When classical Persian musician Mohammad Reza Shajarian “objected to the use of his songs to celebrate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election as president,” he inadvertently boosted his career. Online, young Iranians are “urging others to attend Mr Shajarian’s concerts and to buy his album, in an apparent bid to defy the authorities.”
Category: music
From The Top Turns 10, And Early Alums Are All Grown Up
Public radio’s From the Top has expanded in the decade since it “was launched as a showcase for pre-college classical musicians.” But its host, Christopher O’Riley, “says he’s most happy about the fact that the show has become a known outlet for young people to express themselves through music.”
Research: Bach Used 20th-Century Composing Technique
“In the current issue of ‘Musical Times,’ Professors Eric Altschuler and Noam Elkies write about finding a tone row in Bach’s music that may predate [Schoenberg’s] famous compositional technique by two centuries.”
British Library Throws Open The Doors On Music
“The British Library has made 23,700 rare music and sound recordings from its massive collection, reputed to be one of the largest sound archives in the world, available for free online.”
Detroit Gets A New Jazz Orchestra
“Organizers say the ultimate goals include staging a regular series with concerts across metro Detroit, touring, recording and cooperating more with the Detroit public schools, where disappearing music programs are putting the next generation of jazz musicians at risk.”
The Twitter Opera (It’s Surprisingly Good)
“Despite the predictable moaning by some British critics about it being an empty publicity stunt, the show turned out to be rather a lot of fun. Whoever was in charge of paring down seven acts’ worth of wilfully silly libretto into 15 minutes of something vaguely approaching a cohesive narrative deserves a pay raise.”
The Music Monkeys Like
“It’s very common for people to play music for animals that are in captivity, because they figure that they’ll be interested in it or enjoy it. But our work suggests that they aren’t that interested in human music or prefer not to listen to it at all.”
Should New Deals On Music Rights Be Kept Secret?
“The increased use of Non Disclosure Agreements in pretty much every deal that is struck between music services and record labels (and the PRS) has become a huge thorn in the side of artists and songwriters – and their managers.”
Alberto Gonzales, The Opera?
“The Gonzales Cantata, playing at this year’s Philadelphia Fringe Festival, is a 40-minute choral work based on the hearings that punctuated the U.S. attorney-dismissal scandal back in 2007. (Actually, every word sung is from the transcript of the hearings.)”
How Music Can Help Overcome A Grim Past
The Bucharest Festival has “the kind of programme you’d expect at one of those glitzy middle-European festivals such as Salzburg or Lucerne… The festival’s budget of £7 million may be modest compared with Salzburg’s, but it’s a vast sum in a country that’s struggling to move from a command economy to a free-market one.”