Category: music

After extensive negotiations with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the U.S. Justice Department agreed Tuesday to revise a 1941 court order regarding the licensing of music for performance and broadcast (including over the internet). ASCAP currently licenses 50% of all musical performances in the U.S. – Nando Times

“With such high-profile modern instrumentalists and institutions dabbling in – one can’t quite say embracing – the period instrument movement, it’s clear that the once daunting walls between period and modern performers have tumbled down (though there are holdouts like violinist Pinchas Zukerman, who describes period performance as “s—“).” – National Post (Canada)

The Latin Grammys hit national TV in the US later this month, and the event has been touted as a means of bringing Latin music to a wider audience. But the awards have stirred up controversy, with a number of musicians charging that regional styles are being ignored. – Orange County Register

The Dallas Symphony got a rude surprise when they got off their plane for a European tour. Several of the orchestra’s instruments had been damaged in the cargo hold of the plane. “The basses had literally come unglued, apparently while stored in the un-air-conditioned cargo hold of an American Airlines Boeing 767 jet during a 3½ hour on-the-ground delay Wednesday night at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.” – Dallas Morning News

Gustav Mahler was always after the bigger better thing. So when he rewrote Beethoven’s symphonies, he really believed he was making them better. “In the years since Mahler’s death in 1911, the ‘painted-over’ Beethoven editions have been largely ignored and so, for the most part, his acts of barbarism could only be read about and imagined. Starting Thursday, though, audiences at the Kennedy Center will have a rare opportunity to hear for themselves what all the fuss once was about.” – Baltimore Sun 09/03/00 

A miracle has been reported in Hong Kong: apparently the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra was in two places at the same time – Asia and Europe! Either that or a group of Russian musicians masquerading as the MPO sold tens of thousands of dollars in tickets to unknowing Hong Kong music-lovers…who may begin demanding their money back. – South China Morning Post

AUDIENCE WONDERS WHETHER TO ASK FOR MONEY BACK: Hong Kong’s music lovers are having to face the embarrassment that no one spotted their mistake. – BBC

It’s been thought for some time that playing music to your child while it’s still in the womb will result in a smarter kid. But expectant parents hoping to nurture the next Einstein can store the CDs for awhile. New research shows that fetuses don’t develop hearing until the 30th week of pregnancy. – National Post (Canada)

One of Britain’s top music administrators has launched an attack on violinist Kennedy for his manner of dress and the way he speaks. In return Kennedy fired back with a letter in The Times: Such comments “merely serve to demonstrate the typical arrogance of a self-appointed guardian of the arts world,” he wrote. He went on to lambaste “ill-informed classical music administrators who consciously encourage exclusivity, refusing to embrace those outside their spectacularly precious world.” – Sonicnet

Nearly 30 years after his composing debut, Steve Reich’s music still receives tumultuous receptions wherever its performed, splitting audiences between those who hear genius and others who just hear noise. “’Minimalist’ is a label he hates but how else to describe his music, much of which involves a great deal of repetition? Think of Andy Warhol with his repeated pictures of Campbell’s soup tins and translate that visual image into sound. – The Herald (Scotland)