Mark Wigglesworth, former music director of English National Opera, makes the case: “If opera is drama first and foremost, why is the question of the language it’s sung in so hotly debated? Shouldn’t the same rules as drama apply? I don’t hear complaints about Ibsen or Chekhov being compromised by translations. … Both Verdi and Wagner were energetically supportive of translations. If we could ask them about surtitles, I suspect they wouldn’t understand the question.” — Bachtrack
Category: music
UK Launches Campaign To Expand Music Therapy For Dementia Patients
Research has shown that musical activities have a variety of positive effects for dementia patients, but, despite encouragement from the NHS, financially strapped facilities often put music low on their list of priorities. A new campaign called Music for Dementia 2020 aims to change that. — The Guardian
“Jazz Is Dying” As Metaphor For The Larger Culture
Matthew McKnight examines Jazz At Lincoln Center: “While the obituary writers may have been right—something’s dying—they have been preoccupied with the wrong thing. By looking for signs of vitality in measures of jazz’s popularity, it becomes easier to ignore what the music, according to Marsalis’s definition, is: a refinement of empathic listening, a model for improvisation, and an embodiment of meaningful time perception. If this is right, then the supposition that jazz is dead carries meaning beyond itself. What if we are witnessing the death, or suffocation, of a society that values careful listening, serendipity and, like a jazz ensemble, the dedication to finding common ground?” – The Point
Retooling Scott Joplin’s ‘Treemonisha’ For The 21st-Century
That’s the project of Toronto theatre company Volcano, which hopes to tour its adaptation — with “an entirely new story” — of Joplin’s 1911 opera to California, D.C., Canada, and Britain next year. Says Volcano’s artistic director, “As far as I can find, the libretto has never been touched. We’re just giving Joplin the help he was denied.” — The Washington Post
Ranking All 213 Beatles’ Songs From Worst To Best
This quixotic task was performed by longtime music critic Bill Wyman. It’s an admittedly deeply subjective ranking. Wyman heaps the most scorn for Paul McCartney’s “Good Day Sunshine” which ends up at the bottom. He calls it bland and contends that it ruins “Revolver” the album it was on. – New York Magazine
How A Heavy Metal Mongolian Band Found A Worldwide Audience
“Mongolians are not just taking elements from Western music and just copying and pasting. So it’s not rock music performed by Mongolians. It’s Mongolian rock music.” And YouTube has found it an audience. – NPR
2018 In Classical Music By The Numbers
Bachtrack’s annual compilation of statistics about classical music worldwide. The headline? About 30,000 performances. Oh, and Leonard Bernstein got a big boost from his anniversary year with a surge in performances of his music. – BachTrack
Honoring – And Keeping Alive The Music Of – A Composer Who Died Too Young
Matt Marks, composer, vocalist and French horn player, one of the founders of Alarm Will Sound, died suddenly at the age of 38 in May of 2018. Many of his works were intensely personal and intimate, but his friends and fellow musicians want to keep them alive. It’s not easy on the emotional level – or the musical one. – The New York Times
America, We Need To Talk About ‘Dixie’
Though the song didn’t have its origins in the actual Confederacy, it became an anthem of that attempt to break away from the United States. But eventually, long after the Civil War ended with the Union winning and slavery coming to a legal end, “Dixie” became a marching band staple … and that got weird. – NPR
Vinyl Sales Grew By Leaps And Bounds In 2018 – And So Did Cassettes
Wait, cassette tapes? Yes (driven, as movie fans could guess, by Guardians of the Galaxy compilations). “Vinyl sales grew by just shy of 12 percent from 8.6 to 9.7 million sales, while cassette sales grew by almost 19 percent from 99,400 to 118,200 copies sold in the US.” But CD sales were in freefall, making physical media take another dip. – The Verge