Mozart for all

A concert hall or classical music radio station is certainly not the only place where one can hear Mozart’s music nowadays. In fact, it can be heard at oddly common situation: The BBC news article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24207690) reveals that a recent study by Press Association found that Mozart is the top choice to play for phone callers on hold. The most popular pieces appear to be the Symphony No.40 and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

If you say the name Mozart to non-musicians, who are a majority of the human beings, they will most likely associate him with elitist “high arts”, something probably not belonging to their life at all. Still, whoever decides about the music on the phone line believes that it is the most suitable style to enjoy for any caller. That is with the expectation that they want the people to have a good time waiting for someone to pick up. Certainly, they are trying to portray a specific image of their service with the choice of music. Perhaps being professional, something higher than ordinary.

Composers like Mozart are generally treated as musical geniuses, and in the most glorified sense even as an agent of delivering something godly, out of this world. Does the fact that his music is being played in such a generic occasion, for callers on hold, lessen the magical status of him to some? The director of the Royal College of Music says in the article that the reason for Mozart’s popularity is that it can be listened to at many different levels. Even though the non-musicians would like to think that Mozart is not part of their life, they probably do not think it is any bizarre when they hear it in the above-mentioned situation.

What I mainly wanted to say with this post is that classical music is maybe more present in the everyday life of  all people than we tend to think. We can be positive and say this is making classical music accessible to the extreme.