Blog

New Music… Or Whatever It’s Called

Frank Oteri edits a web magazine on contemporary music. But what to call that music? “For better or worse, everything has a name. Everything, that is, except the music we feature in this web magazine. Sure, we give it names like “contemporary classical” or “post-classical” or “new music” but usually we preface the name by clearing our throats or doing some other sort of mea culpa. For years, we’ve bemoaned our music’s lack of a name in articles, conversations, editorials, you name it (pun intended). And many of the big names in our field have weighed in: Milton Babbitt with “cultivated music,” David Lang with “other music,” and on and on. I even posited Ivor Darreg’s one-time “neoteric music” a few months back. (Hey, I can dream, can’t I?)”

Kramer: Johnson Was “Evil Influence”

Hilton Kramer believes more attention should have been paid to architect Philip Johnson’s admiration for the Nazis. “I daresay that for most of us, this chronicle of perfidy amounts to something far more significant than a ‘passing admiration for Hitler.’ The fact is that notwithstanding his aesthetic and intellectual talents, Philip Johnson remained at heart a cynic, an immoralist and a profoundly corrupted character—in short, an evil influence.”

Europe’s Big Museums Hurt As Governments Pinch Pennies

“Europe’s flagship museums — the Uffizi, the Musee du Louvre in Paris, and the British Museum in London — are feeling the pinch. Thrifty governments facing European Union deficit limits are capping cultural handouts and compelling museums to make money on the side by seeking sponsors, hiring out halls and selling snacks and knickknacks. As a result, even as museums draw record crowds — the Louvre hosted 6 million visitors last year, half the turnout at EuroDisney, Europe’s largest theme park — they increasingly rely on sponsors.”

Lebrecht: Why Is There Still A BBC Orchestra?

The BBC Symphony Orchestra has a new music director (and a good choice it is, too). But, asks Norman Lebrecht, did anyone think to ask whether there there is still a need for a radio orchestra? “Broadcast orchestras belong, it could be argued, in the Natural History Museum alongside the dinosaur and the whittled stick. They came into being in the early 1920s as the cheapest means of filling airtime in an era when the best orchestras operated a broadcast ban and symphonic records were full of scratches and had to be changed every three minutes. But what, you many wonder, is the point of maintaining two orchestras in London and one in Manchester at a time when the BBC is making 15 percent cuts in all other areas as it battles for charter renewal?”

Seattle Gallery Owners Upset Over “Conceptual” Art Thefts

Art stolen from Seattle galleries that was presumably going to be part of a conceptual show has gallery owners unhappy. “There’s real money involved and real reputations. We reconfigured our space to make sure the front room is always visible to staff and spent a lot of time worrying if we needed a better security system. We felt like saps who couldn’t keep an eye on the art.”

Movies Beneath The Excess

“In the eyes of many movie idealists, Sundance is a paranoid fantasy come true, an art mecca devoured by a commercial mecca. Once the preserve of purists who decried Tinseltown philistines and revered long, slow movies about long, cold pioneer winters, now it’s a place where $16 million deals are struck hot and fast while Paris Hilton dirty-dances with Pamela Anderson prior to picking up free underwear at Sundance’s innumerable star-fucking freebie emporiums. It’s the best way to expose brand names to the widest possible audience, whether the product is a gritty indie flick or a pricey brassiere.”