OK, but people have been talking about modern
symphonies and their lack of audience and some
have them have gone bankrupt.
IMHO, this is because they perform too many "new" music things.
which modern symphonies? what do they mean by
"lack of audience"? what was their managgemetn
like? were the people in the orchestrasa
musicians or jobbers? some corporations have
gone bankrupt as well, but would you make
judgements about modern capitalism based on a few
business flops? what kind of new music "things"
did they play? was the orchestra already in a
downslide thanks to the 90s? did the management
make false assumptions about their audience's
capacity or did they just play the most
accessible and better known new music works
(which would in turn discourage informed
listeners from attending)?
uh or maybe it's because of economics, because of
lack of development of the audience's taste on
the part of the producers (here the discussion
needs to separate into n.american vs. european
audiences and historical tendencies to have any
relevance), because there are maybe too many
symphonies for the actual size and interest of
the public and competition is fierce, because you
can buy CDs for almost nothing today (or find
stuff online for nothing) in comparison with $30
for even half-decent tix, because the ritualistic
aspect of saturday evening concerts / theatre is
no longer of interest or relevance to a large
portion of the population, because sometimes new
music is not performed as well as it should be
because of funding issues (chronic shortage of
rehearsal time), because north american audiences
are more likely to want to gob up stuff they
already know than european audiences, because
because because becaaaause... because of the
wonder...
there are far too many variables in the equation
for such ridiculous statements.
try to get tickets to the concerts in ultraschall
festival in berlin, which does almost no
advertising. events are almost all sold out. an
entire festival of new music. 2 months mater
märzmusik, same thing.
this kind of generalization about the state of
new music really disappoints me, and i have to
admit, i come across it more from americans than
any other population, and any attempt to make any
sort of judgement call about the international
scene requires some perspective on what is
actually happening in the international scene.
do you have any stats to back up your claims? do
you speak to new music concert goers? you know,
it is a question of perspective, if you speak to
people who couldn't give a shit about new music
they'll tell you it is shit and there is no
market for it. if you go to the concerts where
new music is being performed and talk to people
who know something about the music you'll find
out about loads of stuff going on. and if you
are the kind of person who gobs up what others
say as some sort of absolute truth rather than
looking a little deeper than the surface to come
to your own conclusions... well, choose your
friends wisely.
a lot depends on how dirty your glasses are and
whether you can be bothered to rinse them from
time to time or not.
as a simple and easy exercice (in case you ever
manage to provoke the interest to check things
out on the other side of your barriers): check
out the arditti quartet's reportoire and concert
schedule; check out their performance history and
the venues and countries they have played in.
compare that to what was going on 20 years ago.
check out how many supposedly "difficult" works
are getting repeat performances. check out the
performances at donaueschingen, darmstadt, musica
festival, ISCM (different city every year),
ultraschall, märzmusik, sound symposium (NFLD);
check out new the programme and repertoire of
such groups as new music vancouver, the NEM,
ensemble modern, ensemble recherche, arditti,
klangforum wien, alarm will sound (NYC), kore,
trio nexus, fibonacci trio (those are only some
of the better known ones in a few countries) and
many large european orchestras, winnipeg
orchestra and new music festival... etc. etc.
in short, please inform yourself before babbling
off inanities that you can't even back up.
--
shirling & neueweise ... new music publishers
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] :.../ http://newmusicnotation.com
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