Category: music

Of the countless terms for categories of music, the least useful phrase I know is “popular music.” It provides no information about the music itself: no suggestion of how it sounds or what mood it might conjure, no indication of the traditions it grows from or defies, and no hint of whether it could be good for dancing, for solitary listening, or for anything else.

And not just the job of composers, but of every creative person: “There’s a lot of talk about opposing extremism and intolerance in the world and it’s fine to oppose violence and destruction through developing a counter-narrative or developing a cogent military strategy (those are vital things), but the ultimate response of resistance to violence and destruction is creation.”

At least, they don’t believe he writes symphonies. “But I’m premiering Symphony No 11 in a couple of weeks. … Maybe I do too many things.”

Mark Sved on the Kronos Quartet: “The Age of Reason ideal expanded throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, but with the string quartet still a reasonable vehicle for great composers’ inner musical thoughts and feelings. Then along came Kronos. In the last quarter of the 20th century, the Bay Area outfit revolutionized everything in string quartet country and beyond.”

“The Eugene Opera completed two of its four planned productions for what was billed as its 40th anniversary season. … The remainder of the season — ‘West Side Story,’ planned for March, and ‘La Tragedie de ­Carmen,’ planned for May — have been canceled.”

Simon Rattle: “Here we are in this country, with maybe the most gifted group of living composers of any country in the world, and not to celebrate it would be idiocy. … It’s a goldmine to explore.”

In an era when artists in general, and musicians in particular, are battling to get public understanding for their right to be paid, it is disheartening to learn that even the House of Commons just doesn’t get it. “Why on earth do people expect artists to do this kind of thing?” asks Montreal composer Simon Bertrand, who has organized an online petition requesting the award be raised. “When Parliament hires a plumber, do they tell the guy, come and work for free and then we’ll see what we think?”

“In the video, Dutch artist Ronald van der Meijs shows his elaborate musical mechanism. Inspired by the Muller Organ housed at Grote Kerk church next to the gallery [in Haarlem], the series of pipes looks like a massive artillery weapon connected to wooden beam air ducts. The intricate system requires careful maintenance – van der Meijs changes out the candles multiple times a day as they burn.”