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. Con­tinue read­ing “Eco­nom­ics vs. Art: Why a good fit has never existed” »

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. Con­tinue read­ing “The Fal­lacy of the Classics-of-the-Future Argument” »

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. Con­tinue read­ing “Is sleep­ing through a con­cert bad?” »

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? Con­tinue read­ing “Music Has No Value” »