Category: music

AJ Blogger Drew McManus says that the Baltimore search process appears to have been designed to exclude, or at least trivialize, the views of the orchestra’s musicians and, regardless of the merits of Marin Alsop as a conductor, a botched process is a sign of an organization in trouble. Furthermore, hiring a music director so early in the process is highly unusual for a major orchestra, largely because it is difficult to correct a hiring mistake without considerable public fallout.

Gangsta rap is back and the violence has escalated along with record sales. “Gangsta rap is like a cockroach infestation: Shining a light on it can cause some scurrying, but curbing it is a Sisyphean task. Targeting the corporate powers-that-be boldly ignores the practical here-and-now of the situation: Like it or not, children do listen to 50 Cent’s verbal gunplay and gossip about his real-life gunplay. While adults are busy battling companies, youths are soaking up the good, the bad and the ugly of hip-hop culture.”

“Overall, there are more quality composers working today than in any given year of the 18th or 19th centuries. Those eras overflowed with rote. Half the reason Beethoven remains so revered is because of how ho-hum many of his contemporaries were. But we don’t see it that way. We still mostly like the oldies. Why then, did classical music, especially in this country, take such a different course from the other arts, with audiences generally disconnected from contemporary creations?”

Anthony Freud, currently director of the Welsh National Opera, has been named general director of the Houston Grand Opera.

What can Houston Grand Opera expect from Anthony Freud, its new director? “Judging from his current work, Houston audiences will see a mix of traditional and new opera similar to that provided by longtime HGO head David Gockley.”

How has the pop music world responded to the horrific terrorist attacks in London? Well, it hasn’t, really, at least not beyond the predictable canceling and rescheduling of concerts. But isn’t pop’s refusal to be kept down by world events part of its purpose? “For all the high moral ground staked out at Live8, sometimes pop has to do exactly what it says on the tin and add a little fizz to our lives. In the wake of tragedy, Charlotte Church singing about being a Crazy Chick can seem at best an irrelevance, at worst a trivial distraction, but people don’t just listen to music to salve their souls and ease their consciences. Pop is there to raise a smile, to give us something to dance to, to help people forget their troubles.”

All carping and nitpicking aside, there really is nothing like the BBC Proms, the 111th edition of which begins this weekend in London. “There is something about the buzz of the atmosphere, the camaraderie of the Albert Hall, and the potent musical mix that ineluctably attracts seasoned, occasional and first-time concert-goers alike… While other European musical capitals largely shut up shop during the summer, London stages the world’s busiest two-month classical festival, this year with 74 concerts, eight lunchtime chamber recitals, and the popular last night’s Proms in the Park presented simultaneously in London, Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester and Swansea.”

Talk to orchestra execs around the U.S. about their biggest headaches, and slumping summer sales will likely make the list, even for big-budget bands like the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony. But in Minneapolis, where the Minnesota Orchestra has been mounting a major summer festival in the heart of the city for more than a quarter-century, ticket sales have actually risen in each of the last three years. Even so, the orchestra has been playing things awfully safe in recent summers, programming mainly crowd-pleasers and avoiding anything the marketing department might find unpleasant. Striking the right balance seems somehow to be more difficult in warm weather than cold…

A new digital music interface replaces the computer keyboard. “The computer interface is an adjustable, hollow device affixed to four thin metal tubes divided by a bridge into long and short sections. By positioning the fingers on the long section, a player can control pitch; by positioning the other hand’s fingers on the short section, the player can control such things as tempo and volume. Four laser pointers shining down the length of each rod relay the plucking motion to a tiny Web camera located on the bridge. When the player presses on the rods, the finger splits the beam of light, reflecting a splotch of light back to the camera.”

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters has written an opera about the French Revolution. “It’s not just a piece about the French Revolution, it’s about revolution in a much broader sense, and it’s about the capacity that human beings have for personal change. The piece is an exultation and an encouragement to those of us who believe the human race can discover its humanity and its capacity for empathy to the point where it may be possible for us at some point to guarantee the basic human rights of the individual (around the world).”