Classical music and TikTok

nhạc cổ điển - Ảnh 1. — London Philharmonic Orchestra - Photo: LPO

The violin soloist wasn't wearing formal attire; she was dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans. The video included a musical score so viewers could follow the notes on the sheet music alongside the notes she played. The video has garnered over 2 million views.

Another equally popular video of the symphony orchestra is a short excerpt of the orchestra rehearsing Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet. The question accompanying that video is: Do you think this piece is overhyped?

The other side of classical music

Almost all major orchestras around the world have TikTok accounts. And the common thread among these orchestras' short, engaging videos is that they are filmed spontaneously during rehearsals using amateur cameras.

When thinking about classical music, people often immediately picture a solemn atmosphere, artists with pensive expressions, and elegant attire in shades of black or white.

But on TikTok, audiences get to see the other side of the classical music world: artists sometimes wear jeans and t-shirts, they're just ordinary people, and they don't look academic at all.

Suddenly, the music of Mahler, Ravel, and Dvokrak, which we usually had to listen to while sitting up straight, could now be listened to in a more relaxed position and anywhere, whether sitting in a cafe or walking down the street.

A major obstacle for classical music in reaching a wider audience is its excessive length, but on TikTok, only the most impressive passages are typically selected: the melancholic melodies of Chopin, the most majestic excerpts from a Mahler symphony, the mesmerizing finger-strikes of Grieg...

In another video of the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing the classic theme from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, they remind the audience to "watch for the full 2 minutes and 30 seconds." The full musical score of this ballet often lasts up to 2 hours and 30 minutes. How many people can dedicate that much time to art? But surely everyone has 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

Classical music has moved beyond theaters, cathedrals, and religious ceremonies; we can listen to it on TikTok.

To the heart of a person

Many classical pieces have been embraced on TikTok in this way: they are stripped down to the best parts, used as teasers for a complete work, or as small sample volumes for listeners to try.

Excerpts from Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 in E-flat major, Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Mozart's Third Movement No. 11 in A major... have been used by hundreds of thousands, even millions, of people as background music for their videos.

Scrolling through TikTok for a while, you're more likely to come across Mozart or Beethoven.

TikTok is also a platform for young classical artists to tell their stories. From a video of her sitting in a car singing an aria from Gioachino Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville, Nigerian-American singer Babatunde Akinboboye rose to fame; or videos depicting the everyday life and emotional journey of a young classical artist have helped Esther Abrami become one of the new "faces" of the violin.

Based on her reputation, Esther introduced to the general audience not only already famous composers, but sometimes even forgotten composers such as Teresa Carreno, a Venezuelan female composer who, during her lifetime, was known as the "lion of the piano".

Well, some people will probably say that such shortened content, these behind-the-scenes videos, aren't the essence of classical music, and might even be a misleading way of understanding, causing those unfamiliar with classical music to mistakenly believe that classical music is nothing more than that.

But just reading a comment on TikTok under a video of an excerpt from Vivaldi's Four Seasons symphony, that says, "This is a promise: when I have enough funds I will come to London for this concert," and the orchestra's reply, "We would love to see you," immediately convinces us that the worry is unnecessary.

Music always knows how to reach a person's heart, no matter which path it takes.

HIEN TRANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nhac-co-dien-va-tiktok-20250525095309022.htm