With the death of the latest Master of the Queen’s Music, maybe it’s time to abolish the position. “There is little evidence that Her Majesty takes much interest in music (Her website finds room for the Master of the Horse but not, alas, of the Music). As with the poet laureate, one’s heart bleeds for anyone given the unenviable task of having to write memorial verse or songs for most royal or state occasions. So the kindest thing might be quietly to declare the job redundant. That would be a shame. There have been many undistinguished composers since the first Master in 1626, but also many distinguished ones – including Bax and Elgar.”
Tag: 03.04.03
Reinvent It – Maybe A Musician Laureate?
Maybe it’s time to revitalize the idea of a Queen’s Musician. “Of course the whole notion of having a master of the queen’s music is an anachronism, especially with a royal family that shows little obvious interest in the arts, but then so, equally, is the role of the poet laureate, and the present holder of that post, Andrew Motion, at least has shown how a nebulous role can be used effectively. There are plenty of issues that a publicly confident and committed master of the queen’s music could get behind, numerous ways in which he or she could promote new music and expand its audience.”
UK Government Backs Down On Live Performnce Licensing
British culture minister Kim Howells has bowed to objections by musicians and withdrawn a bill that would have required pubs to license live music. “Musicians believe the bill would have a devastating impact on the number of venues where they can perform. Says Howells: “We saw it as a civilising bill, relaxing licensing laws, cutting down on bureaucracy. It was only when it started going through the Lords we realised how it would be interpreted.”
UK Churches Call On American Museums To Return Artwork
Two English churches are demanding the return of three priceless tomb brasses stolen from the churches’ flagstone floors in the 19th century. The brasses were discovered in the vaults of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. “The churches remain scarred by the holes left in the floor where they were prised out” and officials want them restored. But a spokesman for the churches says the museums have denied the request.
West End Theatres Start Program To Fight Racism
Several theatres in London’s West End have banded together to start a program to promote diversity in theatre management. “There is a general feeling that theatres have got to sharpen up their act. They’ve got to diversify, they’ve got to refresh themselves. There was a danger of theatres being elitist, being out of touch and failing to reflect multicultural society. There’s quite a recruitment crisis and this is a real opportunity to recruit high quality people.”
Setting The Price Of Music
“After years of denial and confusion, belligerence and panic, most of the big record labels have coalesced around a set of prices at which they will make almost all of their music available to an ever-expanding array of legal online services.”
Minneapolis May Postpone New Central Library
Minneapolis civic leaders are considering postponing construction of the new downtown central library. “Though voters approved the $122.5 million project, the library system faces a major problem: A $25 million shortfall in its operating budget over the next 10 years, even before likely cuts in state aid are taken into account. The shortfall is roughly equal to the entire cost of running the system this year.”
SF Opera Cuts Touring Program
San Francisco Opera, looking to cut its budget, has canceled its annual touring program – Western Opera Theatre. “When I looked at my budget, the most obvious thing to cut was (Opera Theater), because it’s a horrifically expensive thing that we always have lost money on.” The program was designed “to bring opera to remote and underserved locations,” but director Sheri Greenawald said the program had become “a dinosaur. In many ways, (Opera Theater) was no longer serving its initial mission, which was to take opera into the hinterlands – because as far as opera is concerned, there are very few hinterlands left.”
Cleaning Up London’s West End
A couple of months ago Charles Spencer wrote a column complaining that London’s West End had seriously deteriorated and that the area was so rundown it was discouraging theatre-goers from going to the theatre. “It is too early to talk of a Broadway-like renaissance of the West End,” he writes now. “A zero-tolerance crackdown on vagrancy, loutish drunks and aggressive begging in the West End is urgently required.” But things seem to be getting better…
Atlanta Opera GM Resigns
Russell Allen has resigned as general manager of the Atlanta Opera. “Allen suffered a heart attack Aug. 13 and underwent quadruple-bypass surgery two days later. His recuperation time was brief, however, as he was back on the job by the end of September.”