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Book update

October 10, 2005 By

Looks like the first installment of my book will appear online two weeks from today, on Monday, October 25. In a week, there should be some publicity, with more details. As I’ve said, this will be the first draft of what eventually will be a published book. Comments will be welcome (and in fact I’ll leave two weeks between installments, to give time for comments). They’ll help me immeasurably.

But I still need a title. Any ideas? The subject, of course, is the future of classical music. And the contents will be arranged more or less like this (to repeat something I posted here earlier; the chapter titles are tentative):

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.)

10/10/05 2:31 PM | filed under: main |

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