The Transformative Power of Classical Music??

 I regard the notion that classical music has "transformative power"  is self flattering  and self indulgent hogwash favoured by people with no real insight into their own natures.

I wrote this in response to a video about said transformative power

the classical music profession is brutally competitive and corrupt. egos strut their stuff there and think their arrogance is justified; colleagues are eagerly eyeing their section leader in the hope that he botches the solo and they can get his post; attractive young women can get good rank in an orchestra by sleeping with the music director or management of the orchestra; and of course the jaded professional  who is only there as he feels trapped and thinks he can do nothing else is always a sad spectacle.

This last i first saw aged 17 as a young trainee musician, and this last i ultimately became myself 25 years later

so clearly the solution, if classical music is transformative, is that a full time symphony orchestra, actually plays some more classical music!!

so professional classical musicians, of which i was one, having more exposure to this transformational "power" are more transformed than others?

To have an overwhelming emotional experience from hearing a symphony or something is simply not the same as being transformed by it.

I was BLOWN away by the finale of Mahler's first  the first time i noticed it (not the first time i heard it BTW)

was i changed as a person?

no

was i kinder more  patient, more focused, more at peace?

none of these.

I have, to put it plainly, too much self awareness to be fooled by the notion that i was transformed even by an overwhelming emotional experience from music.

what people are seeking in classical music is religious experience. and this is as absurd as it is blasphemous

sometimes an absurd idea is exposed simply by asking the right questions.

just to clarify, the only genre of music that ever interested me for the last 50 years is classical  IOW rock music bores me to death. i have a  bachelor's degree in composition, i was a professional orchestral player. i was soaked in the western classical tradition. and I KNOW  it has no transformative power because i also know myself