Dear all,
I heard a report last week that "classical music"
was the genre with the single largest increase in
sales over all styles last year: up 22%. This was
largely due to two performers: the ever-popular Andrea
Bocelli and Sting.
Chris
--- gary digman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Last night Sting's "Songs From the
> Labyrinth" Great Performances show finally made it
> to my local PBS station. Overall I liked it. Some
> thoughts did come to mind as I watched it. Sting's
> is obviously not a classically trained voice, but
> that may be what is called for to "bring this music
> to a wider audience". I have heard that classical
> music amounts to about 3% of the market and early
> music is a small fraction of that. So, it seems to
> me, the vote is in on classically trained voices.
> They are not popular. Sting is, or has been,
> popular. If one wants to make the lute and lute
> music popular, as some have proposed on this list,
> one must accept that certain concessions to what is
> popular will be made. You can't have your cake and
> eat it too. If these concessions to what makes
> something popular are unacceptable to you, I say,
> "be careful what you wish for." Even so, Sting was
> correct in saying that his recording of these songs
> would not be popular in the way he is use!
> d to. I teach general guitar classes at a local
> community college and virtually all of the young
> hotshot rock guitarists taking my classes who may
> like the music of Sting and the Police say his
> Dowland CD "sucks", and not because it deviates from
> HIP. And yet upwards of 500,000 of Sting's fans have
> purchased the CD, a smash hit beyond the wildest
> dreams of Paul O'dette or Hopkinson Smith.
> Sting performs this music with great
> affection and respect. I think he truly loves these
> songs and the lute, and I, for one, applaud him for
> that. Also, I cannot understand those on this list
> who have trashed Edin Karamazov's performance. I
> found his playing masterful and impressive. He is a
> great lutenist.
> I think what Sting and Karamazov have done is
> a marvelous service to the lute and the music that
> will be of benefit to us all in providing more
> opportunities to play. So, I say, "Carry on, Sting!"
>
> Gary Digman
> --
>
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>
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>
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