An Introduction to America’s Music

550 PART 4 | SINCE WORLD WAR II

audiences. Commenting w r yly on “The Gap,” composer and journalist Kyle Gann

wrote in 1997: “We pretend to lament its existence, but actually, we have become

so proud of it that, when music doesn’t put up barriers to the audience’s compre-

hension or patience, we accuse it of not being authentically twentieth-century.”

As Gann saw it, the rise of academia after World War II widened “The Gap” even

further. Favoring the intellectual side of composition, it put a damper on expres-

sion and ignored audience response. Late in the century, though, the situation

began to change as more accessible approaches such as minimalism attracted

new audiences. More performers and composers today seem interested in engag-

ing listeners’ emotions, inspiring hope for a classical sphere in the new millen-

nium that is not so sharply divided against itself.

CLASSICAL PERFORMANCE SINCE 1990

A number of performers in recent years have broken away from the formality

of the traditional classical recital in search of more-immediate ways to form

connections with their listeners. Classical musicians are more likely now than

in the past to speak to audiences from the stage, dress with more imagination

and personal style, and engage in educational outreach and other programs

that break down the barrier between performer and audience. A leading

example is Chinese American cellist Yo-Yo Ma, perhaps the best-known classi-

cal instrumentalist in the world today. Ma is not only a master of the standard

cello repertory but also a musical omnivore, collaborating in a huge variety

of musical traditions with other musicians, from Appalachian fi ddle tunes

with bluegrass performer Mark O’Connor to the tangos of Astor Piazzola with

Argentinean musicians. In 2000 his playing was featured in the score for the

fi lm Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, written by the Chinese classical composer

Tan Dun. In 1998 Ma founded his ongoing Silk Road Project, which promotes

collaborations among musicians from the regions historically joined by the

trade routes known as the Silk Road: Europe, North Africa, the Middle East,

South Asia, China, and Southeast Asia.

Institutions as well as individuals have begun to close the gap as well. In 2006

New York’s Metropolitan Opera launched a series of high-defi nition video broad-

casts of live performances from the stage of the Met to specially equipped movie

theaters around the country. Although more expensive than a regular movie ticket,

admission is considerably more affordable than a seat at the Met; more important,

the “Live in HD” programs bring world-class opera to audiences far removed from

New York or other cultural centers. With high-quality audio and video, imagina-

tive camera work, English-language subtitles, and intermission features such as

backstage interviews, the HD broadcasts have proven to be more than mere sub-

stitutes for live performance, and their phenomenal success has helped to expand

the audience for opera in the twenty-fi rst century.

In 2007 the New York Philharmonic Orchestra appointed as its next music

director Alan Gilbert. At his debut in September 2009 he was forty-two—the

second youngest (after Leonard Bernstein) to hold that post in the history of

the orchestra. Both of his parents were N YPO violinists, and his mother, Yoko

Takebe, continued playing in the orchestra after her son’s appointment. An

advocate for American music and new composition, Gilbert has experimented

with the format of the orchestra’s concerts, for example presenting modern

Yo-Yo M a

“Live in HD”

Alan Gilbert

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