{"id":165,"date":"2011-08-23T21:30:58","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T04:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/?p=165"},"modified":"2011-08-23T21:30:58","modified_gmt":"2011-08-24T04:30:58","slug":"the-classical-music-critic-goes-extinct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2011\/08\/the-classical-music-critic-goes-extinct.html","title":{"rendered":"The Classical Music Critic Goes Extinct"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

John Terauds, Music Critic<\/p><\/div>\n

Seems important to note the passing of music criticism as a legitimate job in Canada. John Terauds, for six years staff classical music critic of the Toronto Star,<\/a> was reassigned this week to the paper\u2019s business section. He was the last full-time classical music critic at a Canadian newspaper. The job of full-time classical music critic literally ceases to exist in English-speaking Canada (Quebec apparently still has a couple of critics).<\/p>\n

This is depressing.<\/p>\n

Apart from being a fan of John\u2019s work, the loss of his job is symbolic of the end of an era. In the past seven years, more than half of all arts journalism jobs have been eliminated in American newsrooms. It\u2019s fine to say that 300,000 arts blogs now compete for attention online (according to Technorati). And there\u2019s something great about the opening up of public discourse about the arts that the digital world has wrought. In some ways we live in a richer ecosystem of engagement with the arts.<\/p>\n

And yet, by a significant measure, the erosion of commitment to covering the arts in traditional newspapers says something about where we are culturally right now. Institutions signify their support by where they choose to put their resources. And the inescapable truth is that these institutions (newspapers) for the most part don\u2019t support the arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupport the arts.\u201d That sounds strange applied to newspapers. Newspapers say they\u2019re supposed to be objective. I don’t mean “support” in the sense of boosting or advocating for them. I mean support in the sense of pay attention to. There\u2019s no conspiracy against the arts here; the business decisions made by the Star and so many newspapers is that there simply isn\u2019t an audience for what the newspapers have traditionally offered as coverage of the arts. These decisions are business decisions, and in a world of shrinking resources, newspapers \u2013 like any other business \u2013 triage.<\/p>\n

I was once a full time classical music critic. The newspaper I was a full-time critic for \u2013 the Seattle Post-Intelligencer \u2013 no longer exists. There\u2019s only one full-time dance critic left in the United States. Only one full-time visual art critic at a US alt-weekly. My town \u2013 Seattle \u2013 doesn\u2019t have a full-time classical music critic, and many music events pass without any critical mention at all.<\/p>\n

On one level you can say it doesn\u2019t matter. People still go to concerts. Tickets are still selling. And then there are those blogs.<\/p>\n

And yet, the market seems to have declared that arts criticism as a profession, as a calling, isn\u2019t supportable, isn\u2019t sustainable, isn\u2019t legitimate. I find that sad. We could go on about what was lacking or what didn\u2019t work in the way we covered the arts. But the cold hard truth is that there just isn\u2019t an audience for what we were doing. We can lament it. Or we can figure out whether there\u2019s a better way to do it and move on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seems important to note the passing of music criticism as a legitimate job in Canada. John Terauds, for six years staff classical music critic of the Toronto Star, was reassigned this week to the paper\u2019s business section. He was the last full-time classical music critic at a Canadian newspaper. The job of full-time classical music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-journalism","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/eacae9164a65af69f68bb9fe5451.jpeg?fit=200%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ePZm-2F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":88,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/04\/atlanta_journal-constitution_o.html","url_meta":{"origin":165,"position":0},"title":"Atlanta Journal-Constitution Offloads Its Arts Critics","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"April 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It's hard to accept the premise that newspapers are worth saving when they cut away the reasons to buy them. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has pretty much declared it's out of the culture coverage business by getting rid of its arts staff, including a few critics who have had national prominence.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/04\/atlanta_journal-constitution_o.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2006\/12\/rockwell_your_opening_salvo.html","url_meta":{"origin":165,"position":1},"title":"Rockwell: your opening salvo","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"December 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Doug: By actual count there are 4,217 really good ideas in your five paragraphs. Well, maybe one or two less, but they're all piquant and deserve response. Here's a start: Just as artists resent others laying their taste\/biases\/criteria on them, so might critics object when artists (or their enabling presenters,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2006\/12\/john_a_misunderstanding_and_tw.html","url_meta":{"origin":165,"position":2},"title":"John: A Misunderstanding and Two Questions","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"December 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Doug: I think we're talking about different things with the word \"rules.\" I meant that for each individual, critic or otherwise, there should be no rigid, exclusionary standards that determine our positions about most anything. With conflicts of interest and objectivity, I meant by no rules that to take an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2006\/12\/doug_generally_speaking_the_cr.html","url_meta":{"origin":165,"position":3},"title":"Doug: Generally Speaking (The Critic As Specialist)","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"December 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"John: Two huge topics to jump into, both probably worth spending a whole week on by themselves. I'll wait on answering the first till later, since it's such a huge topic. But the second, about specialist critics vs. generalists is easier to take a bite out of. I don't think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2006\/12\/doug_slippery_slope_or_is_it_r.html","url_meta":{"origin":165,"position":4},"title":"Doug: Slippery Slope (Or Is It Rocky Shore)","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"December 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"For the next week, critic John Rockwell will be joining me in a conversation on ArtsJournal. John started working at the New York Times as a critic in 1972, and is currently the paper's chief dance critic. He was also the paper's first pop music critic, wrote extensively about classical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2006\/12\/john_arts_coverage_then_and_no.html","url_meta":{"origin":165,"position":5},"title":"John: Arts Coverage Then and Now","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"December 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Doug: I agree with most everything you say in your last posting (to the annoyance of those, like editors, who value a good dust-up over reasoned dialogue). I do think editors at daily newspapers today prize lively writing and versatile newspaperly skills over expertise in a field of art; they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}