Author: Max Hammer

photo by Timothy Neesam/CBC

The Canadian Broadcast Company’s disbandment of its classical music division and traveling orchestra series last month has produced outrage from Canadians across the country.

Yesterday, in eight cities throughout Canada, including Halifax, Montreal and Vancouver, protesters demonstrated outside CBC offices.

The CBC’s reaction: “We have a mandate as a national public broadcaster … to represent the musical diversity and creativity in the country, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Classical, yes, but other kinds of music as well.” [Full article].

John Terauds, a classical music critic, wrote to the Toronto Star, essentially agreeing with the CBC’s decision in the interest of ‘indie pop and rock’:

Wouldn’t it be nice if our portal truly reflected the country – so our rich and ever-regenerating indie pop and rock artists and burgeoning world and world-fusion musicians can get equal airtime (and bandwidth) with the venerable Toronto and Montreal symphony orchestras?That’s where Radio 2 is going – while still guaranteeing listeners several hours of classical programming every day. We should be proud – not angry – that the CBC is willing to take this kind of risk.

But Sara Davis Buechner, concert pianist and assistant processor of piano at University of British Columbia, strongly disagrees with Terauds, writing in the Vancouver Sun:

Anthony Tommasini has written some excellent columns recently in the New York Times about the astonishing interest in classical music being shown by young people through hits on the Internet, downloads, in Facebook groups and the like, on YouTube and Naxos, etc.

Classical music…is hotter than ever and our halls are filled with young people eager to challenge their ears and imagination. They want more and better, not less and worse. How is chucking one of the best new music groups in the country serving them?

Commercial stations exist aplenty full of indie rock and pop. The CBC need not compete with them. CBC-2 is not a moldy blanket. It’s a public trust with an obligation to the cultural history of the Nation of Canada.

Personally, what I didn’t find in reading about the CBC’s disbanding of the orchestra series is any mention that one of Canada’s most popular music groups ever, Arcade Fire, helped bring attention to classical instruments by regularly incorporating strings in their music, both in the studio and in concert.Here’s the full version of the one of Arcade Fire’s song that made string instruments ‘cool’ with many fans and had a ripple effect (Ra Ra Riot, Vampire Weekend, The Ramonovs, etc.) – that may or may not be a trend.

MP3: Arcade Fire –Neighbourhoods #1

Related Article: Indie Rock Gets It Very Own String Quartet

Featured on the release of the string tribute quartet covers from Vitamin Records is Arcade Fire’s Neighbourhoods [audio clip] and Death Cab for Cutie [audio clip].

All said, the demise of classical music anywhere cannot be a good thing because classical music is the basis for all modern popular music.

So, in conclusion, while the CBC may have decided to axe a huge chunk of classical programming in the interests of appealing to a younger generation that wants indie and alternative pop and rock music, I don’t think classical music will vanish, but this is just another example of the attrition classical music has had with the ‘masses’ for decades.