this
familiarity within the constraints of
the mediums in which we work a one and a
half or two hour concert or presentation
15-minute talk a class a lecture it
helps to know your audience and to know
what do they already know are they
familiar with the subject that you’re
presenting classical music audiences can
be incredibly knowledgeable often they
know more about the music than the
people who are performing it but if
you’re presenting a subject to newcomers
you can always find a related subject
with which your audience already has
familiarity the fantastic and legendary
music educator and conductor Leonard
Bernstein said the best way to
understand the thing is to compare it to
something else so to thought the
composer and pianist Franz Liszt writing
in the 1830s while he’s travelling
through Europe wrote this every day my
feelings and thoughts confirm my
awareness of the hidden relationship in
the works of genius Raphael and
Michelangelo helped me to understand
Mozart and Beethoven in Giovanni Pisano
fra B Otto and Francia artists I found
an explanation for allegory marchello
and Palestrina composes Tiziano and
Rossini appeared to me like twin stars a
refraction of each other
the Colosseum and the cemetery are not
as foreign to the heroic Symphony and
the Requiem as one might imagine Dante
has found his artistic echo in Arcana
and Michelangelo now here’s one of the
great minds of the Romantic movement
comparing art painting with literature
music architecture now
the architecture analogies worth a talk
completely on its own but I just wanted
to make a short detour Architects write
detailed architectural plans just as
composers make detailed scores the
architects then employ builders to build
these buildings out of bricks and stone
just as the musicians the composers will
employ musicians to create the music out
of sound they both have a grasp of form
they both deal with different textures
and the counterpoint between different
elements and perhaps even the
functionality of the music or the
building but the difference is the
building material bricks and stones last
for hundreds of thousands of years but
music sound disappears as soon as the
last reverberation is gone imagine if
all of our buildings were to fall down
after 10 or 15 or 20 years we’d be in a
constant state of regeneration it’s very
similar to the way that classical music
operates
we are constantly reimagining from these
architectural plans the way the music
was performed despite these clear
relationships between subjects I find
that they’re notably absent from many
areas of our lives just think about the
way that we present and teach subjects
in school art music literature science
with often very few connections made
between them except I recently
discovered in Finland where they have
something called phenomenon based
learning learning about a topic from a
range of different subjects also the way
we present our arts art galleries
present paintings
concerts perform music in museums we
have exhibitions of historical or
scientific topics
imagine how much richer our experiences
become we experience a topic from a
multitude of angles and it’s starting to
happen just think about the way that art
galleries now give you a set of
headphones so you can learn about the
story and history behind artists and in
the best cases even carefully selected
music which matches the genre or
movement of art look at the way that
modern film and theatre makers have
brought Shakespeare to a modern audience
using familiar settings replacing
castles with pubs replacing swords with
guns using modern clothing modern music
modern dance bringing a poetically
complex and classical writer to a modern
audience now they say that music is a
language but music is a language without
nouns it does adjectives but not nouns
so music can give you a sense of flowing
but it can’t give you the specific such
as River music can display a sense of
grief but it can’t tell you for whom for
many years musicians have relied upon
printed program notes to impart the
context the nouns but there are now many
more creative solutions
the recent Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s
beyond the score series presented
theatrical context storytelling actors
projection telling the story behind the
work Stravinsky’s ballet petrushka is
very often performed purely as a concert
piece but it was recently performed by
the New York Philharmonic in
collaboration with a live puppet theatre
company there can be very simple
solutions as well Beethoven’s Sixth
Symphony is entitled the pastoral
symphony and the first movement has a an
inscription cheerful awakenings upon
arriving in the countryside when the
Budapest Festival Orchestra came to
London some few
years ago they placed a tree in the
center of the stage with the orchestra
sat around it it’s a very simple gesture
but it cuts directly to the universal
element of the music with which we are
all familiar a love of nature
another element of familiarities
perspective if you go to an art gallery
you can walk through and appreciate how
the artist has developed over time
perhaps how he’s been influenced by
other artists around him when I sit and
listen to a concert perhaps a symphony
by Beethoven I can also recall the
earlier symphonies the later symphonies
I have in my mind a sense of where this
piece fits within the grand story of his
work now recreating that experience is
something that I tried to do with the
actor and writer Zubin Varla when we
presented Marla’s first symphony in the
first half we presented a play with a
variety of music that the young composer
would have been influenced by Amala said
a symphony must be like the world it
must contain everything and so too we
try to introduce everything to our
audience
poetry newspaper articles diary entries
recreating the world of the artist as he
would have seen it with a creative
spirit and one eye always on the
newcomer these type of concerts of
methods could work alongside traditional
concerts to bring music to a new
audience and in a moment in history
where there are many forces dividing us
perhaps this is one wall the music world
can take down for good my final example
is a series run by the Sydney Symphony
Orchestra called playlist in which
members of the orchestra introduce and
present pieces of music that has a
personal significance for them music
they’ve built a relationship with over
time and it reminded me of what the
ultimate goal is of listening to music a
personal connection the power of
