viewpoint
BY BRETT CAMPBELL
Playtime Over
Get back to serious music
O
ur preview (4/22) of the Eugene Symphony’s
Play! A Video Game Symphony
has
provoked a thoughtful reply from the
orchestra’s president, Paul Winberg (5/6). Eugene
readers deserve to hear about the issues we’ve
raised because they’re vital for keeping classical
music alive.
As Winberg notes, the ESO, which like every
orchestra faces the challenge of attracting new
audiences while not losing the old ones, plays more
new music than most orchestras its size. Yet it still
devotes only a fraction of its annual programming to
contemporary music, and one of those precious slots has been turned over
to video game music. Normally, I’m the fi rst to applaud when an orchestra
departs from the endless repetition of 19th century warhorses. But a novelty
such as Play! can’t replace something far more important to music culture —
programming the work of today’s orchestral composers.
I’m certainly happy that many listeners — some of them probably fi rst-time
visitors to the symphony — undoubtedly enjoyed the music they heard at the
event. But the studies I’ve seen suggest that these kinds of modern pops
programs do not build a sustainable audience for classical or postclassical
music programming — new listeners seldom return for the regular fare. Why
choose gussied-up video game themes to fi ll one of the rare slots devoted
to non-stodgy repertoire when there’s plenty of eminently listenable music
written by dozens of fi ne contemporary composers — some of them right
here in Oregon — that could speak to today’s listeners and build a sustainable
audience for contemporary sounds?
Paying for one of these pre-packaged national programs instead of
performing (better yet, commissioning) a piece by a Northwest composer is
the musical equivalent of buying Twinkies at a big box chain store instead of
locally gathered honey at the farmer’s market. The latter is an investment in
homegrown musical culture.
If orchestras are going to survive, they need to be growing tomorrow’s
audience by connecting listeners to the best serious orchestral music that’s
being created today. Instead of giving the city a choice between one-time
gimmicks and museum programming, why doesn’t every Eugene Symphony
concert (and those of other classical organizations) feature at least one work
by actual living, breathing creative artists, as orchestras did in Beethoven’s
day, and as other arts institutions (dance companies, theaters, etc.) and
visionary symphony music directors, such as the ESO’s own conductor
laureate Marin Alsop, are doing all the time? (Alsop has also presented Play!
to her Baltimore audiences, but in the context of a much broader look at
contemporary composers.) That would certainly attract listeners who seek
more than the comfort of the familiar in the arts — and mention national
attention for boldness.
Certainly programming isn’t the only thing — maybe not even the main
thing — that needs to change. Venues, nontraditional audience outreach,
presentation modes (e.g. multimedia), contextualizing (via lecture demos,
art exhibits, etc.), partnerships with other arts and community institutions,
fl exibility of ensemble size and makeup, fi nancial arrangements and maybe
most of all ticket prices — they all have to be in the mix too. But success
depends on creating a product that new audiences want to hear, and more
than once.
As Winberg notes, the ESO has, commendably, embarked on some of
those promising other ways to reach new audiences, such as community
partnerships. That makes Eugene’s orchestra an ideal institution to educate
current and potential listeners, and make the case for serious contemporary
orchestral music. In the long run, it’s in the orchestra’s own interest, as well
as the community’s, to bring audiences the serious music of our own time
and place.
Brett Campbell writes for EW and other regional and national publications. He currently lives in Portland, but
still spends time in Eugene.
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4 MAY 13, 2010
EUGENE WEEKLY
letters
TO THE EDITOR
PROVINCIAL SYMPHONY
MATTER OF POLICY
Concerning Brett Campbell’s well-
taken criticism of the Eugene Symphony’s
stodgy programming (EW 4/22) and
ESO Executive Director Paul Winberg’s
needlessly personal response to Campbell
(EW 5/6): Winberg claims the symphony
takes programming seriously, but next
year’s schedule presents the music of
only one living composer. Not saying that
all the dead guys who will be performed
weren’t wonderful composers. Just saying
that they’re all dead.
It’s not the job of a professional music
critic to be a sock puppet. And Winberg’s
implied message that Campbell and EW
should not criticize his symphony was
heavy-handed and provincial.
Tom Manoff
Classical Music Critic
National Public Radio’s
All Things Considered
Around and around it goes. And
outward, too, if Eugene, like Springfi eld,
buys into the mythology that it needs
to accommodate growth by expanding
its urban growth boundary. But in fact
growth cannot be accommodated, and it
is not inevitable. It is a matter of policy, a
matter of choice.
Species grow within certain physical
constraints. Growth beyond those limits
sickens both the organism and its milieu.
Intellectual development, however, is limited
only by one’s education, experience and
imagination. It’s past time that we use some
of it to recognize that the unlimited use of
limited resources by unlimited populations
is a perilous path to a dead end.
Some believe that growth can be smart.
But “smart growth” is an oxymoron, an
elaborate shell game forcing a Sophie’s
Choice: Do we increase density and destroy
the architectural integrity and quality of life
in historical neighborhoods, for example,
or do we urbanize and suburbanize farm
and forest land and natural areas? Failure to
recognize limits to growth feeds the same
old paradigm that has made poisoned air,
water and land a worldwide crisis — even
as we continue to produce more of us to
administer the doses.
Until we get off the growth machine
and expand our minds rather than our
beltways, we’ll continue to chase our tails,
digging a deeper hole in the pursuit.
Robert Emmons
Fall Creek
IGNORANT CRITICISM
I just want to publicly thank Paul Winberg
for his excellent “Viewpoint” response to
Brett Campbell’s ignorant article about
the Eugene Symphony (Music: 4.22.10).
Whatever Campbell’s actual knowledge of
the Eugene Symphony Orchestra may be,
it was truly disheartening to see him use
the programming of Play! A Video Game
Symphony as a platform to randomly deride
the classical music industry as a whole.
As a 20+ year veteran of the industry, I
can say with authority and experience that
some of the issues Campbell describes do
exist, to some extent, in some organizations;
however, in the many orchestras I’ve
worked with, the Eugene Symphony
Orchestra stands out as an organization
that is well managed, mindfully supported
by an active board, and consistently
appreciated by enthusiastic and diverse
audiences. The problems Campbell so
blithely associates with the ESO are not
germane to this organization.
Lydia Van Dreel
Assistant Professor of Horn
University of Oregon School of Music
and Dance
EXTENSION’S VALUE
I urge a yes vote on Measure 20-158 to
support OSU’s Extension Service here in
Lane County. The Extension Service has
been labeled by some people as a “hobby
enterprise.” This is not the case. Their
services include teaching skills essential
to our local food safety and food security.
The Willamette Valley is a prime
agricultural region. As recently as 40
years ago, local growers produced close
to 50 percent of the food consumed by
Lane County citizens. Currently less than
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