Category: music

Big celebrations are planned for the centenary celebrations of Michael Tippett. But “is he really worthy of a place alongside those great masters? Or is his high stature just another symptom of that insecurity we Brits have about our composers, which makes us elevate them beyond their worth? He certainly wasn’t a great innovator who left his mark on succeeding generations, the way Messiaen and Stravinsky have done. And his place in musical life is not quite first-rank.”

Archaeologists have discovered one of the world’s oldest known musical instruments — a 30,000-year-old flute finely carved from a woolly mammoth’s ivory tusk in southern Germany. “The findings would point to the region as one of the key areas of cultural innovation at the start of the Upper Paleolithic and demonstrate that the origins of music can be traced back to the European Ice Age over 30,000 years ago. The flute would have been capable of playing relatively complex melodies.”

After years of futile efforts, it looks as if the Montreal Symphony Orchestra may finally get the new home it’s always wanted. A plan being floated by the new Quebec government would abandon the idea of building a $280 million performance complex, and instead renovate an existing (and terribly underused) theater for the orchestra’s use. The plan is likely to succeed where others have failed partly because it is simple, but mostly because it won’t cost the province’s taxpayers a dime.

Back in the 1960s, you couldn’t swing an acoustic guitar without hitting a folk musician singing a protest song about something that was bugging him, usually something pretty specific. These days, overtly political music is rare, and specific issue-oriented songs are usually eschewed in favor of broader-themed anthems trumpeting such controversial concepts as peace and justice and brotherhood and so on. But a new CD released by aging folkies and frustrated teachers is taking direct aim at the Bush Administration’s controversial No Child Left Behind Act, with proceeds going to fund an alternative school that has been hurt by the act’s reforms.

La Scala’s decision to reopen after its renovations with a long-ignored Salieri opera is a high-profile indication that the long-maligned composer’s reputation is being rehabilitated. Why now?

Royalties for music streamed over the internet is beginning to add up to serious money. And, unlike conventional broadcast radio, royalties are paid not to composers, but to performers and copyright holders.

Michael Schindhelm, currently director of Switzerland’s Basel Theater, has been apointed the first general director of “a foundation set up this year to oversee Berlin’s three opera houses. In 2003, the city threatened to merge two of the opera houses until the federal government stepped in with extra arts funding. This year, the three houses were placed under the new foundation in a move meant to enhance coordination and cut costs.”

Matthew Epstein’s departure from Chicago Lyric Opera won’t affect the company’s day-to-day operations much. But the experienced administrator brought a forward-thinking style that set the company apart. “Epstein’s departure at Lyric leaves no leading American opera company except David Gockley’s Houston Grand Opera with a bold artistic visionary among its top administrators. Everybody else is taking a cautious line and blaming artistic reticence on a sputtering economy.”

Rarities of American music are disappearing because care isn’t being taken to preserve old movies, recordings and sheet music. “The irony is that original artifacts are vanishing, but the golden era of American song is enjoying a comeback. New recordings of old standards by Rod Stewart and other artists have sold millions of copies, and record companies are forever reissuing classic albums. Songs made famous by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Billie Holiday provide nostalgic soundtracks for films, sitcoms and television commercials.”

Prince’s tour of North America was the best-selling live tour of 2004. “His 69 city, 96 show tour took $87.4m during 2004, beating Celine Dion’s Las Vegas residency, which came in second, taking $80.4m.”