Bringing Back “Middlebrow”
Music Lessons as a Cultural Equalizer
I first heard that term, “middlebrow,” from my father. He used it in a positive light, as I have come to by default. We were listening to something ridiculously famous (William Tell Overture, perhaps?) on his favorite Classical Pops satellite station. Coming of age in the 1960’s, he, like most children with a decent public school education, would sort of recognize the William Tell Overture, if only from its use in Looney Tunes. They also would probably know who Hans Christian Andersen was, and had the understanding that smearing leftover peanut butter from one’s fingers onto a Degas at the art museum is largely frowned upon.
Today’s children, by and large, have a very different awareness of art, history, and the world around them than that experienced by their grandmas and grandpas growing up. No longer does there exist a “middlebrow” culture–a common body of art, literature, and music that was known by and accessible to just about everyone. In the place of this prior uniting body, there is now simply more stark division and unequal opportunities for adults and children alike, dictated largely by race and income.
Although Dad might have had a small case of idealizing “the good old days” as we listened to Rossini, I don’t think his perceptions were without merit. Education in America, and the livelihoods resulting from it, have at the very least stagnated and in many ways declined over the past 30 years. Laments over the dissolution of the middle class are present at every level of news media and scholarly research.
While the 50’s and 60’s surely weren’t some ongoing live-action Norman Rockwell scene, the world of 2018 often looks like something out of dystopian sci-fi. As always, there still exists a Highbrow Culture — only for the elite, academics, those with special understanding and money — and Lowbrow Culture — the mass-marketed ideas, music, and “art” delivered to us through our Facebook feeds, shining happily on our children’s tablets, imploring them to buy yet another product, to click on one more link. There is little in between, just one more factor contributing to the great disparity in outcomes for our nation’s kiddos.
Rebuilding the “middlebrow”–the establishment of accessible works of art, literature, and music to almost everyone who desires–could be one small piece in creating a more equitable world for our children, a more meaningful life experience for them. And here, I put on my Piano Teacher Lady hat: what better way to, one person at a time, start piecing back together that common knowledge, that link to the past and ideas bigger than one’s own, than through music lessons? (I should clarify that I harbor no grand delusions of creating a better nation one sonatina at a time, elevating the souls of children through Hanon exercises, or any other such nonsense. I argue that music lessons for every child who wants them and can work within their structure are just one small part of one small nudge toward a more well-rounded, opportunity-rich upbringing.)
It’s worth noting that the late, great Virginia Woolf and a handful of other scholars disagreed with me in accepting “middlebrow culture” as a good thing. Virginia saw middlebrow works as “betwixt and between”–not having enough artistic integrity to be appreciated by those who could truly understand, but too lofty to be valued by the Lowbrow masses. I like to think that if Virginia were out and about today, seeing the lapse in consistent, valuable knowledge given to some children, and their resulting lack of opportunities to succeed, she’d be more open to the idea of creating a cultural body for them to latch onto and grow from.
Not every piano student is going to be a professional musician (spoiler alert: 99% of them won’t be). Not every 2nd grader will go to college, and not every college graduate will earn a living wage. From where we stand, though, as parents, teachers, and community members, it is our duty to give them every tool we can to make the best out of this life. Real equality of opportunity is still a pipe dream in many ways, but we can at least give our kids a body of knowledge to draw from and to use in working their own way through an unjust world. There is goodness in wanting to reach beyond the mass-marketed “low brow art” of Facebook Live to achieve a more thorough and meaningful experience for your children and yourself. Middlebrow culture, like the middle class itself, is worth fighting for.
As a music teacher, in every lesson taught in my studio, I try to pull from a wide variety of sources and repertoire. Even some of the simplest folk songs used to teach basic music reading have a rich history behind them. Children’s pieces often connect nicely to other works of art or literature, to other times and places, or to great men and women a student may never have heard of otherwise. (Looking at you, Nannerl Mozart!) Each lesson and practice session contributes to the development of multiple literacies: historical awareness, reading/decoding, basic math, emotional regulation and expression…the list goes on!
My hope in this new year is that every family who wants to give their kids the opportunities afforded through private music study is able to do so, and that every music teacher values their power to make that small nudge toward a more equitable cultural awareness for their students. I’m doing what I can in my tiny corner of this big world, and am praying for music and upward mobility for all in 2018, and beyond.
