Category: music

“Most orchestras in this country do not know and do not care about American music, and they are convinced that you and I don’t care or want to know about it either. They see their mandate as one of protecting culture, in this case, a culture produced in Europe 100 or 200 years ago. They therefore make it their business to protect us from ourselves.” – Los Angeles Times

A dispute about the authorship of music boils up again. “That music is at the heart of an acrimonious 35-year-old dispute pitting Lamont Young against John Cale and Tony Conrad. In a nutshell, the debate centers on differing philosophical notions of authorship – for which there may be no right or wrong answer.” – New York Times

Itzhak Perlman is a great violinist. But now he’s taken up conducting – he’s principal conductor of the Detroit Symphony and he’s seeking other conducting gigs. The attraction? ”It’s the power, the sensation of power.” Then his voice turns more serious. ”The real appeal is new repertory and new musical experiences.” – Boston Globe

A list. – St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Can there possibly be much left to say about Beethoven at this late date? The answer’s an emphatic yes for the players and scholars gathering at the Bard Music Festival for three upcoming weekends devoted to his work and to exploring recent scholarship. “One result of such explorations has been a radical revision of the notion of Beethoven as an Olympian figure removed from daily life, writing quintessentially absolute music, almost wholly abstract in its meanings.” – New York Times

Rustling candy wrappers, coughing during quiet moments, and clapping between movements are well-known bugaboos of classical music audiences. Have these (oft-neglected) standards of etiquette always been the norm? “In Beethoven’s day it was different. One clapped routinely at the end of every movement of a symphony. According to one eye-witness, the audience at the first performance of the Ninth Symphony were so impressed by the Scherzo that they applauded while the music was still playing.” – The Guardian

Droplifters make their own CD’s then drop them in record stores on the shelves for customers to find. It’s “a form of culture-jamming prankery so quixotically low-tech it’s charming. There’s always a chance that the CD will help the Droplift bands find a larger audience. But sticking your CD on store shelves without the knowledge or approval of the store’s management – then hoping against hope that somebody finds it, and then is curious enough to try to buy it – makes subway busking look like a killer business model.” – Inside.com

The Artists Coalition, an artists’ advocacy group led by Don Henley and Sheryl Crow, reached an agreement Thursday with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the dispute over the recently enacted “works made for hire” law (an amendment to the 1976 Copyright Act). The law allows record companies to maintain ownership of an artist’s recorded works for 95 years instead of the previous 35-year limit. The RIAA has agreed to join with the artists in petitioning Congress to repeal the law. – Live Daily

The new National Opera house in Beijing, designed by a French architect in the shape of an enormous titanium bubble, has sparked a raging debate in mainland China. Days before authorities are to make the final decision on the project, the China Daily newspaper publishes petitions by more than 150 Chinese intellectuals who believe the futuristic building is all wrong for China. – China Times

The recording giant says the price-fixing lawsuits filed against it and the other four major label groups (Warner Music, Sony Music, Universal Music and BMG) are “without merit.”- BBC