Music: East versus West

Two weeks ago, Tony (my friend and tenant) and I went to Lincoln Center to listen to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Tony is a foreign student from mainland China. He completed his PhD program in chemistry at a midwestern university and is now working as a chemist at a major pharmaceutical company. He had heard so much about this orchestra and was very excited to see its live performance.

The performance was decent. On our way driving home, Tony and I discussed the difference between traditional Chinese music and Western symphony music. I told Tony that through art and music, one can see a lot of difference in cultural and aesthetic values between Chinese people and Western people. I love all kinds of music, but very frankly I didn’t find that night’s music particularly beautiful or touching. It was way too loud for me in the first place. American radio host and humorist, Garrison Keillor, once did a wonderful piece called A Young Lutheran’s Guide to the Orchestra. Noting the loudness of the brass section, he joked that “the rest of the orchestra wishes the brass were playing in another room, and so does the conductor.”

On June 24, 2001, Time magazine published an article titled “Is the symphony orchestra dying?” A ticket for a New York Philharmonic Orchestra costs somewhere between $166 and $200. How many Americans can afford to go? It seems that the symphony orchestras…