A recent facebook message sent to a well known live composer by a fan, a young musician to thank him for accepting his “friend request”, got me thinking how great it is, that our generation of fans and instrumentalists have the opportunity to connect not only with their peers but with the great and admired performers and contemporary composers.
The masters are available via email and even are sharing some facts of their lives, making them human yes, but not less venerable for their work.
I wonder how it would play out, if it became possible to connect to our old revered masters the same way. What would Chopin have answered to a friendship request? He was probably too private to even register on facebook. Schumann however, would have been posting lots of: ‘Robert is….’ ’status comments’and blogs too, I assume. Lots of them.
It certainly would have meant a lot to Clara Schumann to be able to record from home. Maybe she would have used Skype and Youtube to promote Robert’s music. Her own compositions may have come out with a little help from fan groups and I-tunes would have most certainly posted her recordings on I-like.
I wonder if Beethoven would be opposed to perform at a nightclub,like the (le)Poisson Rouge, the popular Downtown Manhattan Bar that integrates Classical Programs alternatively to its Rock and New World Music Scene-I suspect he would not be at all.
Looking at the speed of communication and promotional tools out there, one has to wonder how these greats made it into our lives at all,considering that mail, music and performers as well as social relationships, were based on visits by horse and wagon, instead of blackberries and the varying electronic devices of our day.
Maybe it took a while longer to reach everyone, but their stardom lasted from generation to generation, their music has been taught with passion by teachers and performers for centuries. Maybe that was the case, because their message was powerful enough to overcome space and time.Maybe it was partly due the fact, that the way they collected their ‘friends’ over decades, happened by building a relationship through effort and understanding, not by clicking “accept” a thousand times.
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