Category: music

“It was 1947 in post-war Vienna, and Hilde Zadek remembers taking a deep breath behind the curtain. A rookie on her first opera gig, she was about to sing the prestigious role of Aida for an audience full of particularly harsh critics — whistle-packing Nazis she says were determined to show ‘that Jew from Palestine’ she was not welcome at one of the world’s greatest opera houses.”

“Best of all, The Orchestra is no techno-utopian attempt to do away with the concert hall. Rather, it’s an invitation for new listeners to get comfortable with the density of informational delight that can be had there.”

“The question at the heart of the case is how far sampling the work of other artists – a mainstay of modern hip-hop and techno – is permissible when creating new music. The answer given by the Supreme Court is that it is only permissible if the same effect could not have been produced by the new artist himself.”

“More than a dozen [state] House lawmakers signed on to a letter to Minnesota Orchestra management, calling for a hearing to find out if they were misled before awarding millions of dollars to the Orchestra. … Legislators also want to know if any that money is being used for lawyers, security or any other expense to fund the [ongoing] lockout.”

“Trends come and go, but if there is one sure thing in the music business, it’s this: Holiday albums sell. Rod Stewart has a hit with his “Merry Christmas, Baby,” an album that’s gone as high as No. 3 and has sold more than 475,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.”

“It’s about the worst version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” you could find. But it is awesome all the same for its totally unique medium. This particular LP is part of the batch of the first records ever to be created on a 3-D printer.”

“Advent is about expectation and longing, and I started by asking how that applies to somebody in the big city who, like so many of us, comes from somewhere else. You can be alone here in the middle of eight million people. I felt somehow with music I could put something into that void. … [It’s] the whole accretion of a lifetime of befuddled spiritual pursuits.”

“The conclusion: If longevity is your objective, choose another line of work. And if you must be a pop musician, join a band. Solo performers were twice as likely to die early as members of a group were. … Lest anyone miss the point, [the co-authors] titled their paper ‘Dying to be Famous’.”

Toothbrush, a new work performed by So Percussion, “is an otherwise fully composed and notated piece featuring instrumental music, singing and spoken dialogue – plus one silent participant who sits onstage listening and writing down notes that become in-the-moment instructions for players to improvise on.”