On the eve of a big World music festival in London, a critic wonders if the music of Africa has come of age in the West or is it still the lure of the exotic that attracts. – London Times
Category: music
THE UNIFIED ALIEN THEORY
No other way to explain it, really. After watching last week’s Grammy Awards, one critic has figured it out. Mariah Carey and Celine Dion? Nothing human about them. They’re aliens! – The Age (Melbourne)
THE POLITICS OF TRADITION
A jury has awarded a judgment against the London Times for accusing composer Keith Burstein of disrupting concerts of atonal music. Burstein is on a campaign to bring back traditional harmony to classical music and has made no secret of his disdain for music without tonality, especially that of Harrison Birtwistle. – The Guardian
MUSICAL MID-RANGE
In olden days composers wrote plenty of music for all levels of skill at the piano. Not modern composers. So a new commissioning project aims at helping to fill in the intermediate range. – New York Times
NOT QUITE YET
Every American composer seems to be writing opera these days. But despite some high-profile conservative efforts (“Gatsby,” “A View from The Bridge”) American opera hasn’t yet come into its own. Don’t despair though – “Prior to World War II, it was widely felt that British work was dead beyond hope of revival; the last opera by an English-born composer to enter the standard repertoire had been Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, composed in 1689.” Then in 1945, Benjamin Britten wrote “Peter Grimes” and a new era in British opera commenced. – Commentary
SECOND CHANCES
Peter Oundjian was a solid member of the Tokyo String Quartet until hand problems forced him out. Now he’s reinvented himself as a conductor. – Ottawa Citizen
IN-STORE E-MUSIC
Traditional music stores have turned to e-tech tactics to try to fend off extinction. – Wired
WHAT DREAMS MAY COME
San Francisco’s classical music radio station is the No. 1 music station in the market. In Seattle, the classical music station is owned by local arts groups and turns a profit every year. Why can’t Philadelphia even manage to keep a classical station on the air? – Philadelphia Inquirer
SIMON SAYS
As Simon Rattle takes his leave of England, a few thoughts on the state of modern musical life in Britain, Berlin and America. – London Times
HECKLE THIS
Frederic Stocken once briefly formed a group of anti-modern malcontents called The Hecklers, who made headlines when they disrupted the first revival of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s opera “Gawain” at Covent Garden in 1994. Now Stocken’s considered one of Britain’s brightest young composers. “He composes modern music according to pre-modern principles. He hates the idea that artists should, by definition, be provocative and sees no reason why the fundamental laws of harmony had to be broken by 20th century composers.” – Sequenza/21
- The darling of local royalty – a review. – Financial Times 02/23/00
- Another review – The Independent 02/23/00
- And another – The Guardian 02/23/00