OPINION
Breaking the Fourth Wall What does the Seattle Symphony’s recent concert with rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot say about how orchestras connect with their communities? Aaron Flagg offers his perspective.
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t was a balmy evening a few weeks before the start of summer when the long-awaited piece on the program was finally performed. This premiere drew a sizable crowd of newcomers to the concert hall. Their reaction to the orchestral work was quite unusual, as it broke the traditional fourth wall between the performers and the audience. In fact, the audience was drawn into a frenzy, and near-chaos broke out. The event disturbed many sensibilities and inspired critics to question the appropriateness of this mixture of music and dance in a concert hall and whether melody and harmony were sacrificed for rhythm. Perhaps you are thinking of the reactions to the video clip of Anthony Ray’s aka Sir Mix-A-Lot’s June 6, 2014 performance of “Baby Got Back” with the Seattle Symphony. Actually, I’m thinking of the reaction to the Ballets Russes’ premiere performance of Igor Stravinsky and Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps on May 29, 1913. Both performances involved dance—one choreographed, the other a bit more freeform. Both were down-home—one based on nationalistic folk culture, the other local popular culture. Both overshadowed the other wonderful works on the program. In 1913, that included works danced to music by Carl Von Weber, Alexander Borodin, and Frederic Chopin. In 2014, it was new works by composers Luis Tinoco, Du Yun, and Gabriel Prokofiev, and the rock band Pickwick. Both performances inspired questions of artistic, moral, and societal
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value, and unleashed criticisms from traditional orchestra lovers that derided the work, chastised the organizers, and ignored the other pieces on the program. One performance included a virgin’s sacrificial dance to her death as part of a pagan ritual honoring spring. The other included a stage full of gyrating female audience members, mainly Caucasian, some Asian, and a few African American, celebrating an African aesthetic of beauty, accompanied by
The Seattle Symphony’s performance of “Baby Got Back” and the online conversations ignited by it exist in a challenging environment where American orchestras must find fresh, locally meaningful ways to demonstrate greater relevance to society. largely Caucasian orchestra musicians and their conductor, and led by a middle-aged, Seattle-born, African-American rapper. The Seattle Symphony’s performance and the online conversations ignited by the video of it exist in a challenging environment where American orchestras must find fresh, locally meaningful ways to demonstrate greater relevance to society. Their very survival depends on it, as do the centuries of great music they are charged with cherishing, building upon, and sharing. In response, many orchestras are asserting
Aaron Flagg
their local identity, creating unique and meaningful ways to break the fourth wall, to embrace artistic innovation while holding on to the music of the past. This activity questions our rituals, traditions, expectations, and touches on sensitive issues in the field such as cultural elitism, presentation, entitlement, and diversity. There are many reasons why this performance generated such strong emotions, while also serving as a wonderful example of creative collaboration for the orchestra field. First of all, impassioned public discussions about music played by a professional orchestra are rare. Few outside the industry seem at all interested in the music-making that happens onstage, only in the offstage “news” that is either more commonly understood or simply more exciting to read. Headlines are left to budget battles, dramatic ultimatums, and bankruptcies. Seattle Symphony staff members are to be applauded for deftly using technology, the presence of industry leaders due to the concurrent League of American Orchestras’ National Conference, and their media contacts to capitalize on this performance and generate an incredible amount of buzz. To receive 2.3 million hits in three weeks— as the YouTube video of Seattle Symphony and Sir Mix-A-Lot did—is, unfortunately, unheard of for orchestras. Second, few orchestras are known for impacting the full diversity of their local community in sustained and meaningful symphony
FALL 2014