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 > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > ____________________________________________________________________________________ We won't tell. Get more on shows you hate to love (and love to hate): Yahoo! TV's Guilty Pleasures list. http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/265