In Defence of Classical Music

Andrew Ford

Sydney: ABC Books, 2005

Reviewed By Elizabeth Silsbury

Does classical music need defending? If so, from what? Or whom? Is not the most inspirational invention of all time big enough and beautiful enough to defend itself?
Composer, broadcaster, writer and thinker Andrew Ford believes it does. He sets about this task with the same passion, talent, wisdom, wit and experience that he brings to every task he assumes.

His fifth book, In Defence of Classical Music, organised into three sections, is another set of slants -- many of them highly original -- on the business of delivering and receiving music.
First off, Ford solves in two words the vexing problem of nomenclature. Classical (big C) music is defined as coming from the period roughly 1750-1820, and from the pens of Mozart, Haydn and early Beethoven and their contemporaries; classical (little c) is ' how most people refer to an entire Western tradition of notated music stretching roughly from the 12th century to the present day'. So there.
Ford opens the case for the defence by attacking ten clichés commonly trotted out by the prosecution -- not defined, but we all know who they are -- as reasons for what he calls the 'gulf that has recently developed between classical and popular (ugh! but the word that turns St Cecilia incendiary with rage will have to do for now) music'.
Some of his platitudes are easily demolished -- classical music lovers are 'snobs', classical music will ' make you a better person'. In the hierarchy of intimidation chamber music is tops, then opera, then symphony concerts. Such generalisations crumble, as he demonstrates, when specific examples are considered.
But Cliché 1gave me pause. 'You need a special education to understand classical music'. His riposte that 'anyone at any time can appreciate classical music just by listening to it' invites challenge. Although Ford does not pursue a populist versus élitist theme, surely the major distinction between 'classical' and 'other' music is that the more one studies a Brahms symphony the more one appreciates it, which supports, rather than refutes, Cliché 10, namely 'classical music is better than other music'. With characteristic wit and style, he maintains that comparing 'Rossini with the Rolling Stones, Elgar with Eminem is pointless because they have so little in common' and there is no joy in comparing beefsteak with bread if 'you want to make toast'. Not better - just different.
After demolishing the silly , superficial and totally untrue notion that music is an 'international language' (NB Womadelaide), Ford deals with the 'symptoms of decline', which could easily occupy his book number 6, then goes into illuminating detail in three separate sections about the significance of notation, likening this most wondrous of all symbologies to 'Patterns, Blueprints, Maps', and drawing on poets Les Murray, Rodney Hall, WH Auden as well as composers Mahler, Brahms, Boulez and many more. Along the way he takes a swipe at mendacious politicians, comparing their falsehoods and 'spin' with the truth of classical music. Here also is his account of the trauma his musical life suffered after the World Trade Centre bombing. MCA members and visiting music critics who first heard about this in his speech to them in Sydney will take pleasure and pain all over again from reading it.
In Part Two, Ford penetrates deep into the widely differing musics of ten composers, ranging chronologically from Dowland and Haydn to John Adams and Ross Bolleter (new to me, too). The chapter headings alone are gems - 'Music to order by' (Haydn), 'Beethoven's song and dance', 'The honesty of Johannes Brahms', 'John Adams and the art of good and evil', 'Things fall apart in the music of Ross Bolleter.' Who?

Insights into the cerebral workings of Ford's own compositional processes occupy Part Three. His accounts of creating the totally engaging Waltz Book, Learning to Howl and Manhattan Epiphanies underscore all the points made in Part One and confirm his right to make them. Any aspiring or even arrived composers have lots to learn from him, especially regarding choosing and setting words.
Who did Ford write In Defence of Classical Music for?
The converted, certainly. We can always do with a few more counter arguments, and they are here a-plenty. The waverers, looking for encouragement to take the plunge into the wonderful world of classical music and guidance about how to stay afloat in it. The great unwashed? Giving them a helping hand by providing decent music classes throughout their school years is the best, probably only, way to come clean -- fingers crossed for the national enquiry into music education.
Despite its depth, Ford's Fifth is extremely easy to read. He pays special tribute to the assistance of his Finnish wife, Anni Heino, in this regard. Her touch, and her own erudition, are often in evidence.

Music Forum Vol 12 No 2