Category: music

“The relationship between poetry and pop music is caught up in ongoing debates about definition and categorisation. It is often described in terms of rivalry – John Keats versus Bob Dylan is the favoured pairing, in a ding-dong bout between supposedly high and low cultures. Dylan is certainly a better standard-bearer than Vanilla Ice, but his lyrics – lacking the complexities and nuances of Keats’s poems – tend to reinforce notions that the poet’s art belongs to an altogether different sphere of creativity.” – Financial Times

Riccardo Muti is said to be the choice of the New York Philharmonic as the orchestra’s next music director, succeeding Kurt Masur. – New York Times

Napster, the music-share program is considered by the music industry the greatest threat its ever faced. “In recent weeks, piracy using his Napster software program has reached such an unprecedented scale that many industry analysts believe that it marks the beginning of the end of paying for recorded music. To virtually every American under the age of 25, Napster is rapidly becoming synonymous with a bottomless free supply of music from their favourite bands.” – The Age (Melbourne)

• List of high-profile musicians suing over Napster expected to increase in next few weeks. – The Register 04/23/00

Artists appropriate other artists’ work all the time. But Elton John’s new “Aida” is “interested in only the story of the opera’s libretto and turns it into a typical Broadway spectacle. John contributes generic pop songs about generic emotions, not music crafted to unique character and theatrical situations.” Ditto John Corigliano’s reworking of Bob Dylan. ” ‘Tambourine Man’ and ‘Aida’ are not reinterpretations so much as impoverished appropriations. They are less creative borrowings than desperate theft.” – Los Angeles Times

Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians has won honor all over the world and given the jazz world some important musicians. But at home the organization has been pretty much ignored. “You have to come to the conclusion that Chicago jazz institutions and presenters have a lack of respect for Chicago jazz artists, and especially the AACM. Whether you’re talking about radio stations or downtown concert halls, they don’t understand the importance of the AACM, and they don’t support it.” – Chicago Tribune

Recently, Iván Fischer, conductor and founder of the Budapest Festival Orchestra announced that he would make no more public appearances in Hungary, following a five year battle with the city over public funding of the orchestra. Now, international music institutions, including the Royal Festival Hall and the Barbican Centre in London, the Cité de la Musique in Paris and Carnegie Hall in New York, have sent a letter to Budapest saying: “We will turn to all the responsible officials with our appeal that the necessary means be taken to provide the necessary funding which will ensure the long-term existence of the Budapest Festival Orchestra.” – Budapest Sun

The Boston Symphony will play a concert in Paris next month under the Eiffel Tower as part of the city’s millennium celebration. The program features Andrea Bocelli and a chorus of 600 voices, music by Bach and Berlioz, and the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Officials are expecting a crowd of at least 100,000, and the program will be telecast and broadcast live throughout France by FR-2 (television) and Radio Classique. – Boston Globe

Electronic amplification of classical music concerts has been a controversial subject for fans. But maybe it’s time to reconsider… – Boston Herald

Metal band Metallica has been suing universities (for $10 million) for allowing students to pirate the band’s music off the internet with the Napster program. Now a website has been set up that allows fans to donate money to Metallica to compensate the band for its monetary losses from digital piracy. Just in case you were feeling sorry for the poor lads. – Wired

Daniel Barenboim has been hailed as a “phenomenon” since the age of 12, when his piano playing was compared to Mozart. Now just a few months from the 50th anniversary of his stage debut, the maestro reflects on his career and the sad demise of classical music’s audience. “It is beginning to look as endangered as the Siberian tiger. There is no music education now in the schools. The crossover business, and all the other trivialisations of classical music, is a result of this basically unhealthy state of affairs.” – The Telegraph (UK)