does classical music need a revolution? 4 Months ago
After realising I'd spent most of the evening debating the definition of 'classical music', I was interested to read what Anna Picard of The Independent newspaper had to say about Blank Canvas. (In case you missed it, that's the classical music club night Dilettante collaborated on with the pianist Will Dutta, creative director of Chimera Productions.)
In her review, Picard questions whether classical music really needs a revolution. So has the genre reached the end of its evolution? Have we seen the last of the Stravinskys and Bartoks and Monteverdis, the musical revolutionaries who inspire Dilettante? I'm not so sure.
Readers of The Observer newspaper might have spotted an article the paper reprinted from The New Yorker last January, by Alex Ross, the magazine's influential music critic (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2235820,00.html). Entitled 'The Classical Revolution on my laptop' Ross's piece documents the renaissance of a genre whose death has been pronounced many times over for more than half a century.
So what changed? The internet mostly, according to Ross. "News bulletins were declaring the classical-record business dead but I noticed strange spasms of life in the online CD and MP3 emporiums", he recounts.
From the mushrooming number of classical blogs to Internet radio stations to streamed concerts, Ross finds ample evidence of shifts in classical content and context over the past decade. Throw in the NY Met at the cinema, Universal Music at Berlin's Yellow Lounge, Tasmin Little under a bridge and - dare I suggest it?! - events like Blank Canvas, and I'd say something's surely afoot.
Or look at Naxos. With record sales last year, the success of Klaus Heymann's classical upstart might suggest an industry at the top of its form. But in reality, Naxos is the story of an insurgency. It's about challenging the conventions of the classical recording industry, from high-priced deals for recording stars to its resistance to embracing the digital age. (For more on Heymann, read 'One forte to another': http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2253911,00.html)
In short, lots of food for thought.
While the rain was downright Biblical, our aims last Wednesday were admittedly modest: to entertain and inspire the crowd that turned up, and to offer Dilettante members a peek at a London phenomenon. But if Blank Canvas is a springboard for debate about the future of classical music, I say 'vive la revolution!'
In her review, Picard questions whether classical music really needs a revolution. So has the genre reached the end of its evolution? Have we seen the last of the Stravinskys and Bartoks and Monteverdis, the musical revolutionaries who inspire Dilettante? I'm not so sure.
Readers of The Observer newspaper might have spotted an article the paper reprinted from The New Yorker last January, by Alex Ross, the magazine's influential music critic (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2235820,00.html). Entitled 'The Classical Revolution on my laptop' Ross's piece documents the renaissance of a genre whose death has been pronounced many times over for more than half a century.
So what changed? The internet mostly, according to Ross. "News bulletins were declaring the classical-record business dead but I noticed strange spasms of life in the online CD and MP3 emporiums", he recounts.
From the mushrooming number of classical blogs to Internet radio stations to streamed concerts, Ross finds ample evidence of shifts in classical content and context over the past decade. Throw in the NY Met at the cinema, Universal Music at Berlin's Yellow Lounge, Tasmin Little under a bridge and - dare I suggest it?! - events like Blank Canvas, and I'd say something's surely afoot.
Or look at Naxos. With record sales last year, the success of Klaus Heymann's classical upstart might suggest an industry at the top of its form. But in reality, Naxos is the story of an insurgency. It's about challenging the conventions of the classical recording industry, from high-priced deals for recording stars to its resistance to embracing the digital age. (For more on Heymann, read 'One forte to another': http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2253911,00.html)
In short, lots of food for thought.
While the rain was downright Biblical, our aims last Wednesday were admittedly modest: to entertain and inspire the crowd that turned up, and to offer Dilettante members a peek at a London phenomenon. But if Blank Canvas is a springboard for debate about the future of classical music, I say 'vive la revolution!'
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