The researchers found that the most popular songs had a high level of harmonic surprise, including the use of relatively rare chords in verses, for example, instead of just sticking with, say, a standard C major chord progression (C, G, F). The best songs follow up that harmonic surprise with a catchy common chorus. - Ars Technica
Rock musician Dave Grohl speaks for pretty much every performer: "You wake up every day, cross your fingers that they’ll open a door, turn on the lights and we’ll have a ... show. It’s not guaranteed." - Washington Post
Conductor Theodore Thomas' first concert in Chicago was predicted to be "one of the most notable events in the history of music in Chicago." Sure, except with no music: "By curtain time, Crosby’s, and much of the city around it, would be ash and ruin." - Chicago Sun-Times
If British musicians can't travel to Europe easily and often, Dame Sarah Connolly says, their ability to be seen and to network will decline quickly and decisively. "How can we compete with our German, French, Portuguese, Austrian friends if we are not known?" - The Observer (UK)
The accident happened to a member of the chorus during a scene change. "As the chorus kept singing and the orchestra continued to play, there was a sudden commotion onstage. Performers waved their arms and shouted 'Stop!'" - The New York Times
Though is it a comeback if the 19th-century composer was never as popular before as her work is now? "'The symphonies and the overtures should hold a similar place as Schumann and Mendelssohn,' said Yannick Nézet-Séguin." - The New York Times
Elaine Padmore, artistic director 1982-94: "I was the casting director. I chose everything: repertoire, production teams, every singer, even the chorus. That was wonderful. It was the biggest area of total control of an artistic project that I’ve ever had, before or since." - Irish Times
HarbourView is the latest player in what has become a high-stakes contest in the music business: the ownership and control of catalogs of songs, which streaming outlets like Spotify and Apple Music, along with a growing flank of social-media and gaming platforms, need to keep their users engaged. - The New York Times
“Not for me,” I said. “I know pretty much what I’ll think about it, and my review could get snarky.” “If so, that would be all right with us,” VAN said. “Well, OK,” I groaned back. So here I am and here goes.
“The orchestras I've worked with have been a bit like ocean liners. Very big, little hard to turn around. And I would say the Albany Symphony is like a sailboat. It's flexible, it's responsive, it can really turn on a dime. And a lot of that is David.” - Albany Times-Union
"These various controversies are far from simple disputes between ‘conservatives’ and ‘progressives’ but emblematic of a discipline in which some protagonists lack a sense of its purpose and identity, or any real belief that music has value in and of itself." - The Spectator
Joshua Kosman: "To say that a new era ... has begun at Davies Symphony Hall is true as far as it goes. But that doesn't begin to convey how transformative an event this was. … Something new and splendidly unpredictable is afoot." - San Francisco Chronicle
"The contract went into effect Oct. 1 and runs through Oct. 3, 2026. The deal includes matters of health care, restoration of the musicians' pre-pandemic salaries by October 2022 through incremental increases. Musicians also negotiated for additional leave for birth and adoption of a child." - Houston Chronicle
Though this opera isn't Terence Blanchard's first work to qualify as contemporary classical, he's best known as a jazz drummer and film score composer. So the paper's contemporary classical maven, Seth Colter Walls, and jazz writer Giovanni Russonello went to see the piece together. - The New York Times
"Paganini may be a better comparison: a restless figure of astonishing ability, despised by (some) as a circus performer and accused by others of selling his soul to the devil. Kennedy seems similarly trapped, … with a gift for embarrassing nearly everyone nearly all the time." - London Review of Books
