I'll take up a couple of points I've raised here before:
- No one who thinks classical music is dying has yet taken up the meaning of a point Alex Ross made quite some time ago: where NYC had 1 new music ensemble in the 1960s, it now has about 50 (FIFTY), all of which are listed on his blog.
- Is anyone willing to define just what it would mean for classical music to die? We've heard plenty of convincing information from Greg Sandow about the aging audience for orchestral music and from Norman Norman Lebrecht about the dying major record labels. Both confuse a particular type of institution with classical music itself. I want someone to tell me how I'll know that classical music is dead.
When you can pry its gun from its cold, dead fingers?
ReplyDeleteIf by "dying" these people mean "changing," then sure, I guess it's dying. This is what drives me nuts about opera audiences: if those people who complain that no one writes like Verdi or Puccini had been around when Verdi and Puccini were composing, they would have complained that no one was writing like Donizetti and Bellini. Somehow I guess we'll muddle through.
Yes, exactly! And take a look at Mr. Dog (Matthew Guerrieri) if you haven't seen his blog postings today.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip on Soho the Dog -- one unfortunate side effect of being unemployed is that I don't have time to read as many blogs as I used to -- I suppose that's just one of life's little ironies.
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