"The label, called La Boîte à Pépites (the jewel box), will record compositions that have rarely, if ever, been heard before, yet deserve 'a good position in the standard musical repertoire'." To make the music available to more musicians, a publishing division will open next year. - The Observer (UK)
With phones and constant connectivity do we really need a song during our elevator journeys? Apparently not. Elevators are losing their soundtracks. At least, that was my hunch. In fact, I doubt whether the next generation will even understand what elevator music means. - Ted Gioia
"The lyrics are abusive or threatening. They are usually based on the premise that Hindus have suffered for centuries at the hands of Muslims - and now it's payback time." And these songs make their singers a lot of money. - BBC
"I felt in opera I could freely integrate — to twist and to turn, to create all the drama with the music. Some plays should never be touched or turned into opera, but I felt this was one of the rare cases where it could work." - The New York Times
A California company spent years lying about where its music came from. "'It’s the biggest debacle I’ve ever seen in the vinyl realm,' says Kevin Gray, a mastering engineer." A filmmaker who had purchased 50 albums added, "They were completely deceitful." Does it matter? - Washington Post
Classic FM’s audience has hit a record low, falling under 5 million listeners for the first time with over half a million people switching off since the start of the pandemic. - David Taylor
Among the causes for which Hubert Parry's stirring setting of William Blake's poem has been enlisted (or co-opted): wartime patriotism, women's suffrage, English nationalism, the post-World War II welfare state, imperial nostalgia, mocking satire, marketing the film Chariots of Fire, the Falklands War, anti-Thatcher leftism, and 21st-century Kulturkampf. - History Today
The song Heated will have ableist language removed from it, while the song Energy will be rerecorded without one of the samples on which it is built. - The Conversation
It's part of a trend that is increasingly unavoidable: the disappearance of classical music from the kind of cultural settings where it used to be common — community events, adverts, sports coverage. - The Critic
The researchers discuss the concept that the body responds rhythmically to the music you are listening to, speeding up when the tempo is faster, and slowing down when it’s slower. They found that the level of arousal was proportional to the actual speed, i.e. the effect is greater the faster/slower the music. - Ludwig Van
The theater was conceived by Louis XIV but only completed in time for the wedding of the future Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. It's been in use for most of the time since (for eight years, it was France's capitol), and these days it's busier than ever before. - BBC Music Magazine
Back in the 1920s, there was a group of cantors who combined traditional liturgical chanting with improvisation and operatic vocal technique, which they never formally studied. And there's a younger group of cantors today bringing that art back to life — and to the wider public. - NPR
"Public service radio orchestras have been one of the great civilising forces of the last century. That may be an unsexy proposition but ... it is one that is important not just for Europe's past, but its future too." - The New European
"I’ve learned over time to always come back and attach to the mission and to the power of music. That has allowed me to be in a way that is less self-conscious.” - Forbes
