The economics of art is a perennial source of debate. Proponents of funding for the arts usually follow one of two arguments. The first is that art contributes intangibly to society by contributing a reason to live, as opposed to a way to live. The second is that art actually contributes tangibly to the greater economy through the hard work that many artists do for relatively little pay. In contrast, those who oppose funding for the arts argue that funding is waste of money, because valuable art will be able to survive economically on its own anyway: good artists will be in high demand, creating scarcity for their work, and hence ensuring them a commensurate level of income.
But art has never been a good fit to any monetary economy, because money was not really designed to handle art. (more…)
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
sfSound’s latest concert on Saturday 23 Jan 2010 was headlined by Ligeti’s well-known Chamber Concerto, which closed the concert, and was preceded by 10 shorter premières by up-and-comping Bay Area composers, mainly students, but also including some interesting other perspectives, like Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier. This concept has some definite advantages. It affords opportunities to a lot of less experienced composers in a relatively economically way, while at the same time ensuring an audience for them by programming a new music “hit” like Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto.
However, the format also presents some challenges to audience and ensemble, because a lot of relatively diverse music is presented in the course of an evening. (more…)
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
George Benjamin was the San Francisco Symphony’s composer-in-residence this month for this year’s installation of their Project San Francisco. Truthfully, I was not familiar with Benjamin’s work, but it came highly recommended by many of my colleagues, and so I looked forward to hearing it. I attended the SFS’s final concert with Benjamin on Saturday night (16 Jan 2010), where he conducted two of his pieces: Ringed by the Flat Horizon (1980), the piece that brought him to international attention, and a more recent piece, Duet (2008; see YouTube video below). In general, while I found Benjamin’s pieces highly competent works, I don’t think he lives up to the (perhaps unfairly) high standard people attribute to him. (more…)
I was intrigued last month when I received a message from website AudioMicro.com asking if I was interested in a link exchange. They seem to be an interesting mix of a variety of different musical “services” rolled into one, and I thought they might serve as a good model for composers who, like myself, are interested in creating musical value online. (more…)
I just wanted to draw attention to colleague and friend Lisa Bielawa’s new blog, which I think is a good example of the kinds of things composers should be doing more to stay in the public eye. Lisa won the American Academy’s Rome Prize this year and has taken the opportunity to write about some of her experiences in Italy and elsewhere. (more…)
Jason Caslor has a post on his blog today referencing a New York Times article that muses about whether “glitz” or other marketing gimmicks are useful or hurtful for classical music. The musing is in reference to the effect that conductor Gustavo Dudamel’s flamboyant hair has had on classical music (in conjunction with his musical talents). Is it good for the vitality of orchestras and opera companies on the long run? (more…)
For a genre that claims to be part of the cutting edge, the avant-garde/new classical music has been relatively slow to adopt online tools. I wonder about some of the ways we might improve the situation. As I’ve written about before, the major issue of art today is organization, not content, so if we assume there is something in what we do that others might be interested in, we need to find ways to reach them. (more…)
Recently I went to a concert of new classical works, presented by an organization that typically specializes in the 18th– and 19th-century European classics. The host of the evening discussed the context of the new works, presumably to win over the more reluctant of their series subscribers. His argument was along these lines: We can enjoy the great classic works of the past because they were heard in their time; people learned to love them when they were new, the works became well known, and they entered the standard repertoire. We need to program new works, regardless of if we like them or not, because this is how we create the classics of the future.
As much as I wish this were a sound argument, I think it is problematic. (more…)
Recently I read both Goethe’s and Marlowe’s Faust plays–the Faust legend has been a major influence on many generations of composers and authors. I found them exceedingly dull, except that the Marlowe made me think about changing English syntax in relation to the other germanic languages. And in the case of Goethe, I was curious about the psychology that would lead someone to torment over this story for one’s entire career.
What they made me realize though, is that ideas of the value and endurance of art are tied to our world views. (more…)
Recently I had a discussion with someone at a concert, about whether or not it was good to fall asleep during a performance. She said that, although she enjoyed the piece that had just been played, she was disappointed that it had been programmed so late in the concert, because it made her feel sleepy. So I asked her why that was a bad thing. (more…)
So today I read in the Globe and Mail that scientists are increasingly finding biological and genetic support for the age-old adages of love (Siri Agrell, “Sluts and Vermin”, The Globe and Mail, 26 Apr 2007, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070426.wxlsexstudies26/BNStory/lifeFamily/home).
For example, female mice who play hard to get tend to inspire faithfulness in their mates, as opposed to those who put out right away. There seems to be a biological reason why women that are unavailable are more desirable, and this builds faithfulness in men. Interesting. (more…)
I’ve thought a lot lately about the effect that sound, and particularly music, has on our environment. This is what people frequently call Ecomusicology, though I’m not crazy about that term.
Basically, do we have a right to make noise? How must it feel for a bird living on my street? Does it enjoy (or notice) the sounds of cars, airplanes, people playing soccer in the park across the street? Maybe the bird doesn’t but the squirrel might. (more…)
This is an issue I’ve been thinking about for a long time. Can we actually justify saying one kind of music is better than any other, or that one piece is better than another? (more…)