Musicologica Olomucensia

La grande illusion. Sociological Observations on the Dialectics of Jazz and Classical Music

The essay focuses on the reception history of jazz music in the Czech Lands. It is based on contrasting two rather distant historical moments. Firstly, the situation of 1920's comes under scrutiny. Jazz arrived to the Central Europe after the World War I as a new form of popular music. Simultaneously, numerous avant-garde composers saw it as one of possible catalysts of departure from traditional post-romantic musical idiom. In Central Europe, some advocates of jazz declared a need for classical music to receive a "transfusion of fresh blood" from jazz to re-establish any links to the modern social world. Among the Czech musicians, Erwin Schulhoff and Emil František Burian were the most prominent prophets of this attitude to jazz. The concept of rejuvenation of classical music by jazz was based on a view of both musical styles as being complete opposites.
The second part of the essay refers some findings from sociological surveys conducted in the Czech Republic over the last decade. There is strong empirical evidence, which suggest the social functioning of jazz has gradually changed from the otherness of popular music to a status very similar to that of the classical music. The share of Czech population having a preference for jazz has been decreasing over the last 50 years considerably from more then 50 % in 1963 to some 16.5 % in 2005. During the same period, the correlation between the degree of education and taste for jazz has been growing. The emerging type of the "omnivorous" listener bears sympathy for both jazz and classical music. Jazz has changed from a wild species of popular music into a socially approved exhibit in the imaginary museum of classical music.