2005 Royal Philharmonic Society Annual Lecture
Will Serious Music Become Extinct?
Sunday 24 April
Each year the Royal Philharmonic Society invites one of the country’s outstanding musical minds to examine the future of music.
This year’s lecture was was the first chance to hear Master of the Queen’s Music, composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, speak publicly since his appointment.
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies gave the Royal Philharmonic Society Annual Lecture on 24 April at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. In Will Serious Music Become Extinct? Max outlined his views on the future of classical music, questioning the condition of ‘serious’ music in our society with particular reference to political and commercial pressures, mass communication, education and the multiple functions of the composer.
"I am aware that many, even in the most respected bastions of musical education, regard the very knowledge of music notation as "elitist": that classical music itself is elitist. If elitist means that a little prior study and knowledge helps towards listening and participation, then it is just that - along with any other field one could mention, from science to literature to football. ".....
.....“The roots of a thriving classical music scene need three nutrients, of which the first is music education, and the second, resources: however this is perhaps a poor proposition for a government wishing to be perceived as prudent with tax payers’ money, and where the private sector, though taking a real interest, has no tax incentive to contribute. The third nutrient is new music. Classical music cannot become a museum culture, however tempting for some such a proposition may be. All performers, to be really alive, must be in a mutually constructive and beneficial relationship with contemporary thought and culture, and this means with real, live composers. ”
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