We all know someone who insists on buying all his new recordings on vinyl rather than CD, or banging out correspondence on some ancient typewriter long after everyone switched over to the latest version of Word. The technical term for these people is “pretentious Luddites.” But as Philip Marchand demonstrates, there is still great value in supposedly obsolete technologies, and for those interested in certain types of art, literature, and music, older may be the best, if not the only, option left.
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Secretary Of Chamber Music
For many on the left, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has become a symbol of everything that is wrong with the Bush Administration’s foreign policy. For many on the right, she’s the next shining star of the Republican Party. But there is another side to Rice which she appears to take every bit as seriously as her work in government. “Ms. Rice is an accomplished pianist… Until college she intended to pursue music professionally. Now 51, she plays as often as every other week with [a standing chamber ensemble made up of Washington lawyers with a passion for music.] Until now it was a realm of her very public life that she kept private.”
Daniel Barenboim On The Marketing Of Music:
“We have the whole [phenomenon of] descriptive marketing in the United States, which is how to use music as description and how to market it that way. In other words, what they are saying to the public is that you don’t have to concentrate, you don’t have to listen, you don’t have to know anything about it, just come and you will find some association, and this way you will go into the music. Is that the answer to the so-called crisis in classical music? Accessibility does not come through populism, accessibility comes through more interest and more knowledge.”
The World’s Funniest Archive (They Hope)
Humor is universal, so they say, but quantifying it can be awfully difficult. For anyone to attempt to archive the history of American comedy, for instance, might seem like the ultimate quixotic mission. But Boston’s Emerson College is attempting exactly that: “The archive’s centerpiece is an oral history collection, which so far consists of videotaped interviews with 51 comedy professionals… Whatever their value to scholars, the interviews have a lot to offer anyone thinking about pursuing a career in comedy.”
The Stones In China
The Rolling Stones finally make it to China, but play to an audience of only 8000. “The gig has been a long time coming and the fact that it is now possible reflects how the cultural and economic gap has closed between China and the West. When the band started in 1962, millions of Chinese were dying in the famines that followed the Great Leap Forward. In the decade that followed the only pop icon allowed to be worshipped was Mao Zedong. Even at the end of the Cultural Revolution, several attempts to arrange a Chinese concert were thwarted by financial concerns, political worries and, most recently, the outbreak of Sars.”
Too Far, Too Much Work, And They’re Playing That Again?
Why are classical concert audiences eroding? Composer Libby Larsen has been studying the problem, and has some ideas. For one thing, suburbanites (and a majority of the population in most metro areas lives in the suburbs) already make an average of 13 car trips a day, and aren’t terribly keen on battling traffic into the urban core for a concert. For another, technology and its constant advance means that even hardcore music-lovers don’t actually need the concert hall to get their fix. And then, of course, there’s the repertoire problem…
No Classical Left To Cross Over From
“Classical crossover isn’t a new category, but it’s one that morphs more ceaselessly than any other, and appears to be going further afield from core classical than ever. Originally, the crossover chart was created for artists who fell through the cracks, like harpist-composer Andreas Vollenweider. Now, any disc is fair game if issued on a classical label, if featuring a classical artist (even in nonclassical repertoire), or if featuring a nonclassical artist taking a crack at the classics.”
Why Would Anyone Want This Job?
There may not be a more demanding job in the music world than that of the opera conductor. Among the challenges: the orchestra must be kept together; the singers (who cannot hear the orchestra) must be explicitly cued, and sometimes need the words mouthed to them from the pit; the audience expects a brilliant and original interpretation, while the orchestra doesn’t want to be taken too far outside their comfort zone; egos must be massaged without appearing to suck up; oh, and everyone involved in the production will have already made up their mind about whether the maestro knows what he’s doing within thirty seconds of the start of the rehearsal, so watch those first impressions, hmm?
Camus Is Most Life-Changing
What are the noevls that most change men’s lives? “The most frequently named book was Albert Camus’s The Outsider, followed by JD Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. The project, called Men’s Milestone Fiction, commissioned by the Orange prize for fiction and the Guardian, followed on from similar research into women’s favourite novels undertaken by the same team last year.”
Broadway Gossip! Woo-Hoo!
Spring has sprung in New York, and as usual, the gossip birds are out in force in the city’s theatre scene. Latest tidbits out of the rumor mill: Tarzan may have issues, but it’s a Disney show, so it’s raking in the cash regardless; no one on Broadway knows what the hell a “Drowsy Chaperone” is supposed to be, or why anyone would pay money to watch it; and the supposedly dead-and-buried vampire musical “Lestat” may actually have some life left in it.