将巴赫的精髓品牌化——作曲家作为业余音乐组合中的“复古品牌”

Branding the Essence of J.S. Bach——Composers as “Retro Brands” in Amateur Musical Ensembles

在过去的几十年中,不同流派和时期的音乐被用于打造消费者/零售市场产品的品牌。历史上,艺术家和音乐家们用各种方法创造自己的形象,以脱颖而出。今天业余和半专业合唱团所面对的现实是多种多样的。首先,招募有才华的歌手来吸引新成员是一项挑战,这对于维持音乐水平和财政目的都是必不可少的,特别是如果合唱团是由成员提案来运行的话。第二,吸引观众到他们的演出中来获得门票收入。第三,创造积极的声誉和形象,在当地的文化生活中获得一定的地位,特别是接受公共和私人机构的补贴和资助。本文以一个以传播为目的来使用作曲家品牌的英国业余巴赫合唱团为例,通过参与者观察、深入访谈、半结构化访谈和书面调查收集数据。研究结果表明,巴赫,在合唱音乐的背景下,被认为是具有挑战性的曲目的同义词,体现了一种策略或是一种高水准表演的宣言。在英国,大多数巴赫合唱团可以被归类为半专业合唱团,这指向的是品牌实质中的质量特征,而试听则是最低的质量标准。此外,巴赫的形象是由这样的主要历史描述构成的,作为一个谦虚、虔诚的教会仆人,他碰巧是一个音乐天才,在支撑一个大家庭的同时,表现出努力以及新教的职业道德。在某种程度上,J.S.巴赫具有品牌个性的一些特征,而他的名字——作为一个复古品牌——则与他性格的历史表现相关联。

In the last decades,music from various genres and periods has been used in branding products in consumer/retail marketing.Historically,artists and musicians have used various methods to create their own images to stand out from the crowd.The reality that amateur and semi-professional choirs deal with today are various.Firstly,there is the challenge of recruiting talented singers to draw in new members,which is both essential for maintaining musical standards and for financial purposes,particularly if the choir is run by submissions from members.Secondly,to draw audience to their performances to collect ticket revenues and thirdly to create a positive reputation and image to gain a certain status in the local cultural life,specifically to receive grants and funding from public and private bodies.This paper will observe one case study;an English amateur Bach choir using the composer-orientation as a brand for promotional purpose.Data was collected through participant observation,in-depth,semi-structured interviews and a paper-based survey.Findings indicate that Bach,in the context of choral music,is considered synonymous for challenging repertoire,indicating a strategy or a declaration of quality performance.Most Bach choirs in the UK can be classified as semi-professional choirs,which applies to quality features in the brand essence and auditions being like minimal quality standards.Furthermore,the image of Bach consisted of dominating historical representations of him as the modest,religious church servant who happened to be a musical genius,demonstrating hard,protestant work ethic while raising a big family.In a way,J.S.Bach has some of the characteristics of a brand personality,whereas his name—as a retro brand—is associated with the historical representations of his character.