familiarity the Khan
texts studying learning even playing an
instrument can be a way a journey to
that relationship but despite everything
I’ve said it’s not as important what the
music meant to Mozart’s audience is what
it means to you now talking about music
to a cultured and interested audience of
Ted viewers feels a little bit like
preaching to the converted so I’m very
nearly done I hope that I’ve inspired
you to listen to new music I hope that
what you have a subject you are
passionate about you will always keep an
eye on the newcomer so that more people
can experience the best of human
creativity and I hope that our society
continues to recognize the enormous
impact that music has on our emotional
understanding and our ability to
empathize if we do this I think we can
build a more compassionate and peaceful
world thank you
[Applause]
a musician is sharing music with people
for the first time we going through a
really fascinating period of innovation
in the way that we present music which i
think is relevant to the way that we
present and share all subjects but
firstly why music why is music important
and why do people like me why we’re so
passionate about sharing music well for
me music is a form of storytelling music
has the ability to capture the human
experience and emotion of different
situations to understand fear and
oppression from the Soviet Union under
Joseph Starling what better place to
start than the music of Dmitri
Shostakovich any study of the social
revolutions of 1960s Britain would have
to make reference to the music of the
Beatles and anyone interested in the the
themes of loss and grief heaven and
resurrection very meaning of our
existence and find riches in the music
of Gustav Mahler it’s through
storytelling that we understand
ourselves our own realities and building
an emotional understanding with the
realities of other people but unlike
other forms of storytelling we’ve built
an imaginary wall around some forms of
music I’m talking of course about music
which falls under the largely inaccurate
term classical music I speak to many
people who frequent our art galleries
viewing art from throughout the ages
they’ll enjoy classic plays that are
theatres read classic novels but those
same people are often not quite as at
ease with music from the same period
just a few weeks ago I was listening to
the radio and the writer Ali Smith said
that for much of her life she felt
afraid to go towards classical music
because she didn’t know enough about it
it’s not an uncommon view but why has it
become a prerequisite for enjoying great
music that we know something about it to
answer this question I think it’s very
useful to look at the context in which
the music was created
and to see if there’s any knowledge that
an audience of the time might have had
that a modern audience might not
necessarily have now in the Cambridge
companion to Mozart Robert Levin writes
that Mozart’s music depicts a wide range
of dramatic and emotional situations
that are intimately bound up with the
social conventions of the day take the
minuet for example a minuet is a formal
dance a partner dance which was popular
in the 17th and 18th century it was
performed at balls and formal events
very elegant and graceful in character
and as a very interesting hierarchy as
to which couple would be allowed to
dance first
now the minuet became a part of concert
music it was integrated into the
symphonic form composers like Mozart
wrote 23 symphonies that include a
minuet his contemporary Joseph Haydn
wrote 96 symphonies which include a
minuet and both of these composers were
listed in the 2015 survey of the top 10
most performed composers in the world
and yet I wondered I wonder how many of
those audiences have ever seen a minuet
being danced or ever danced one
themselves it has it a guess that all of
Mozart’s audiences had giving them an
inherent connection with the physical
nature and the social function of the
music I guess what I’m saying is perhaps
if we can’t find a way of presenting the
minuet dance style when we perform a
symphony and we’re accepting that
there’s some kind of barrier between our
audience and the music a non-musical
example I was in a hotel earlier this
year looking for something to watch on
the television as you do before you go
to sleep and I came across a football
match between Liverpool and Borussia
Dortmund now I’m not really a football
fan but there was something incredible
about this match and it wasn’t
necessarily the quality of the football
which is also very good I learned
through the commentary that Liverpool’s
manager was playing against his former
club
I learned that about Liverpool’s
illustrious European Cup history and I
learned that this match was taking place
on the anniversary of the terrible
Hillsborough tragedy in which 96
Liverpool supporters lost their lives
there was something intangible about the
spirit in which the match was being
played and at the end when the crowd
came together to sing you’ll never walk
alone I was incredibly moved and I don’t
think it was the quality of the
Liverpool fans singing oh but I’m sure
they’ve got wonderfully trained voices
it was because I was familiar with the
context the story behind this match
this is something I’ve started to call
the power of familiarity you could just
call it knowledge or context there’s
something about the word familiar which
I like it suggests a relationship with
the fact it’s not just a pure knowledge
of them the challenge when we’re
presenting subjects is how do we present
this context how do we build this
familiarity within the constraints of
the mediums in which we work a one and a
half or two hour concert or presentation
15-minute talk a class a lecture it
helps to know your audience and to know
what do they already know are they
familiar with the subject that you’re
presenting classical music audiences can
be incredibly knowledgeable often they
know more about the music than the
people who are performing it but if
you’re presenting a subject to newcomers
you can always find a related subject
with which your audience already has
familiarity the fantastic and legendary
music educator and conductor Leonard
Bernstein said the best way to
understand the thing is to compare it to
something else so to thought the
composer and pianist Franz Liszt writing
in the 1830s while he’s travelling
through Europe wrote this every day my
feelings and thoughts confirm my
awareness of the hidden relationship in
