Orchestras running out of puff
THE “big beasts” of the orchestra risk becoming extinct, an arts chief has warned, as young musicians’ interest in learning to play the oboe, bassoon, French horn and tuba has dwindled.
Lucy Noble, the Royal Albert Hall’s artistic and commercial director, has blamed the demise of these orchestral instruments on the “YouTube generation” having less exposure to live classical music.
“Encouraging the next generation to take more of an interest in classical in- struments is crucial to their survival,” she said. “The future of any instrument is only as strong as the next generation of people willing to learn it. It would be a huge shame if any of these fantastic instruments were to become extinct.”
Ms Noble said that over the past 15 years there had been a transformation in the way young people enjoyed music. “It used to be the case that to experience music one had to see it live,” she told The Sunday Telegraph.
“However, the advent of online video means that many are watching
videos without being exposed to the production behind the music.”
Research commissioned by the Royal Albert Hall has shown around 1per cent of children identified the oboe, French horn, English horn, bassoon or contrabassoon as instruments that they either play or would like to play, a poll of 1,000 children found.
Meanwhile, a third chose the guitar, and 15per cent said they wanted to play the keyboard.
Of those who play a musical instrument, a fifth said they were taught via an online tutorial, showing a shift in the way that young people learn.
The situation is “quite serious”, according to Robert Codd of the British Double Reed Society, which represents oboe and bassoon players, as well as their musical relatives.
“I think certainly the numbers have dwindled enormously in the last 10 to 15 years,” he said. “Oboes and bassoons are generally not known at all in schools. They might have pictures on the wall, but they haven’t seen them in the flesh.
“I think part of it is the perceptions that guitars, saxophones and so on, are seen as being relevant, cool and part of life, whereas some of these others are a bit obscure and not what they would want to be identified with.”
He described how he hears from “desperate” conductors who are trying to put on concerts for national and regional youth orchestras but struggle to find oboe or bassoon players.
The demise of these orchestral instruments is part of a broader problem, Ms Noble said, which is that ministers do not value music and the arts. “If I was in government, I would ensure it is at the heart of things,” she said.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Music remains a compulsory subject from age five to 14 and we are investing nearly £500million up to 2020 in a range of music and arts education programmes.”
Young people who dream of some day becoming a millionaire are advised to start learning a musical instrument. Because of a fall in interest in certain forms of live music, players of the oboe, bassoon, French horn and tuba are in sharp decline, and conductors are getting desperate. When demand for a category of worker outstrips supply, wages tend to rise – hence many plumbers probably now enjoy a greater annual income than the Prime Minister. In some parts of suburbia, rather than call a plumber, it’s cheaper to let a tap leak and purchase a dinghy.
Once parents realise the oboe student of today could be a wealthy professional tomorrow, sales of oboes to untutored children are bound to rocket. This is also good news for salesmen of sound insulation and earplugs.