Continuing with my series of "let's see where we are" posts...the others were here (an overview), and here (about a new spirit in the world about classical music). Plus supplements to the first post, and to the second.This one is about statistics, but maybe more importantly -- in the long run -- about transparency. We don't have enough numbers (and certainly not enough publicly available numbers) about how classical music institutions are doing. Opera America, I'm happy to say (they're the association of North American opera companies), each … [Read more...]

Left out, that is, in my "new spirit" post, about the new openness I sense about classical music, in our wider culture. This was the second of my "where we stand" series, updating some ongoing thoughts on the future of, and really -- I blew it. Yes, what I said about a new freedom in using classical music in commercials -- that's all true. And it's important. But I should have mentioned two other signs of a new wind blowing. One of them is Alex Ross's book. Here we have a serious book on classical music, and first, it's not stuffy or pompous, … [Read more...]

I've neglected the blog, I know. I did a lot of intense preparation for my Juilliard and Eastman classes, both on the future of classical music. And in the middle of that, I took a long drive from my country place down to Washington to be at the inauguration, and of course to be with Anne. There I am, after the festivities, not a notable photo in itself (and the crowd looks so small!), but it's my souvenir, along with an overpriced t-shirt I bought later on. And you can see how happy I am.That night, after miles of walking, I had to drive back … [Read more...]

(So many things that cross my mind I never blog about. Here are last week's, though some are earlier...)Evening musicI was driving last Thursday night, and listening to WNYC's Evening Music show, aka the flagship classical program on New York public radio. (Which I've blogged about before.) Since they play so much new music, and also music that isn't even classical, I'm ready for anything when I turn it on. I even once encountered a cheesy -- delightfully cheesy -- horror-movie score.But on Thursday, Terrance McKnight, the host, was playing … [Read more...]

The second of five posts about the current state of classical music. This one is about some good news. I think there's a new spirit in the air -- a new openness to classical music. I first noticed it in commercials. I could even go back a few years, to something I didn't understand at the time, a commercial for the Starz movie channel that featured the big tune from Beethoven's Ninth, with people singing, "Movies, movies, movies, movies." Try it for yourself. It's insane. What were they thinking? Or so I asked myself. What's the connection … [Read more...]

Here's a supplement to my last post, while I prepare the next installment in the series. I wrote a "where we stand" last year, in considerable detail. Here it is, needing just a bit of revision and amplification to be up to date. Or you can download it as a PDF, I'll revise it a bit very shortly, since I'm going to assign it this semester in my Juilliard and Eastman courses on the future of classical music.And as I neglected to say in my last post -- comments are very, very welcome. We're all in this together.NumbersSeems like the classical … [Read more...]

A happy new year to everyone. Hope you all had revitalizing holidays, and that 2009 will be everything you want it to be. Or else something even better than you hoped.I thought I'd start the year, blogwise, with an overview -- in five posts -- of where I think classical music stands right now. This opening entry will summarize some things you may have read here before, but later posts will have quite a lot that's new.So where are we, as we start 2009? Understanding, of course, that the economy is a wild card -- maybe a ferocious wild card -- … [Read more...]

...wonderful holiday season. I've been much distracted with family -- a good distraction. I'll return to blogging in the new year, with the conclusion of our disconnect discussion, or at least the conclusion for now; these things are ongoing. (Read the many comments to the post I've linked, and look here, too).And also, in the new year:   -- a post about some good news: the image of classical music is changing in the U.S., and very much for the better;   -- a look at where we are right now, with classical ticket sales up … [Read more...]

A followup to my post about The Money Shot, a noir thriller I thought would make a fabulous -- and maybe pathbreaking -- opera.But it would be pathbreaking only because -- in the manner of Tarantino's Kill Bill films -- it's so sexy and violent. And also, maybe, because of its implicit rock & roll ambience, which then would have to be central to its musical language. But in other respects, it's conventionally operatic. And I also take to heart Jay Langguth's remark, in a comment to my post, about noir not being the only contemporary … [Read more...]

In The Day the Earth Stood Still, there are two moments we might think about, for the future of classical music. (And, by the way, I think it's better than most of the critics thought, though maybe I'm just a sucker for sentiment, and it certainly has really dumb lapses in logic and common sense.)(Spoilers follow, though if you know science fiction and watch the first 20 minutes or so of the film, I doubt you'll be surprised by anything I reveal, especially if you've seen the original.)The first moment comes when Keanu Reeves, as the alien … [Read more...]

Went to two Elliott Carter concerts in Washington this weekend, neither much good. Not Carter's fault; weak performances. Sent me running back to the old Arthur Weisberg recording of the Double Concerto. Precise, expressive, musical, informed, and above all -- in great contrast to the Carter concerts I went to -- clear. (I'm starting to think that the striking virtuosity of 1970s new music groups like Speculum Musicae and Weisberg's Contemporary Chamber Ensemble has now migrated to eighth blackbird and the Bang on a Can All-Stars and Alarm Will … [Read more...]

I've enjoyed the comments on my post about ornamentation and rubato in past centuries. And I certainly agree with a point at least one commenter made, that when musicians (in the old days or now) change what the composer wrote, they can do it well or badly. But that, at least to me, doesn't reflect badly on ornamentation as a practice. We judge all kinds of things about performances, and this just adds another element. If we flag it as especially troublesome -- as if it's worse to change the composer's written notes in a bad way than it would … [Read more...]

Well, we seem to have moved from disconnects -- classical music not connecting to the world around us -- to ornamentation, and (this would be one way to put it) classical music not connecting to its own past. I'm happy to see so many comments, and I'll have something of my own to add in not too long. But I want to return for some last thoughts on disconnects, in this and one more post. I'll also have to  make my tentative final list of disconnects, drawing on ideas from so many of you, which I hope you'll also supply in reaction to the new … [Read more...]

Some people will hate this one. It's something the distinguished rock and blues critic Robert Palmer said in a film called Bluesland (I found the quote in a book by Dave Marsh, The Beatles' Second Album):My feeling is that if you want to listen to something primitive, you should listen to Mozart. Because if you hear Mozart, there's almost no rhythmic variation in it, it's 1-2-3-4 forever. No cross-rhythms or polyrhythms to speak of. The way that music's interpreted, all of the tonal qualities of the instruments tend to be very clean and … [Read more...]

I've talked many times here about performance practice in the past -- how musicians used to change the music they played, and how they often improvised their changes. We know that, of course, and the standard word for what they used to do is "ornamentation." What we don't often hear, though, is how extensive those changes used to be. So here's a striking example. It's a passage from the Almamiva-Figaro duet in the first act of The Barber of Seville, as sung by Manuel Garcia, the tenor who created the role of Count Almaviva. It was published … [Read more...]