the works of genius Raphael and
Michelangelo helped me to understand
Mozart and Beethoven in Giovanni Pisano
fra B Otto and Francia artists I found
an explanation for allegory marchello
and Palestrina composes Tiziano and
Rossini appeared to me like twin stars a
refraction of each other
the Colosseum and the cemetery are not
as foreign to the heroic Symphony and
the Requiem as one might imagine Dante
has found his artistic echo in Arcana
and Michelangelo now here’s one of the
great minds of the Romantic movement
comparing art painting with literature
music architecture now
the architecture analogies worth a talk
completely on its own but I just wanted
to make a short detour Architects write
detailed architectural plans just as
composers make detailed scores the
architects then employ builders to build
these buildings out of bricks and stone
just as the musicians the composers will
employ musicians to create the music out
of sound they both have a grasp of form
they both deal with different textures
and the counterpoint between different
elements and perhaps even the
functionality of the music or the
building but the difference is the
building material bricks and stones last
for hundreds of thousands of years but
music sound disappears as soon as the
last reverberation is gone imagine if
all of our buildings were to fall down
after 10 or 15 or 20 years we’d be in a
constant state of regeneration it’s very
similar to the way that classical music
operates
we are constantly reimagining from these
architectural plans the way the music
was performed despite these clear
relationships between subjects I find
that they’re notably absent from many
areas of our lives just think about the
way that we present and teach subjects
in school art music literature science
with often very few connections made
between them except I recently
discovered in Finland where they have
something called phenomenon based
learning learning about a topic from a
range of different subjects also the way
we present our arts art galleries
present paintings
concerts perform music in museums we
have exhibitions of historical or
scientific topics
imagine how much richer our experiences
become we experience a topic from a
multitude of angles and it’s starting to
happen just think about the way that art
galleries now give you a set of
headphones so you can learn about the
story and history behind artists and in
the best cases even carefully selected
music which matches the genre or
movement of art look at the way that
modern film and theatre makers have
brought Shakespeare to a modern audience
using familiar settings replacing
castles with pubs replacing swords with
guns using modern clothing modern music
modern dance bringing a poetically
complex and classical writer to a modern
audience now they say that music is a
language but music is a language without
nouns it does adjectives but not nouns
so music can give you a sense of flowing
but it can’t give you the specific such
as River music can display a sense of
grief but it can’t tell you for whom for
many years musicians have relied upon
printed program notes to impart the
context the nouns but there are now many
more creative solutions
the recent Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s
beyond the score series presented
theatrical context storytelling actors
projection telling the story behind the
work Stravinsky’s ballet petrushka is
very often performed purely as a concert
piece but it was recently performed by
the New York Philharmonic in
collaboration with a live puppet theatre
company there can be very simple
solutions as well Beethoven’s Sixth
Symphony is entitled the pastoral
symphony and the first movement has a an
inscription cheerful awakenings upon
arriving in the countryside when the
Budapest Festival Orchestra came to
London some few
years ago they placed a tree in the
center of the stage with the orchestra
sat around it it’s a very simple gesture
but it cuts directly to the universal
element of the music with which we are
all familiar a love of nature
another element of familiarities
perspective if you go to an art gallery
you can walk through and appreciate how
the artist has developed over time
perhaps how he’s been influenced by
other artists around him when I sit and
listen to a concert perhaps a symphony
by Beethoven I can also recall the
earlier symphonies the later symphonies
I have in my mind a sense of where this
piece fits within the grand story of his
work now recreating that experience is
something that I tried to do with the
actor and writer Zubin Varla when we
presented Marla’s first symphony in the
first half we presented a play with a
variety of music that the young composer
would have been influenced by Amala said
a symphony must be like the world it
must contain everything and so too we
try to introduce everything to our
audience
poetry newspaper articles diary entries
recreating the world of the artist as he
would have seen it with a creative
spirit and one eye always on the
newcomer these type of concerts of
methods could work alongside traditional
concerts to bring music to a new
audience and in a moment in history
where there are many forces dividing us
perhaps this is one wall the music world
can take down for good my final example
is a series run by the Sydney Symphony
Orchestra called playlist in which
members of the orchestra introduce and
present pieces of music that has a
personal significance for them music
they’ve built a relationship with over
time and it reminded me of what the
ultimate goal is of listening to music a
personal connection the power of
familiarity the Khan
texts studying learning even playing an
instrument can be a way a journey to
that relationship but despite everything
I’ve said it’s not as important what the
music meant to Mozart’s audience is what
it means to you now talking about music
to a cultured and interested audience of
Ted viewers feels a little bit like
preaching to the converted so I’m very
nearly done I hope that I’ve inspired
you to listen to new music I hope that
what you have a subject you are
passionate about you will always keep an
eye on the newcomer so that more people
can experience the best of human
creativity and I hope that our society
continues to recognize the enormous
impact that music has on our emotional
understanding and our ability to
empathize if we do this I think we can
build a more compassionate and peaceful
world thank you
[Applause]
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