{"id":624,"date":"2011-05-12T07:59:56","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T11:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/?p=624"},"modified":"2011-05-12T07:59:56","modified_gmt":"2011-05-12T11:59:56","slug":"a-pitch-for-a-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/2011\/05\/a-pitch-for-a-pitch\/","title":{"rendered":"A pitch for “A Pitch…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

My client David Lang wrote this article, “A Pitch for New Music<\/a>“”, for some newspaper that I think is called “The New York Times”? Something like that. Anyway.<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> has been running a series called The Score<\/em><\/a> on the Opinionator <\/em>blog, described as, “The Score<\/em> features the writings of composers on their work and the issues involved in creating music in the 21st century, as the traditional notion of ‘classical’ continues to be reconsidered, revised and reimagined.”<\/p>\n

Spurred by the Anthony Tommasini Top Ten Composers List of Destiny<\/a>, David wrote about classical music and baseball. He writes:<\/p>\n

Certain things that happen in classical music would be unthinkable in baseball.\u00a0 Imagine a baseball game in which all the players dress up in the uniforms of a hundred years ago, and then follow, pitch by pitch, a classic match-up from the past.\u00a0 Imagine watching a game, and saying that a hit or a run on the field in front of you is not as elegant or meaningful as a hit or run from a game 50 years before.\u00a0 Imagine seeing your favorite team win a game, but discounting it because you remembered a previous incarnation of that team that was more talented or exciting. Or imagine going to a game that wasn\u2019t as thrilling as a game you remember from your past and then deciding never to see another live game again.<\/p>\n

That last one is the analog to classical music that bothers me the most.<\/p>\n

Could baseball have a lesson for music lovers that would allow us to appreciate the past and the present at the same time? What is behind this ability of baseball fans to connect the present action to the sport\u2019s past glory and still appreciate\u00a0 the moment-to-moment excitement of the players on the field?\u00a0 These aren\u2019t distinct functions of sports fandom; they are closely related to each other, and they inform each other.\u00a0 A fan appreciates the successes of the past more as he or she sees contemporary players working to succeed now, and vice versa.\u00a0 This is the kind of thinking that the institutions of classical music need to promote if we want the field refreshed by new music and musicians.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole glorious thing<\/a> here.<\/p>\n

Also, since I’m always worried about missing an “m” and adding an “s”\u00a0 in Anthony Tommasini’s name, I Googled him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Anthony Tommasini Google results<\/p><\/div>\n

No results for “anthony tommasini opera” or “anthony tommasini critic” or even “anthony tommasini new york times”: just the list! Everyone loves a list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My client David Lang wrote this article, “A Pitch for New Music“”, for some newspaper that I think is called “The New York Times”? Something like that. Anyway. The Times has been running a series called The Score on the Opinionator blog, described as, “The Score features the writings of composers on their work and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626,"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":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}