Art music in Spain. Cultural heritage? Needs and deficiencies in our educational system

(Paper presented at the roundtable of the same title, as part of the course Transmission and Reception of Art within the Cycle of Contemporary Humanities at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Madrid, March 6, 2002)


The purpose of this roundtable is twofold. On the one hand, it aims to reflect on the status of art music as cultural heritage, taking as a given a specific type of music and bringing into play two related concepts (the cultivated and the cultural) which can no longer, at present, be considered univocal or applicable to a single way of understanding things. The last twenty years correspond to what has come to be called postmodernity, which emerged as a logical reaction against the preceding modernity, dominated for three decades by artistic avant-gardes. Radical positions have been replaced by more tolerant ones, and complexity has given way to simplification. This has meant that the elitist minority occupying the apex of the art pyramid (composed of creators and users) has yielded its primacy to the lower zones of the same pyramid, which are all the broader the closer they are to the base.
This partly explains the aesthetic and stylistic returns, the "neos" and others, that have emerged so strongly in recent decades, as well as at other moments in history. It should be noted, however, that such a regression is almost never literal, as it tends to become a synthesis of the "before" and "after", which can sometimes set new directions, as in the case of J.S. Bach. Thus, it remains uncertain whether this apparent retreat to earlier positions is definitive or merely a pause to gather strength for continuing to push forward.
Meanwhile, what is undeniable is that we are living in a moment of extraordinary singularity, in every sense, with no precedent in the history of art and culture. The disparity of trends, schools, aesthetics, and styles is so vast, and tolerance so widespread, that concepts have necessarily had to adapt to this multiplicity, resulting in an inevitable ambiguity that can be extremely distorting. Terms originally and clearly linked to music derived from the cultivated tradition (understood as that which developed from the generalization of musical notation in the West, as opposed to popular music transmitted orally) have, for years, been applied to any kind of music. For instance, we might speak of a concert by the National Orchestra or a rock band's concert using the same particular syntactic arrangement; similarly, the term Academy -with a capital A- now serves both to denote a group of erudite individuals reflecting on various aspects of human culture and to describe the training of young stars on a television show.
Perhaps the ambiguity could have been avoided if everything were reduced to a terminological issue -the failure to find the right adjective to distinguish each type of music. However, there are reasons to believe the matter is more complex and profound, as the examples of crossovers between genres in recent years have been truly surprising. From the boom of Gregorian Chant to the hit-parade success of a Górecki symphony among light music listeners, or the interest in Philip Glass's music among lovers of serious music, these are eloquent signs that the "no man's land" between the two musical realms can be peacefully shared by enthusiasts from both sides. Composers from the cultivated tradition, such as Arvo Pärt or John Adams, coexist in this space with those hailing from a more popular background, like Michael Nyman or those associated with new age.
This phenomenon provokes a certain bewilderment, which is reflected in the vastly different interpretations it receives from various sectors. In the media, which, rather than setting trends, tends to reflect the current pulse of the situation, two clearly opposing stances can be observed: those who ignore it and those who embrace it. Focusing on two newspapers within our cultural sphere, these positions are respectively represented by the cultural supplements of ABC and El País. The latest issue of ABC Cultural I had the chance to browse was entirely devoted to serious music news: a report on the music of the Egyptian pharaohs, an article about Daniel Barenboim, another on composer Mauricio Sotelo, and an interview with Juan Cambreleng, former manager of the Teatro Real, along with reviews of opera, symphonic, and chamber music recordings.
The Babelia supplement of El País, on the other hand, consistently dedicates two pages to music: systematically, the right-hand page covers serious music (in the latest issue, a feature-interview with Renata Tebaldi and a review of recordings), while the left-hand page addresses popular music (a report on a Romanian Gypsy band, two reviews of contemporary pop -a Marianne Faithfull concert and an Elvis Costello recording- and reviews of jazz, flamenco, and world music albums). This division, incidentally, has no parallel in how the rest of the sections (serious literature, art, architecture) are treated, whereas the approach to music in ABC Cultural aligns perfectly with the rest of the supplement.

