Articles

The Friday Informer: Oh, yeah? Well, my father knew Jay Greenberg

The future looks bright (or at least things are universally dark) everywhere I turn.

Written By

Molly Sheridan

Gadget of the Week

Procrastinator Rx: Trick yourself into making meetings and meeting deadlines on time. [via renewable music]

Looking ahead towards the future of music, I’m personally both encouraged and a little freaked out by an ensemble that can put on a concert under the rubric “Since We’ve Been Born“—a program of music written since 1988. [via aworks]

Maybe we can take this optimistic bit of programming as our cue to just stop discussing if classical music is or is not dying. Some of you (or at least the composers in Atlanta) have poked your heads out of our particular new music foxhole only to discover that—despite what we thought we were learning from American Idol—the sky is dark (or just as bright?) over on the pop side of the fence as well. Clearly this is going to put a kink in our finger-pointing strategies. And to start with, we’re going to have to stop blaming Andrea.

While the Prairie Home Companion and the Vivaldi fans go head-to-head down in D.C. over space on the terrestrial airwaves, the BBC’s plan to push classical content online is meeting with resistance from those who suggest it will adversely affect the field. If you want to talk about barriers to distribution, however, we suggest you try getting to an actual venue presenting experimental music. Just be sure to bring a map and pack some snacks.

Were You Aware?

Before they were “eighth blackbird,” they were almost “tastes like chicken.”

Steve may have dominated 2006, but 2007’s birthday candles are alight for Philip Glass. He’s already grabbing attention for the American debut of his 21st opera, Waiting for the Barbarians, and for a slick 21st-century record release: a new recording of Music in Twelve Parts released one “part” per month exclusively via iTunes. For those who like to keep well ahead of the curve, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center has announced their plans to kick off Elliott Carter’s 100th (!!) birthday year in 2008 with a performance of his five string quartets.

(iTunes aside: Good thing we know you only like music by American composers, because you’re going to have a hard time buying those hot new tracks by composers in Djibouti.)

And just when you thought you had finally reached the limit of his genius: Listening to Mozart can make you less allergic to latex.