Next thing you know, they'll be dropping their radio ventriloquist acts too
This post updated as of 12:10pm Thursday. See below:
I'm a fan of vestigial cultural survivals, but even I reacted to news of the shutdown of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio Orchestra with an incredulous "There are still radio orchestras?" To give some perspective, the legendary Arturo Toscanini-conducted NBC Radio Orchestra was disbanded way back in 1954, and there may be a reason that the Vancouver-based CBC outfit has long held the dubious distinction of being the sole extant radio orchestra in North America. *
Now the life of a working musician is tough, though arguably no tougher now than it's been for the past, say, 10,000 years. And I get the impression that a belief, realistic or not, that Canada's cultural attainment is high has always been a favorite bragging point for our friends to the north. So a little expression of regret is understandable. But take a look at the protests that followed the announcement of the orchestra's closing and you may ask what eon these people are living in. CBC has a little coverage, with video, and the Globe and Mail gives more detail. "No Kitsch! No Philistines! Don't Mess With Our Music!" reads one protester's sign. A music teacher brags of having canceled her class with the following message to her students: "I said this is the most important assignment you could possibly have; to rescue the great culture of your country."
Leave aside whether classical music has ever been a central part of Canada's, or for that matter the United States of America's, great culture. (Wouldn't France, Austria, Italy or half a dozen other European countries have a prior claim along this line?) I just wonder who still buys the Philistine-vs.-Patrician dynamic implied in these protests. A CBC flack refers to the organization's "obligation to reflect the musical diversity of the country," which you'd think would be a compelling argument where public money is at issue. The Facebook page Save Classical Music at the CBC counters that the CBC is trying to "be all things to all people." But if you believe (I don't) that taxpayer dollars in a democracy should be used to support the arts, doesn't being all things to all people kinda come with the territory? Who are classical music listeners to assume that their favorite genre has to be paid for by the rest of the country?
But as the Toronto Star's John Terauds notes, the issue isn't even about culture; it's about how to get the most bang for 400,000 loonies a year. Right now the CBC is paying that amount to keep one orchestra that delivers eight concerts a year. It believes, not without reason, that it can do better by using this money to hire local orchestras:
Radio orchestras were set up 70 years ago because it was too difficult to move around the big, heavy analogue broadcasting equipment – not because there was something inherently better in having an orchestra in your studio.
The whole notion of a national broadcaster, linking people otherwise isolated from a national culture, needs to be more flexible in the Internet age. After all, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio and the BBC are only a few mouse clicks away.
In the same way, the CBC is now a portal to Canadian culture for the rest of the world, not just ourselves.
You may not believe High Culture has always been an excuse for the elites to flaunt their own excess and wastrelsy in the faces of the masses, but it's hard to see this case any other way. The outraged listeners believe not only that taxpayers should be paying for their music, but that they should be paying for it in a way that delivers less of the actual product than they could be getting with smarter budgeting.
* The L.A. Times' Mark Swed notes that he gave the CBCRO a standing O back in October of 2006. The piece is no longer on our site (for the umpteenth time, sorry), but can still be read here [pdf].
Tim,
I fully agree with your sentiments. I'm a Canadian who has been listening to this debate with a fair bit of disgust. In this country it is not difficult to find some sort of whining from "the arts community" about how my taxes aren't subsidizing them sufficiently. I agree that commercial radio in Canada is insipid, but I certainly don't expect my tastes (jazz fusion, jazz, and certain hard rock, pop and metal not available on radio) to be subsidized by other tax-payers. So I listen to internet radio and if don't like the ads then I can pay for it myself.
This "death of CBC" stuff is replicated across our country on a smaller scale every time a municipal government has to deal with budgeting issues and the municipal subsidization of various local theatres and galleries etc. What invariably surfaces during these debates are arrogant, elitist statements of various sorts in which logic is not required because we, the logical and cost conscious (and apparently stupid and ignorant) don't "get it".
Don't be fooled Tim. Your column was right.
Posted by: Bob | April 13, 2008 at 05:26 AM
Thanks for the info, Peter and Zoe. As I said, some regret is understandable.
Posted by: Tim Cavanaugh | April 03, 2008 at 09:24 AM
There are a few key points to understand. Firstly, unlike U.S.A., Canada has a very small population spread out over a large territory which makes the support of "local" orchestras an especially great challenge. Only a handful of our cities are able to maintain orchestras, and in order to survive they are forced to keep to very limited, very traditional, mainstream programming - sort of "Top 40" for the classical set. The CBC Radio Orchestra has been in a unique position to showcase new Canadian talent as well as to offer a wider variety of classical pieces, growing not only talent, but audiences. So it functions more as our National Orchestra and not a mere "radio" orchestra according to the U.S. model. When you disband an orchestra of this sort, you cannot simply pull it back together later as a bunch of studio musicians: the collective talent and experience will be lost for good. The numbers in Canada are such that most of these musicians will have to leave Canada if they wish to pursue their careers. And as for the future of Canadian composers, their scores will languish silently on paper - not for lack of quality but for lack of outlet.
Posted by: Zoe Day | April 02, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Tim, I think you are missing a bit of background information. The CBC Radio Orchestra is a 70 year old icon of the Canadian Music scene and a Grammy winning ensemble. It is not being cut for economic reasons - It's budget is less that $700,000 a year, probably less than the cost of producing an hour-long television show on CBC-TV. The cuts come at a time when the CBC has decided to cut classical music programming on Radio Two by more than half (after significant cuts already put in place last year) on a national network that has heretofore been a paragon of Classical Music renowned the world over. The programming is being replaced with lounge music and pop singers during prime listening hours while Classical music is relegated to times when no one can listen except the elderly. Canadians see this as a cynical attempt to move the publicly-funded broadcaster away from non-commercial classical and jazz music to territory already covered by private radio. In addition, the CBC Orchestra maintains a crucial role in the commissioning and recording of new Canadian works. The CBC may claim that these funds will be parlayed out to other ensembles - but when exactly on the diminished schedule are these works to be played? and where are they to be recorded when CBC has also completely slashed the budget for CBC Records?
It is a little more complicated than the polarized rhetoric on both sides would lead us to believe
Posted by: Peter | April 02, 2008 at 07:37 PM