About the book

Maybe a month ago I mentioned I book I plan to write; I said I'd draft it online, and welcome comments from anyone who reads it. And since I mentioned it again in my previous post, I'd better give an update. The book is happening. I won't draft it on this blog, but on another, more public, site to be announced. I hope that I'll begin to post my draft sometime this month. Watch for announcements!

The plan, so far, is to post a new installment every two weeks, with time off for holidays, and maybe other breaks as well. Between installments, I'll welcome comments, and I'll post most of them. (Sorry -- I have to be the final, or, well, the only judge of what's worth posting. I don't want to get into useless arguments, though I'll welcome useful ones. Whether somebody agrees with me will not be how I decide which comments I decide to post.) My idea is that, if I'm writing about the future of classical music, I want to write it in collaboration (in a sense) with people in the field, the people whom the book is partly aimed at. I say partly because I want the book to make sense to people outside the classical music world as well, for whom (if all goes well) it just might serve as both an introduction to classical music, and an explanation of why they haven't yet found a way to get more into it.

The book won't be terribly long. I see it in four chapters:

1. We Have a Problem: an introduction to everything I want to say, including a look at the classical music world as it might appear to an outsider (and, more specifically, to that new audience we talk about attracting).

2. Facts, Figures, and Beyond: exactly what's wrong with classical music today. The financial problems (which, as I've often said here, are more serious than many people think), and also the artistic ones, which I think are even more important. Very likely they're the cause of the financial difficulties.

3. The World Around Us: what pop music means for the classical music world. And where all the arts fit in contemporary culture. This, as you might expect if you've been reading me, will include a rousing defense of pop music from anyone who thinks it's only entertainment.

4. A Contemporary Art: how classical music is changing (of course I'll have something about this in the first chapter, too), and what further changes will be needed before classical music can be healthy again. (Hint: they'll be large, and -- again no surprise to anyone who's been reading me -- will all be about turning classical music into what it used to be, a genuinely contemporary art.)

These chapter titles are tentative. Suggestions from improvements are welcome. As are suggestions for the title of the book. (And, of course, for its content.) Obvious ideas, like "The Future of Classical Music" or "Classical Music in an Age of Pop" (the title of my spring-semester Juilliard course, which I'll also be teaching at Eastman this spring), don't seem lively enough.