Category: music

“How much money should the president of a major orchestra be paid? And should the person at the helm when an orchestra slips into bankruptcy be paid less for failing to keep finances afloat – or more, since managing such a crisis is tough?”

“Musicians have always mined the past for inspiration. But what happens when the seam is worked out? When every style and genre has been revisited, reworked and mashed-up? When every trend and teen tribe has been repackaged?”

“Since December, musicians have been responding to – and provoking – the protests in countries like Egypt and Tunisia, and much of the music being made about these movements is hip-hop. … Songs are rapped in both English and Arabic, and international collaborations have helped to spread the music over the Internet, via Facebook and YouTube.”

“About midway through a night of contemporary works, John Eichenseer, who goes by the name JHNO, was performing his Untitled, a new piece for viola and electronics, when he heard hissing, then an outburst of clapping intended to disrupt his playing, then another.” The heckler turned out to be “Bernard M. Zaslav, a viola player with a pedigree as a champion of contemporary music.”

“Once derided in the academy as the province of musicians who weren’t good enough to play modern instruments–mastering the core 19th-century repertoire has traditionally been viewed as the pinnacle of success–historical performance is now seen as part of the continuum, appealing to modern-instrument players and specialists alike.”

“The contributions of Max Mathews may seem inevitable. Just as so much of our life has become ‘digitized,’ so it seems that sooner or later, sound would become the domain of computers. But the way in which Max opened up this world of possibilities makes him a singular genius, without whom I, and many people over the last six decades, would have led very different lives.”

“The symphony – the largest performing arts organization in Southwest Washington – relies on donations to cover its costs, the majority of which go toward paying its staff and musicians. But donations have slowed over the past three years, and the symphony has burned through its emergency reserves.”

“The Salzburg Easter Festival said Christian Thielemann will replace Simon Rattle as musical director, bringing his Staatskapelle Dresden as the resident orchestra after the Berlin Philharmonic quit in May.”

“One of the quandaries faced by today’s composers that seemed simpler a generation or two ago is how to distribute our scores. Previously, the established publishers were the only viable method for ensuring that our music reached interested parties and for producing beautifully engraved scores. Now, music notation software allows anyone to create scores that rival professionally typeset ones in their aesthetic appeal.”

“Because music in performance is ephemeral and architecture is permanent and immovable, is it easier to build a public constituency for a risk-taking music festival than for an experimental building? Is challenging music somehow less threatening than challenging architecture?”