Arts Issues: Elitism and snobbery in art

Editor’s note: John Jeter, music director and conductor of the Fort Smith Symphony, will pen an “Arts Issues” column to appear on The City Wire the second and fourth Friday of each month beginning in July. The column will cover a wide range of topics in the broad arts communities.

Every once and a while someone will make the comment that classical music and the Fine Arts in general are “elitist” activities for “snobs.” This does not happen too often but when it does my first response to myself is, “this is disappointing on a number of levels.”

My verbal response is, “You should come hear us sometime,” or something like that. It amazes me that in this day and age some still see the Fine Arts as something for “special” people with superiority complexes. Although nothing could be further from the truth, the Fine Arts does have to take some blame for this long held perception. Let’s take a look at classical music for a moment.

Prior to the invention of radio and television, most everyone played a musical instrument of some sort. The working classes, the poor, the well-to-do all performed music as a source of daily entertainment. Families would play chamber music or sing choral works together at home. Live music played an integral part in the daily lives of most people. Social gatherings frequently included music and dance.

People with means not only played music but employed composers and musicians to write and perform. There was also a continual need for new music as people needed works to play. As time progressed and local populations grew, there became an interest in larger scale musical productions. At the same time, royalty — the “elite” — funded full size symphony orchestras and opera.

Today, a successful CEO might have a house in the Hamptons with a giant plasma TV and blu-ray DVD player, but back in the 1750‘s you were cutting edge if you owned your own private opera company!

The creation of new works for concerts required composers to be commissioned by people of means to create them. Composers became connected or associated to an upper class who were viewed by the working classes as people of “manners and taste.”

These privileged “elite” tended to look down on anyone of “lower standing.” Snobbery was born, or at least institutionalized, by the “elite” and, important to note, people who acted that way no matter their social or economic standing.

The word snob appears in the late 1700’s as a name for cobblers (shoe makers) or local merchants. By the mid 1800’s a snob is someone who grossly imitates his or her social superiors. In 1848, author William Thackeray’s, “Book of Snobs” outlines this wretched behavior very well. The word elite goes back to the 1300’s to refer to an elected official. It’s only in more recent eras that the word elite may mean something negative. The U.S. Marines are known as an “elite” fighting force — this is a positive version of the word for certain!

Composers back in the day wanted their music to be heard by as many people as possible. The greatest composers were some of the best creative minds mankind has ever seen. It was not really until the Romantic Era in music (1820-1900) that composers and artists became venerated as the “chosen few.”

I am sorry to say that a few of our greatest composers developed egos the size of houses and simply oozed arrogance and snobbery. This existed hand-in-hand with many of their like-minded fans and the musicians who performed their music. Combine this with the developing snob front and you’ve got a snobbish tradition that has been hard to kill off. Egomaniacs like the opera composer Richard Wagner and symphonist Johannes Brahms got all the press and this only added fuel to the fire.

What has never been emphasized enough is that all composers attempted to create a universal voice thought their music and their works were created for anyone willing to listen. Part of the genius of these pieces were that they stretched the boundaries of Art for their time partially through a new level of complexity and sophistication.

Oh, there’s another snob word: sophisticated.

Thus, many works took more of an effort of on the part of listener to understand. The level of achievement of these works led in more circles to an even higher form of snobbishness. Some 20th Century schools of musical thought even went as far to suggest that the only legitimate pieces to write were ones the audience can’t understand. Now is that crazy or what? A “canon” of artistic works existed that were celebrated as great pieces of music performed by musicians more highly regarded than Hollywood stars in their day: Toscanini, Heifetz and Caruso to name a few.

The history of the visual arts, opera, ballet, theater and literature have had a similar past    and occasionally still suffer the same misconceptions.

Going back to classical music, musicians play instruments designed hundreds of years ago, perform music with incomprehensible titles and, heavens, the players are wearing tuxedos! Gee, I guess its not surprising that some might still equate the Fine Arts with elitism or snobbery.

I am happy to report that today, Arts organizations take a very open view toward their mission and recognize that history has worked both for and against the universality of great Art.

It seems to me, that the healthiest approach is to enjoy, appreciate and experience as much Art as one can and leave the snobbery at the door or better yet, squash it like a pesky mosquito.

So what about Art? What’s this talk about “great” Art? Why still the tuxedos? Stay tuned …

Conductor notes
John Jeter is presently in his 16th season as the music director and conductor of the Fort Smith Symphony. He is the recipient of the American Symphony Orchestra League 2002 Helen M. Thompson Award, and has held conducting positions with the Indianapolis Symphony, North Arkansas Symphony, Greater Indianapolis Youth Symphony, Purdue University, University of Tulsa and University of Oklahoma. He has conducted numerous orchestras in the United States and Europe. Jeter is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the Hartt School of Music with a degree in music theory and piano and graduated with distinction from Butler University’s Jordan College of Fine Arts with a master’s degree in orchestral conducting. Jeter is a voting member of The Recording Academy for the classical music categories of the Grammy Awards.