“Why have so few general histories of jazz been produced? In addition to being a relatively young art form, jazz is also a vernacular music that is usually (though not always) played in commercial settings. For this reason, scholars in America and elsewhere were long reluctant to take it seriously.”
Category: music
The Hatto Scandal – Don’t Blame The Critics
“The critics who applauded Hatto’s alleged recordings indeed were recognizing great performances by estimable artists. They were doing, in fact, precisely what critics are supposed to do: discern artistic excellence.”
The Dirty Little Secret Of Classical Recordings
“The Hatto scandal reminds us that, even in hands not sullied like his, the piecemeal process by which finished recordings are assembled bears a great moral question mark. The technology of the modern studio has made possible a kind of synthetic perfection in recording undreamt of 50 years ago, in which hundreds of digital edits (tape splices in the old days) create an aural product that sometimes bears little relation to music as it’s actually presented in the concert hall or opera house.”
Classical Music Buyers Migrate To Downloads
Major orchestras, with or without major labels — sometimes without any label — are releasing their music as downloads, and audiences are buying. “Mark Berry, a spokesman for the budget label Naxos, said that digital distribution accounted for nearly 20 percent of that company’s revenue in 2006, up from about 8 percent the year before.”
NRO To Cut Ties With Longtime Director
The executive director of the Colorado-based National Repertory Orchestra (a prominent training program for young musicians) has been told that her contract will not be renewed when it expires at the end of this season. Terese Kaptur took over the NRO program in 2002 after serving for three years as the orchestra’s artistic director.
Can Opera Help Rehabilitate Criminals?
Music education – specifically, a full-scale opera program – is having a profound impact on the lives of prisoners in the UK, according to some observers in the prison system. But some guards and wardens believe that the program is just an undeserved reward for evil men. “This schism between the punitive versus the rehabilitative runs deep within the penal system; prisoner access to creative projects depends on the attitude of individual governors.”
Should Musicians Be Composers As Well?
Fewer than two centuries ago, the titles of composer and performer were nearly always attached to a single artist, and Stephen Hough says that it ought to become so again. “Anyone who can read music can write it too – and should. It doesn’t have to be performed, and it may not be very inspired, but to be totally divorced from the act of creation risks making us neighbours rather than relatives to the works we play.”
The Enigma of Gorecki
Back in 1992, the third symphony of a little-known Polish composer named Gorecki shot unexpectedly up the charts and sold a million copies. Moreover, the work “achieved more performances than any work by a living composer since the Second World War… And that was it. For the next 15 years there was nothing more was heard from Gorecki.” Now, at age 74, he has released a new string quartet, but he remains quite reluctant to talk about his music.
Arrest Made In SF Symphony Embezzlement Scheme
“San Francisco police arrested a… woman Tuesday morning on suspicion of skimming more than $17,000 from the San Francisco Symphony’s box office proceeds… She is suspected of replacing the cash stolen from ticket proceeds with money that came in from donors. “
Sex & Violins Violas
The UK music magazine Muso recently commissioned a study on the sex lives of classical musicians, and while musicians themselves were all too willing to participate, the usual array of pretentious classical critics has lined up to take shots. But really, who cares about them? What everyone wants to know is, in which section of the orchestra will you find the most promiscuous sorts? (It’s the viola section, of course.)