Author: Douglas McLennan

When an overlooked group is in trouble, one way to pretend it isn’t sick is to stage an awards ceremony. So this week the first Classical Brit awards for classical music. The gelled, egregious Kennedy will fiddle, Charlotte Church will weakly warble, Lesley Garrett will effervesce as usual like a shaken bottle of Babycham. The nominees are at best middlebrow, exposing the industry’s abject dependence on movie tie-ins. James Horner’s More Music From Braveheart, competes for Best Orchestral Album against John Williams’s latest brash, blatant marches from Star Wars, while Stephen Warbeck’s pastiched score for Shakespeare in Love has earned him a nomination as Male Artist of the Year. – The Observer (UK)

London’s concert halls are brimming over with music. But where is it on TV? “It is not just the quantity of classical-music programming on television that has declined, though the fall is real enough. A decade ago, say insiders, the BBC was broadcasting 100 hours per year. Now we are down to just half that number. The more serious collapse is of true commitment to the very idea of sustained coverage of classical music. A decade ago, a proposed Omnibus on Simon Rattle    today it is rejected because he is regarded by TV planners as of insufficient popular interest.” – The Telegraph (UK)

Pop music used to move in discernible directions that had its mass-market appeal. Not the 1990s, which let a million flowers bloom. “The music world pays a price for diversity. Our new heroes are often only heroes to a few. The sheer volume of titles, more akin to books than to movies, means that many never claim public attention, so it’s difficult for average listeners to sift out the important ones.” – New York Times

How to explain the century-long currents of music atonalism and serialism? Bernard Holland thinks he’s figured it out. “Fascism starts with a charismatic leader and moves on to megalomania, fanaticism, factionalism and a new order aimed at sweeping all detritus from its path. Fascism attracts people looking for one answer to a lot of complex problems; it doesn’t have that answer, but the one it throws out is persuasive. Arnold Schoenberg waved the 12 commandments at a generation of composers bewildered by the tower of Babel they had been forced to live in. They were looking for an answer, and many were quick to follow.” – New York Times

Judge rules big against illegal distribution of music over the internet with judgment against MP3. – Salon

Napster and piracy issues aside, on-line music companies are trying to doll themselves up to make themselves attractive to music fans. – Wired

The recording industry wins a suit against MP3.COM for compiling a database of music that can be downloaded. But the company says that compared to Napster, it’s one of the good guys. – Wired