It is not my place to judge the positive or negative aspects of this phenomenon; I merely report on it, though a minimum of caution and considerable experience incline me to believe that, like most things, it contains elements of both. In any case, the status of art music as cultural heritage, beyond the attention it receives from our institutions, is directly related to the degree of importance our society assigns to it. Judging by its presence in our educational system -concerning general education, not specialized education, which I will only touch upon briefly for lack of time- I believe that, as a musician, my concern should not be whether it is sufficient, but rather whether what is available is appropriate.
The reality is that there is an overwhelming quantitative and qualitative difference regarding music between the curricula prior to the LOGSE (General Organic Law of the Education System) and those resulting from its implementation. For entire generations of Spaniards -certainly mine, but also all previous ones and a good part of those that followed until quite recently- music was not part of their general knowledge. I am not referring to its practice, of course, but to the basic information that might minimally enrich their enjoyment of it. Its absence in school curricula, along with a poorly planned specialized educational system, restricted exclusively to conservatories in the absence of a Music School model like the one already yielding excellent results in much of Europe, had overburdened conservatories with all the demand for musical education, both amateur and professional. This led to excessive overcrowding and created a hybrid form of education -too advanced for amateurs and insufficient for professionals, who were often compelled to spend several years abroad to complete their training.
With the enactment of the LOGSE, music was incorporated into the Spanish educational system as a full-fledged subject. The different pathways for specialized education were clarified, and its presence was ensured in general education during the stages corresponding to Primary Education and Compulsory Secondary Education. The curriculum design, as laid out in the corresponding royal decrees establishing minimum standards and in the regional regulations that developed them, was very sound. This applied both to the overall teaching load for the subject and its objectives, which were supported by a set of content, procedures, and attitudes. Unlike the old first-year subject of the Bachillerato Unificado Polivalente (Unified Polivalent Baccalaureate), which focused on historical aspects, the new approach emphasized practical elements. These included individual and group vocal improvisation, the composition of original songs, vocal repertoire practice, basic use of instruments, movement practice, and learning and performing a varied repertoire of dances.
Even the contents related to musical language were to be acquired through more practical than theoretical methods, such as timbral, rhythmic, melodic, harmonic, and formal improvisation, or practicing the basic principles of performance (developing individual and group listening, paying attention to the conductor's gestures). The ultimate aim was to develop a musical sensitivity that would provide students with the criteria necessary for the proper appreciation and enjoyment of music in their adult lives.
But almost before the first generation of students could complete these studies -and therefore without even being able to assess the degree of achievement of the initially established objectives- the Music subject in Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) underwent a drastic reduction in the minimum instructional hours, from 70 to 35 hours per year. Additionally, its objectives were reoriented, leading to a profound modification of its content and the complete elimination of the previously mentioned procedures and attitudes, which were not even adapted to the new requirements: they simply disappeared.
This disaster, undertaken under the dubious slogan of "Reform of the Humanities", was formalized in a new royal decree on minimum standards, published in January 2001. This decree proposed a more analytical approach to music education, based on the supposed greater capacity for abstraction of students at this stage compared to those in Primary Education. Musical practice was reduced to its bare minimum in favor of music history, theory, sociology, and basic knowledge of musical language. There was no trace in the new regulation of movement, dance, vocal or instrumental improvisation, or the practice of a basic repertoire.
The fact that an earlier draft of the new standards included the duplet (a technical rhythmic concept absent even from the minimum standards of specialized music education) as part of the first-year curriculum is eloquent proof of the degree of theoretical distortion that had been reached in this new formulation of the subject. In such a scenario -and although this aberration was fortunately detected in time and, after the corresponding public outcry, ultimately removed from the final text- it is at least a small relief that the instructional hours were halved. With fewer hours available, the damage inflicted on students will logically be lesser.
What is clear, however, is that such a reversal in the Music subject of ESO, something unthinkable in a society with a solid musical tradition, was possible in our country because, despite significant surface-level changes -nearly thirty newly minted orchestras, an extensive network of concert halls, and a handful of opera houses equipped with the best resources- the new Spanish musical "giant" still has feet of clay. This fragility is the result of decades of neglect that have prevented the full recognition of art music as cultural heritage by all sectors of our society.

Thank you very much for your attention.