Category: music

“What I think is most damaging is when there’s no discussion about it, and then you get a situation where the cover of an artistic brochure shows somebody in blackface and then the rest of us are thinking, ‘what’s going on?'” (The Met’s decision came after an outcry from some subscribers who took issue with a photo in its season brochure.)

“The thing to remember when it comes to the progress of art (and to technology): Never follow the money, follow the artists. That’s where the creativity and caring lies. Streaming is no exception.”

“Back in 1966, when Leonard Bernstein hired Orin O’Brien to join the double bass section of the New York Philharmonic, she became the orchestra’s first woman, making history in a heretofore all-male club. (The first ever was Edna Phillips, who broke the gender barrier in 1930, when Leopold Stokowski hired her as principal harp of the Philadelphia Orchestra).”

“Unlike other art forms, the idea of authorship is tied into hip-hop’s DNA. At the birth of rapping, rappers didn’t quite own the music, which was stitched and spliced together by a DJ from breaks. But they did own their lyrics, which were a form of currency. The four elements of hip-hop — MCing, DJing, dancing and graffiti — are all tied into things one can create for oneself. One doesn’t have to follow a fundamentalist’s or purist’s line to accept that — despite the mutations of vocalization, production, movement and art in the genre — the idea of making something from nothing, of authenticity, of realness is tied into hip-hop in a way that is absent in other musical spheres.”

Catalogue releases — old albums, reissues, greatest-hits packages and the like — are responsible for a big chunk of a label’s revenues.

“My father would dream of opening his violin case and seeing the Strad there again, but he never laid eyes on it again. He died in 2012, but the Stradivarius lived on — somewhere. Then, on the last day in June, I got a call from FBI Special Agent Christopher McKeogh.”

The story of the Strad’s disappearance and recovery, as told by Nina Totenberg in an interview, is a surreal tale that sounds like a cross between “The Thomas Crown Affair” and a Robert Ludlum novel.

By comparison, Spotify says it has 20 million listeners who have signed on.

“Because of the Proms’ enviable roster of visiting orchestras, its support for contemporary composers, and its accessibility, there remain few larger forces for musical good anywhere. But it is now operating in an atmosphere of some discomfort: Its parent corporation and fellow musical broadcasters in Europe are under pressure. And the British government remains bent on austerity.”

“The Santa Fe Opera announced Wednesday that The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, by composer Mason Bates and librettist Mark Campbell, is scheduled to debut in 2017. … The piece will explore Jobs’ complicated professional and personal lives … [and] will also delve into the touchy area of his relationship with a woman whose child he initially disowned.”