Category: music

A Rejuvenated Salzburg Festival?

“In recent years, this most sumptuous of classical-music gatherings has reverted to its default identity as a parade of musical celebrities with no clear artistic destination in sight. Last year, though, the progressive-minded Austrian pianist and impresario Markus Hinterhäuser took over as Salzburg’s artistic director, and he is stirring memories of the festival’s most vital period—that of the nineteen-nineties, when Gerard Mortier presided over a superb array of provocations.”

SoundCloud Saved By Last-Minute $170M Investment

Rumors of the site’s imminent collapse had been floating for weeks, and 40% of its staffers were laid off in early July. “The [new] funding comes from two firms, The Raine Group – which also holds stakes in Vice Media and C3 Presents, the owner of Lollapalooza – and Temesek Holdings, a state-run Singaporean holding company with interests in several state-run Chinese companies. In addition, co-founder Alex Ljung will be stepping down as CEO, but remaining chairman.”

Negative Music Reviews Have All But Disappeared. Why?

“The dearth of negative music reviews is due to a number of factors. In the digital era, outlets covering music have become decentralized with fewer dominant players and more outlets running reviews. That’s helped create a new power dynamic between pop stars and the press—one where stars are less dependent on critics and critics are more eager to please artists.”

Thousands Of Young People Gather In South Korea To Listen To Music For Peace

The 25,000-person K-pop concert featured politicians and musicians. The kids hope the music drifted the five miles to the DMZ, and beyond: “If enjoying K-pop right near the border with the aggressive North Korea is not freedom, what is? … I hope North Korea, too, understands how much happiness freedom can bring and chooses a path toward peace.”

Can Legislation Return Film-Scoring Jobs To Los Angeles Musicians?

The numbers are grim – “According to International Recording Musicians Association president Marc Sazer, L.A. musicians – who once routinely scored nearly all American movies – have lost substantial ground to London and other European venues. In 2003, nearly 60 percent of feature films were scored by American Federation of Musicians members; by 2015, that number was down to 30 percent” – so a tax credit may soon be in the offing.

When The Music Director Writes Things On Scores, The Orchestra’s Music Librarian Must Translate For Everyone Else

At least with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nezet-Seguin, who prefers editions called urtexts (with the composers’ original phrases, dynamics, and notes), says librarian Robert Grossman. “Although the Philadelphia owns more than 5,000 scores and their instrumental parts in the public domain and has another 5,000 scores for pieces written since 1926 whose parts must be rented, this means Grossman is starting with a clean slate when working with the urtext editions.”

The Tanzania Albinism Collective Say Music Has Saved Their Lives

The group toured Britain after experiencing a songwriting workshop and immediately recording an album. “The album swings wildly – from moments of beauty to blasts of anger, from big group numbers with people grabbing whatever is to hand for percussion (one features a rainwater barrel being hit by a sledgehammer) to dance songs where someone has clearly found the keyboard’s demo button and simply sung over the top. There is often a stark contrast between the song titles – Stop the Murders, Stigma Everywhere – and the fun of the music.”