Category: music

Here’s how archaeo-acousticians went about modeling, and then reproducing, the sound in the prayer hall/nave at four different points in the building’s history: when it was new in the 780s (you could hear a prayer clearly throughout the room), after subsequent enlargements (more echoes and “acoustical shadows”), and a renovation and expansion in the 1000s (a prayer “echoes as though it was recited deep inside a cave”).

The mayor of the Austrian city of Linz, which is heavily in debt, has declared that the city will no longer pay its €14 million subsidy to the Landestheater (provincial theater) and the Brucknerorchester Linz, in residence there. The governor of the province of Upper Austria, which owns the theater and controls the orchestra, is fighting back hard. (in German; Google Translate version here)

“The background music industry – also known as music design, music consultancy or something offered as part of a broader package of ‘experiential design’ or ‘sensory marketing’ – is constantly deciding what we hear as we go about our everyday business. The biggest player in the industry, Mood Media, was founded in 2004 and now supplies music to 560,000 locations across the world, from Sainsbury’s to KFC.”

“Classical music loves anniversaries — because, more than any other branch of the arts, it’s focused on looking at an increasingly distant past. Classical music comes into its own at times of commemoration and mourning: Even the mass audience tends to embrace classical music at a funeral. … Today, when classical music is eager to reassert its relevance to the world at large, this kind of historical presentation appeals to presenters. The question is whether these Armistice observances actually prove classical music’s relevance or simply serve to wrap history in a PBS soundtrack of nostalgia.”

The 41-year-old maestro — and yes, he is Kurt Masur’s son — is currently the Boston Symphony’s associate conductor and principal guest conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. He’ll take over full-time for the 2019-2020 season, and the following September, he’ll help open the Milwaukee Symphony’s new concert hall.

Two months ago, the principal oboist sued the orchestra over what she alleged was persistent harassment by Jonathan Carney; earlier this month, a musician from another group got a restraining order against Carney. Following the latter incident, Baltimore Symphony management has suspended Carney without pay.

Whew, not easy. After all, Fluxus is humorous but serious, and how does an anti-opera opera play out on Stage 23 at Sony Pictures Studio, anyway? (A lot of people walk out, of course.)

Tower, who turned 80 this year and whose 2004 Made in America has been performed by major orchestras in all 50 states, says there’s still a lot to learn: “The bass, the piccolo, I’m still working on, and the horn. Those are weak areas for me. I’m going to get there with those instruments at some point.”

The orchestra formed in 1999, and it’s touring the States right now. “The brainchild of Barenboim and literary scholar Edward Said, the orchestra began as an experiment in Weimar, Germany. It was meant to be a musical bridge across one of the most pressing cultural and political divides in contemporary life that only two unlikely collaborators could devise.”