Those annoying songs that somehow get stuck in our heads and can’t be chased out? There’s a physical reason, apparently. “A cognitive itch is a kind of metaphor that explains how these songs get stuck in our head. Certain songs have properties that are analogous to histamines that make our brain itch. The only way to scratch a cognitive itch is to repeat the offending melody in our minds.”
Category: music
Musicians’ Union Accuses Fund Director of Embezzlement
The American Federation of Musicians has fired the executive director of its Sound Recording Special Payments Fund, which doles out money to unionized musicians around the country in payment for commercial recordings, and is accusing him of having embezzled more than $400,000 from the union. According to the AFM, no determination has been made as to whether a criminal complaint will be filed against Enex Steele, but the union has issued a formal demand that Steele immediately return the full amount he is charged with having taken. [Editor’s Note: The link for this story is to a formal press release from the AFM, and not to an objective and independent news source.]
Davidson On Disney: Populism Meeting Glitter
Justin Davidson is duly impressed with the L.A. Philharmonic’s new Gehry-designed digs: “It is a building made of visual metaphors: It blooms among the architectural crabgrass of downtown L.A… The hall is a come-on to the city on the part of a high-art establishment that feels miniaturized by the pop-culture machine. Like a maestro going to the supermarket, Disney Hall balances glamour with populism. It is a complex space, yet a straightforwardly spectacular one, too. It flaunts its impeccable sheen, yet invites visitors to touch. People have done so, and unless the maintenance crew proves overzealous, one of the more unexpected features will be the shadow of hands on steel.”
Butting Heads In Birmingham
Peter Thomas, the concertmaster of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra has resigned from his position, and will leave the highly-regarded orchestra in March 2004, reportedly as a result of ongoing artistic conflicts with CBSO music director Sakari Oramo. “Regular CBSO concertgoers will have noticed the two men have not appeared on stage together for months… Ironically, Mr Thomas flew to Europe in 1997 with former chief executive Edward Smith to persuade an initially hesitant Mr Oramo to replace Sir Simon Rattle in Birmingham.”
Stunning Appointment: Järvi to New Jersey
In what is being widely viewed as a major coup for a second-tier American orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra has announced that Neeme Järvi will be its next music director, officially beginning in 2005. Järvi will take over immediately as the orchestra’s principal conductor, ending a 2-1/2 year search to replace the departed Zdenek Macal in Newark. Järvi has been the music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for 14 years, and has been credited with transforming the DSO into one of the top ensembles in the U.S. The announcement is seen as a badly needed shot in the arm for the NJSO, which has been running severe deficits and which recently lost its well-regarded executive director to Pittsburgh.
Is Vienna Stalking Cleveland’s MD?
Seiji Ozawa is under contract as music director of the Vienna State Opera through 2007, so it isn’t surprising that VSO officials are being coy about rumors that they are actively pursuing Franz Welser-Möst to replace him. Welser-Möst, the young music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, was first mentioned as an object of Viennese desire more than a year ago, but the talk of his wooing has revved up since he stepped in for an ailing Christian Thielemann last month, and led a well-received production of Wagner’s Tristan & Isolde. Complicating the rumors is the fact that Welser-Möst’s contract in Cleveland was recently extended through 2012.
Presidential Peter
“A couple of new recordings of Peter and the Wolf – narrated by Sophia Loren and Bill Clinton. “His famously pock-marked voice is strangely alluring. He sounds sincere and avuncular, and acts with a fair amount of ease. This is something more complex than a statesmanlike reading of Copland’s Lincoln Portrait. Hidden talents? No. After all, it was Ronald Reagan who said during his presidency that there had been times when he wondered how you could do the job if you hadn’t been an actor.”
Where Have All The Music Stores Gone?
The number of sheet music stores still alive is tiny compared with 30 years ago. “Nowadays, although recent polls show that 25 percent of adults say they play musical instruments, there are so few specialist stores that sell print music, and they don’t really make a great outreach to people except for the ones who physically darken their doorsteps.”
Let’s Blame The Recording Companies
“Why is the classical music tradition in difficulty, asks Charles Rosen? “At the time that listening to records was beginning to overtake going to concerts as the chief way of staying in contact with the classical tradition, the record companies consistently refused to make records freely or cheaply available to schools. Educating a future public would have meant planning in longer terms than the habits of thought of the modern business world are comfortable with. Nevertheless, this makes a coherent view of our cultural heritage in literature and music an awkward undertaking. Some educators have abandoned the idea as hopeless and even (sour grapes!) as unnecessary. Even the idea of a canon of great works of the past can inspire resentment today.”
Disney Passes Expectations In The Fast Lane
LA’s new Disney Hall got through its opening weekend of three concerts in great style, writes Joshua Kosman. “Taken in tandem with Thursday’s opener, the evenings added up to a beguiling snapshot of musical life in the Southland – venturesome, swaggering and ready to embrace whatever cultural developments may be passing through. In addition to its own extravagant charms, at once noble and puppyish, Disney Hall reveals anew the strength and resilience that this orchestra has attained under Salonen’s leadership.”