Commentary
By Henry Wyatt, Ph.D.
The bad news is that we gave a wonderful party and not a lot of people came. Save for the Sunday night gala, one could almost count the attendees at each event on both hands. The gala, too, was relatively sparsely attended.
We learnt something else, that, as the years go by, we have more and more first-rate musicians and fewer and fewer auditors.
Why is this? What does it portend?
From what my colleagues tell me, the Festival organization spent much time and expense on fliers, posters, press releases, and other means to publicize the event. They got the word out as best they could. But our state's major daily paper didn't care. Neither did their lesser daily competitors. Only the local weeklies ran preview stories. Here in the bailiwick of the New Jersey dailies was a cultural event of the highest importance, music of one of Western culture's three or four most significant and beloved composers performed over a long weekend by some of the finest musicians available, on both period and modern instruments - a matchless opportunity for listeners to learn about performance practice without having to enroll in graduate school or spending a tidy sum on recordings - and the critics had other things to do. Perhaps it was more important to prop up a faded pop idol, a less-than-golden oldie appearing at a local arts center. Or perhaps it was more important to join in the promotion of a present-day vulgarian whose lack of talent is eclipsed only by their vast marketing campaign. All of these are regularly thrown into the mix of the weekend calendar section on Fridays or the Arts and Leisure section on Sundays. Is there any wonder that the major daily's circulation is half what it was twenty years ago? Or that commercial radio's audience shrinks daily as listeners switch to satellite radio and the internet? There's precious little they offer serious readers and listeners nowadays, and it's too bad they're taking high culture down
with them.But there's blame enough for other guilty parties. Educators: stand up and face the music, especially the music you're [not] teaching your students. Several local school districts have resisted the misguided notion of cutting the arts to save money. They still offer extensive programs of instrumental and vocal music. Yet not one of their students attended any event except the one young man who was an usher for the Sunday concert.
And let's not forget the music departments of our local colleges and universities. Why didn't we see their students at the Bach Festival? Is appreciation of professional performance standards not part of their curriculum and pedagogy? The same can be said for private teachers, some of whom are members of this Society and are doubtless reading these words. Why does this critic almost never see your students at concerts he covers? Is mere technical competence all you teach? Learning to play well does not occur in a vacuum!
By the power invested in me as *vox clamans in deserto, I find all of the above listed guilty of professional negligence and cultural irresponsibility. And I sentence you to loss of students, audiences, professional opportunities, status, and income in the not-so-distant future. Pity the rest of us, who must also suffer. In a future without the matchless art of Johann Sebastian Bach we all lose.