Dying of Natural Causes

I thought this was interesting article in the New York Times. Apparently there a lot of chairs in major orchestras left unfilled; the Times mentions as a peripheral issue the real heart of the matter: orchestras are not as flush as they once were. This is encouraging.

I grew up on "classical" music. The good people of the state of California spent God-only-knows-how-much on my education in what is really the art music tradition of Western Europe from 1450 to 1950. I am calling the end of Aaron Copland's productive decade in the 1940's the end of the tradition, because that was the last time composers writing standalone music for symphony orchestra really held any conversation with the public. Since then European art music has been alternately parted out to Hollywood and the various museums that comprise classical music: local orchestras, universities, horrifically distasteful TV ads for luxury cars...


Anyway, I developed my guitar technique on classical music. I learned music theory analyzing classical music. And as I advanced as a musician, the less appeal this tradition held. I still have my favorite pieces - e.g. I listen to Bach's D Major Magnificat every Christmas. By myself. And that's the problem - the relevance of this music lies about halfway between Shakespeare and pre-industrial farming tools. I could easily find other people who like the same classical music I like, or I could listen to the music that everyone I already know likes.

fizzle... lost my will to expound... go hear the chicago symphony while you can LOL

Read more...