What Classical Music could learn from Doctor Who

I’m a huge Doctor Who fan, having seen many of the old episodes growing up and now loving the new BBC series. It is interesting to observe the ways in which the developments in television and technology have enhanced the production values of the show. No more aliens that look like they’ve been made out of papier mache, being pulled along on wheels with fishing wire attached somewhere so that we don’t see it. There is something about the earlier, lo-fi versions that is charmingly dated, even though we recognise that many of the effects were pretty cutting edge for their day - especially some of the experimental, electronic sounds in the music which makes the original series well worth checking out from that perspective alone.

What hasn’t changed, however, is the Doctor flying in, quickly taking in a situation and immediately setting about righting a wrong or giving a helping hand armed with the resources of his own intellect and experience, his sonic screw driver as his only tool, a trusted companion and then whatever (or whomever) else comes to hand. How does this relate to classical music? Well, sometimes it might be more helpful to approach the question of how we might connect with more people from the perspective of the outsider with a different set of tools and experience, rather than being encumbered by the knowledge of the insider/specialist. It slows us down in the quest to find new and imaginative ways to give people positive encounters with the arts. And in a country like Australia where our population comes from 200 countries around the world, and 50 percent of us were born overseas or have one or both parents born overseas, we can’t assume that everyone has had equal or even a limited amount of exposure to the classical art forms – western or eastern.

What would be our ‘sonic screwdriver’ in this equation? Tapping into what we all have in common in order to create greater appreciation, understanding and resonance might be it... beginning with the idea that the creative impulse which might drive us to work in our garden, or save up for a fancier car, or renovate our bathroom stems from the same source as great art. Our most revered and cherished music, paintings, operas and ballets contain messages for us all on both an entertainment and social level, in addition to providing spaces where we might mull over a broader agenda of bigger issues. All of us have a certain degree of inbuilt technology for receiving that wisdom - those silent, everyday acts of creativity are proof of it. The challenge to artists and arts organisations who want to lead, and to meaningfully share classical art forms with other people is to generate opportunities for people to callibrate their thinking to understand that.