ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

MUSIC

Universal Music Posts Record Streaming Revenue, But CEO Calls For New Streaming Model

Even as Universal Music’s chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge lauded the sustained growth of streaming and technology’s ability to connect artists with their fans, he used the company’s fourth quarter investor call on Thursday to advocate for a new economic model. - New York Post

A 10-Year-Old Didn’t Want To Do Homework, So She Wrote A Score Instead

Then her mom posted it to TikTok, asking musicians to perform it. So far? "In the following days, musicians played the score on a violin, clarinet, guitar, harp, trumpet, flute, saxophone, cello and viola." And now it's at 6 million views plus. - Washington Post

Creating A Score For The Third Try At A German WWI Movie

Volker Bertelmann: "When I saw the film the first time, I was thinking I need an instrument from that time. And then my studio - there was the harmonium of my grand-grandmother that I refurbished a year before, and it was just, like, sitting there waiting for a job." - NPR

New England Symphony Orchestra Has A New Name And A New Home

The ensemble had been playing since 1974 in the north-central Massachusetts towns of Lancaster and Fitchburg under the name Thayer Symphony Orchestra; it re-christened itself the New England Symphony in 2016. Now it's moving a bit south to Worcester, with the name Worcester Symphony Orchestra. - Telegram and Gazette (Worcester, Mass.)

I Went To The Royal Opera On A £1 Ticket

Journalist Hugh Morris managed to score the ultimate prize of a cheap-tickets-for-young-audiences scheme: £1 admission to the most expensive classical arts venue in London.  It turned out to be standing room, midweek, at the back of the very top balcony.  Here's his report. - Van

As Small Businesses Collapse, Music Stores Are Closing. This Matters

If we take away music’s “shop window”, it recedes yet further out of view. There is not even the possibility that someone might walk past, see a display of shiny saxophones or attractive mahogany-hued violins and have their curiosity piqued. - The Critic

Hip-Hop Meets Symphony Orchestras

Classical instruments have been sampled for hip-hop for decades, but in recent years such hip-hop stars as Mos Def, will.i.am, Pharrell Williams, and Kendrick Lamar have had their songs arranged for orchestra and performed with such major ensembles as the Seattle, Atlanta, and Houston Symphonies. - Andscape

How Vinyl Records Became Cool Again

Everything the music industry had learned in the twentieth century pointed to vinyl’s demise in the twenty-first. And it’s true that physical formats are now a tiny proportion of the overall market: 10 percent to streaming’s 84. But while streaming drove CD sales into the ground, it precipitated vinyl’s resurgence. - The Critic

Technology Changes The Ways We Think About Creativity. Take The Lowly Drum Machine…

A good music technology becomes a new source of creativity; it can be hacked and bent in ways that its own designers may not have foreseen. A drum machine does more than automate a beat. In the right hands, it can change our sense of rhythm. - Aeon

The Culture Of Politics Inside Orchestras

“I’m always conscious that there’s always someone watching how you’re behaving and listening to how you’re playing. The politics of where to sit on the bus for out-of-town dates”, or “where to put your bags in rehearsals”. - The Guardian

As The War Drags On, Odesa’s Opera House Keeps Running

"During a rehearsal at the Odesa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in Odesa, it's easy to forget that Ukraine is a country at war. Despite attacks on the busy port city and cultural hub, the opera house remains open." - The World

Your Daily Music Prescription: How Much You Need For Therapeutic Benefit

We set out to find out whether there was a common dosage for music and how long one needed to listen for a therapeutic effect. We discovered a recommended daily allowance of music for various mood states, how this affected people and what types of music were commonly used to achieve this. - British Academy of Sound Therapy

“A Different-Shaped Company”: English National Opera CEO Outlines A Hoped-For Transformation

Stuart Murphy says that the plans currently taking shape in talks with Arts Council England call for large-scale proscenium opera remaining at the Coliseum in London but the majority of the company's work, and its headquarters, being outside the capital, featuring smaller-scaled works in different venues. - The Stage

Pittsburgh Symphony Is Starting A New Series of Casual Concerts

At the PSO Disrupt series, ... the concerts will last only about an hour and a half or less. A host will guide listeners through the music with remarks throughout the concert.  Even more radical might be the themed cocktails that attendees will be allowed to bring into the hall." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Why Music Can Cue Such Intense Memories

"Patients with Alzheimer’s still can experience the music 'time travel' episodic memory phenomenon even after the disease has attacked their hippocampus, as long as those episodic memories are more than two years old." - Washington Post

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