MANILA, Philippines - It was the first day of classes at the UP College of Music when our music literature professor asked us the question no one else in the entire college would have dared to ask:

“Are you still in a relevant course? You can play Beethoven sonatas all day, but does it contribute anything to society? Is it still possible to revive classical music, or is it about time to accept the fact that it is dead and that you are now part of a museum industry, where people look at you to get a glimpse of the past?”

The class smiled nervously back at him. We all knew he had a point, and it was a question we had been silently asking ourselves as well.

It is a common frustration among music majors that most people nowadays don’t know how to appreciate good quality music. They would rather patronize the “trashy” hit singles they hear over the radio. One of my friends, a flutist, resented how her neighbors would complain whenever she would practice, saying that the music she played was “pang-patay.”

I, on the other hand, could hardly relate to my colleagues on such issues. I’m the kind of music major who sing kundimans, German and French art songs, Italian opera arias, and oratorios during voice lessons. But the moment I walk out the door, I’d be singing something by Maroon 5, Justin Timberlake, Barbie Almalbis, or the Itchyworms. The most decent songs that I sang for my enjoyment were from Broadway and Michael Bublé.

I enjoyed playing Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Mozart on the piano. I had the tendency however to fall asleep while watching other pianists pound away during concerts —not because I was a better player, but because producing the music myself kept me awake and pas-sionately involved. But I could hardly appreciate the same pieces as an inactive member of the audience. Contemporary music, on the other hand, effortlessly excited my senses and affected my mood whether I was performing or simply listening.

Although there are certain classical pieces that I can appreciate without trying, like Debussy’s Claire de Lune and Beethoven’s 9th “Symphony (Ode to Joy),” I can hardly follow the conversation whenever I sit with some of my more musically literate friends for lunch. My thoughts wander off as they discuss the complexities of Liszt, Bartok, and Strauss who to me, with all due respect, are just names.

I’ve always wondered what it was about classical music that caused music conservatories and cultural centers to exhaust all efforts to preserve it. Or why it was considered the standard despite the fact that very few people today actually listened to it. Why out of the vastness and diversity of the world’s music history, the classical period was plucked out and placed on a pedestal, as if it were the only kind of music that existed in the past. And why the most cultured of us firmly believe that society should do away with the “noise” of today and learn to appreciate music of “higher quality.”

It’s a fact that art constantly evolves, and so does everything else. So I find it quite absurd when people insist that the present should consist of the things that once were.

I recently attended a forum on music and politics where one of the members of the audience, a percussion major, asked about the disparity between the quality of yesterday’s music to that of today.

“Paano maibabalik ang dati? (How do we bring back the past?)” somebody asked.

Why would we want to do that? the moderator asked back.

We can’t bring back the past, Noel Cabangon, one of the featured speakers, answered finally.

Still I wouldn’t go as far as saying that classical music is indeed dead and should be done away with. As my friend, Miguel, put it, “I don’t believe in the tyranny of the majority. That’s the flaw of democracy—the majority is not always right. As long as there are still people who appreciate that kind of music, it should be allowed to exist.”

There have been attempts to reconcile classical music with the public’s current tastes, such as playing it in malls, holding free-admission musical galas, exposing young children to quality music in school, and playing Beethoven’s Fifth on electric guitar. And there is nothing wrong with that. I personally think anything aesthetically pleasing and worth listening to should be shared. But I think it’s about time we accept that classical music can no longer occupy the same place it did centuries ago.

There was a time when everybody listened to it with much enthusiasm. It wasn’t “classic” then. As funny as it may sound, Bach and Beethoven were the pop stars of the musical scene then. But change is constant, bringing with it a new set of artists and a new genre of popular music every time. It is utterly unrealistic and futile to wish for the music scene to remain static and devoid of innovation.

Classical music has become an exclusive, acquired taste, and the masses no longer listen to it. It’s a fact even the most biased of music majors and cultured enthusiasts should accept. But there is a whole world of beauty, passion, intellectual life and complexity in there once you learn to appreciate it. And though I’m usually against ivory tower snobs and institutions, in a way I’m thankful that they choose to preserve this kind of music. It may no longer be as popular and relevant as it used to be, and I admit that sometimes I really can’t relate to it. On most days I’d rather bob my head to Ne-Yo and Chris Brown. But it’s good to have options, and to once in a while enjoy something that isn’t so common.

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