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Cage Legacy: Pioneering Music Theory Finds A Home In Video Games

“The computer game industry is a bit like the early days of opera: Composers are exploring untested ways of combining music, story, and visual spectacle. Fifty years ago, avant-gardists like Earle Brown and John Cage were leaving the ordering of musical events up to the players. Now this once-arcane technique is being used by game composers for far more commercial purposes. Composers call it ‘branching music’ — musical themes or tags linked to specific game events, designed so that any tag can lead un- jarringly to or from any other tag, creating a continuous flow, whatever the player’s choices.”

In NY: British Flops, Musicals Tops

British players and British players haven’t been doing well on Broadway this season. “The suspicion occurs that New York critics are tiring of British directors presuming to show them how great classics, and particularly American classics, ought to be staged.” But “the really good news in New York is that the renaissance of the home-grown Broadway musical is continuing apace, though it is odd that so many of them appear to be based on old movies.”

The Dark Side Of Official Diversity?

“The days when arts organisations could be seen promoting ‘traditional’ arts to ‘traditional’ audiences are over. Phrases like ‘reflecting diversity’, ‘breaking down barriers’, ‘building new audiences’ and ‘exploring ethnicity’ trip off the tongues of arts funders and practitioners. Arts organisations are now seeking to fund and showcase diverse artists, and are employing ‘specialist ethnic agencies’ to promote arts events to specific communities. From one point of view, this represents a refreshing opening up of British cultural life. But the practice of organising policy on the basis of people’s identities – which is a growing trend – has a dark side.”

Colorado Cancels Grants Deadline

Anticipating darstic cuts in its funding, the Colorado Council on the Arts cancelled this year’s filing date for funding (It was supposed to be April 30). “This agency has been all but eliminated. It is no longer business as usual. We will be eliminating most of our programs as a result of these cuts. Nobody can expect us to do a $2.5 million job with only $200,000.” In January, the council awarded 97 grants totaling $689,000 to various programs statewide. Last year, it gave out about $1.3 million in 154 grants.

Growing The Guggenheim (Abroad)

Things haven’t been so good for the Guggenheim lately at home. No matter – director Thomas Krens has always had a global vision. So “yesterday he and Cesar Maia, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, signed an agreement to build a $130 million museum on Mauá Pier in Guanabara Bay. Rio will be the sixth city with Guggenheim museums and exhibition spaces, joining Berlin; Venice; Las Vegas; and Bilbao, Spain, as well as New York.”

Museums – Jumbo Egos, Jumbo Falls

Hilton Kramer is cranky about over-ambitious expansion plans of museums chasing glory (and money). “How are we to characterize the narrative of turbulence and disarray that has lately overtaken some of our local institutions? I suggest that we think of it as the Museum Expansion Follies, for it’s in the service of this muddled narrative that a lot of money is spent (and lost) these days without much regard for negative consequences. And not only money…”

Porn Gains On Music For File-Swappers

Will Apple’s cool new music file-trading service put file-swapper services such as Gnutella or Morpheus out of business? Not hardly. Why? Because an ever-increasing percentage of files being swapped online isn’t music at all – it’s porn. “There is absolutely no way Apple is going to make a dent in file sharing. Smut was the most sought-after content on the Gnutella file-trading system, according to a February survey, with 42 percent of all users hunting for blue pictures and movies.”

Classical Music – Failure To Graduate

British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s recent admission that he doesn’t really appreciate classical music is telling, writes Norman Lebrecht. “The problem is one of late adolescence. Most of us rebel at puberty against parental values, only to adopt most of them willy-nilly when we raise children. It used to be one of the more copper-bottomed truths of the music industry that kids who bought rock and pop in their teens and twenties switched to classics around their mid-thirties. The Blair generation is the first to buck that trend, clinging to decrepit rock idols like Jagger, Dylan and Eric Clapton, and embarrassing their offspring by listening to the White Stripes instead of making a mature transition to more intricate music.”