Category: music

An ongoing dispute between the Edmonton Symphony and the family of one of the orchestra’s biggest supporters has taken the form of an ugly public battle over an $800,000 bequest. “Stuart Davis, Edmonton’s philanthropist of the year in 2003, didn’t like lawyers and accountants. He didn’t use their services when he wrote a will giving his millions to local charities and six family members. Charities ended up getting 80 per cent of his $13-million estate.” But the lack of legal advice means that parts of the will are unclear, and Davis’s son says that he cannot afford to be as generous with the symphony as his father might have been.

Every arts organization wants to find better ways to get young people in to see their work. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center has formed a committee of young people to come up with strategies. “Most of the committee members come from prestigious high schools, both public and private. But even if one allows for a certain urban precociousness, the sophistication of their weekly discussions is impressive, and not dissimilar to debates going on at arts organizations around the country.”

Apple’s iTunes store has sold one billion songs online. “Despite those gaudy numbers, analysts say at 99 cents a song, Apple’s iTunes business roughly breaks even. That’s because after paying its partners, such as the music labels, Apple receives only about 25 cents to 30 cents per song. Add in operating costs and the business hovers around the break-even point.”

“From 1460 to 1700, “L’Homme armé” served as the basis of nearly 50 Mass settings, more than any other tune.” But it has, well.. problematic words, at least for a mass. So how did this piece get such heavy use?

“Increasingly, musical tuition has become the preserve of the elite. The government’s obsession with targets and league tables does not help. The national curriculum affords less and less time to classical music. How many of those who do manage to take up and stay the course of learning an instrument are then encouraged, with little career advice at their disposal, to enter a confusing abundance of music colleges?”

It’s official (well, maybe not quite official official – but the Three Tenors has sung its last gig. Placido Domingo is going it alone sans the two other T’s. “No matter who wins the football, Placido Domingo will walk away from Germany 2006 as the richest and most powerful operatic personage on earth. Where the Three Tenors carved up the record business between them in royalty deals worth more than 40 million dollars, Domingo now has the game all to himself.”

The Juno Awards are the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys. “To the average Canadian, however, the Junos barely register. They’re just one in an apparently endless line of awards galas that exist only for the purposes of filling up a couple hours on the television schedule. So why not get rid of the Junos? Isn’t that the logical thing to do? Why not get rid of a few awards shows while we’re at it? Be honest — would you even notice? Awards are meaningless once they become ubiquitous.”

With the boards of Cleveland’s two opera companies having officially agreed to merge, both groups are now playing the waiting game, hoping that transitional funds will come through and that all the niggling details on the legal end will work themselves out. When the dust clears, the combined company plans to present two large productions per season, plus lighter fare during the summer.

“Classical music is the music that has lived on or will live on. The implication here is that there’s lots of other music that hasn’t or won’t live on because it isn’t as good. Contemporary implies having a quality of newness, which is impermanent at best. Once something becomes familiar, by being around for a while and people getting to know it, it can’t really be contemporary anymore. So the more out there and inscrutable the music is to an audience, the longer it can stay contemporary.”

The version of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess known to the world may not be the version he intended to be the final one. “It turns out that Gershwin, during rehearsals for the New York premiere at Broadway’s Alvin Theatre, made extensive cuts and additions to his 700-page score. Since the composer died only two years later, in 1937, that edited but unpublished version represents, in effect, his final word on the subject.”