On Jan 12, 2007, at 6:44 PM, dhbailey wrote:
The ratio of historical music to contemporary music is hugely in favor of historical music in opera houses and in orchestral concert halls. How does that compare to the programming of Mozart's time?
In Mozart's--and all earlier--times, music, indeed any work of art, went out of fashion in about 50 years, then was never heard from again regardless of quality. In the 19th c., the idea was introduced that an artistic work of quality was of permanent value and thus worthy of being experienced indefinitely into the future. I have a great deal of difficulty in seeing any downside whatsoever to this idea. Anyway, under such a regime, the amount of new work in active circulation at any given time should ideally be proportional to the amount of work in the canon from any other time period *of the same duration.* Thus, ideally, the amount of classical music heard this year that was composed betw. 1957 and 2007 should be the same as the amount that was composed between 1850 and 1900. It isn't, but that has nothing to do with performance conditions in Mozart's time, as can readily be seen if you compare the 1957-2007 figures with those for 1350-1400.
The performance situation for brand-new classical music is in fact much, much better now than it was even 10 years ago, so that one can now say that, although the situation remains less than ideal, it certainly falls within the acceptable range.
I don't see why my comment is a Straw Man.
Well, what you said was:
The band world learned this lesson and continues to support composers writing today for today's audiences. Why can't the orchestral, choral and keyboard worlds learn the same lessons?
--which says that the orchl., choral, and keybd. worlds do not, in fact, "continue to support composers writing today for today's audiences." This is manifestly untrue, so you've created a straw man. Worse, your self-congratulatory reference to the band world is more than a little disingenuous since the modern band (massed clarinets, lots of brass) has only *one* established classic predating the 20th century (the Berlioz _Symphonie funebre et triomphale_) and therefore could not overemphasize old music even if it wanted to.
Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
