The National Performing Arts Convention -- convening in Denver next month -- has a blog. I was asked to contribute; my entry is here. Subject: why the arts -- aka the collection of interest groups meeting in Denver -- don't really represent art in our current world.***Since I got after the classical music business for ignoring Earth Day -- and, basically, all environmental concerns -- I should be fair, and note that the Ojai Music Festival has announced a green initiative. It's the first I've ever heard of in classical music, though I hope … [Read more...]
Archives for 2008
The death of meaning
J'ai longtemps habité sous de vastes portiques......dont l'unique soin était d'approfondirLe secret douloureux qui me faisait languir.(For a long time I lived under vast porticos......whose only purpose was to bury, so deeply,The unhappy secret that made me suffer.) -- Baudelaire, "La vie antérieure"I went to a vocal recital. Doesn't matter where, or who sang. I'll just say that she's an older soprano, a star in both opera and lieder, nearing the end of her career. The setting and audience were genteel. When the singer and her … [Read more...]
Repeating Beethoven
In a comment on my last post, Steve (he doesn't give any last name) writes: Maybe you'd like to riff on this a bit:[D]o we really return to experience the music we value in the hope an expectation of hearing something new each time? On the contrary, I believe we return because we hear nearly the same thing each time.?(Scott Burnham, Beethoven Hero, 1995, p.164) I hadn't known the Burnham book, and I'm grateful to Steve for telling me about it. Thanks to Google Books, I was able to look up the context of this passage, and I'll … [Read more...]
Personal Beethoven
A conductor Gary Panetta, arts critic of the Peoria newspaper, made a comment on my previous post, about orchestras as museums. He put himself in the role of a conductor, about to embark on Beethoven's Fifth. I replied, and both the comment and reply seem worth promoting to a full post of their own. Here's the conductor's Gary's comment (and thanks to Lisa Hirsch for telling me that I'd misunderstood Gary's comment, and for telling me who he is): The comments here all sound intriguing, but I'm confused about one thing. Suppose I'm … [Read more...]
Orchestras as museums?
At a retreat of the Orchestra Forum program of the Mellon Foundation -- at which I learned a lot -- I got into two discussions about how orchestras might function as museums. Or, to be more honest, i made, in private conversation, a few provocative remarks, one of which I think is true beyond any chance of contradiction -- that none of the culturally central musical developments of the past 50 years happened in the orchestra world, or have even been reflected there. But that's not the point! said passionate and honest people I … [Read more...]
Challenge to opera
In Wong Karwai's new film, My Blueberry Nights, Rachel Weisz has a monologue that could almost be an opera aria. When I saw the film, and Weisz quiets down outside a bar where she's just thrown a fit (with Norah Jones sitting by quietly, ready to listen to anything Weisz says), I thought, "If this was an opera, now we'd get Rachel Weisz's aria." But I couldn't have known how musical Weisz's monologue would be. For one thing, she often spoke in musical phrases, with pitches - musical notes - I could just about have written down in … [Read more...]
Molly speaks
I've been meaning to link to Molly Sheridan's new ArtsJournal blog...there, I've done it. I've known Molly for years, always enjoyed her, always learned from her. And now she's flying. I hate to limit her, by quoting something that doesn't give you her nuance or range, or her flavor, something so merely factual...so follow the link above and read the full Molly...but still here's something she knows more about than I do, something that fits right in with the conversation we've been having here about the new audience, and the blend of new … [Read more...]
On the train
[Digressions away from music, But there's a musical payoff at the end.]I had a meeting in Boston. When it ended, I had some time before my train back to NY. The ride is dead time -- restful if I want to rest, but dead if I need to work. So much of my work takes me online (this blog, for instance). I can hack away at my computer, at writing I can do offline, but that takes concentration, and my normal rhythm keeps my online all the time while I work.And now for the geek paragraph. I'd decided to get a broadband modem for my laptop, so I could go … [Read more...]
Nice!
The Metropolitan Opera premiered this season's run of "Daughter of the Regiment" two nights ago, featuring many high C's from Juan Diego Florez. And to go along with the review -- which appeared today -- the New York Times features live audio of Florez singing the C's, followed by an ovation and his tradition-smashing encore. (Well, obviously encores are an opera tradition, but the Met long banned them, so this smashes a Met tradition, while returning to an older and better one.)I think this is wonderful. And even more so, because the Times … [Read more...]
The environment — solutions 2 (second in an occasional series)
Problem: You're involved with a classical music organization, maybe a big one. And even though you might describe your institution as "a vital community cultural resource" (to quote one orchestra's website), you know that once you get beyond the "cultural" part of that -- which basically means the contribution that you make to the community with your music -- you don't have all that much to offer. You sense that you're not a vital part of the community when other issues -- non-musical issues -- might arise. Solution: Do something for the … [Read more...]
Radical idea footnote
In my last post, I didn't t mean to imply that old music -- Beethoven, Verdi, you name the composer -- won't be part of the new classical music world I'm dreaming of, when Steve Reich, Bang on a Can, and eighth blackbird are at the heart of the musical mainstream. Anyone who wants to play old music -- aka the masterworks of western musical history (and I mean that very seriously) with conviction will surely do it, and no doubt find an audience. But we probably don't know exactly how that will work, and exactly what place those masterworks … [Read more...]
Really radical
As I've thought more about my last post, and as I've absorbed the very interesting comments, something else occurred to me. This is very radical, I admit, but I think it follows from everything I've said. Suppose classical concerts were -- as a general rule -- more or less like this eighth blackbird event? Then I think there'd be no gap between classical music and the rest of our culture, and no worries about classical music's future. Though of course that opens further questions. How large could the audience for a concert like this be? Could … [Read more...]
A larger audience?
Thursday night I heard a wonderful concert by eighth blackbird, in Zankel Hall. There was a new Steve Reich piece, Double Sextet, and then an extravaganza -- music plus exuberant staging -- from the three Bang on a Can composers, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Michael Gordon. Among much else, this was a real New York event, highlighting music by two generations of composers whose sound just about screams "New York." Steve Reich was New York in the 1970s and early 1980s, and Bang on a Can -- not that they don't have other influences -- come … [Read more...]
Internet 101
Today I got e-mail from a major orchestra, advertising a photo exhibit. The photos sound very interesting. But none were included in the e-mail! Dumb. They had my attention. Why not do something with it? They gave me a link to click, if I wanted to read a full press release about the photo show. No photos in the press release, either. Come on, people -- don't you know how the Internet works? And yes, you'd have to make separate versions of the press release, one for print, the other for downloading. But how hard would that be? Though why not … [Read more...]
Catching up again
Here's something I'm very happy to announce: I'll be giving the commencement address at the Eastman School of Music next month. This warms my heart, because I've had a very happy time teaching at Eastman for the past three years (I teach a quick course in the future of classical music, taught in January, February, and March). And I've bonded each year with my students. But I'm also honored to get such recognition from a major mainstream music school. And not just honored -- I'm thrilled to see my ideas taken so seriously.***If you'd like … [Read more...]