The decentralization (or de-hallification) of classical music

For generations, the main places to hear contemporary classical music have been the big institutions, primarily at downtown and university concert halls and opera houses, and sometimes in churches and other rather formal settings.

That’s all changing. Young composers today are increasingly finding — or creating — outlets for their music in rock and jazz clubs, coffeehouses, and other alternative venues. That’s bringing their music to listeners who otherwise might never have encountered it. It’s also expanding the range of classical (or contemporary or “postclassical”) music being created today.

Campbell, Brett “In the Indie Classical Lounge”, San Francisco Classical Voice, 3 July 2012.

Click here to read article


Posted

in

by


Featured Content

Tales from the Carreck of Fergus McGee
Title: Tales from the Carreck of Fergus McGee (I. Lament; II: Gigue) Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score
Brass
Brass ensemble Trombone
The experience of beauty
“The experience of beauty … consists of finding a spiritual value (truth, happiness, moral ideals) at home in a material setting (rhythm, line, shape, structure) and in such a way that, while we contemplate the object, the two seem inseparable.” – John Armstrong, The Secret Power of Beauty.
Problem solving with creativity
“Creativity can solve almost any problem — the creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.” — George Lois, American art director, designer and author. G. Lois, Damn good advice (for people with talent!): how to unleash your creative potential by America’s master communicator, London: Phaidon Press, 2012.
Peace Is What I Leave You – John 14
Title: Peace is what I leave you Text: John 14:27 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Saint-Saëns defending virtuosity
It is virtuosity itself that I want to defend. It is the source of the picturesque in music, it gives the artist wings with whose help he escapes platitudes and the everyday. The conquered difficulty is in itself a beautiful thing. Theódphile Gautier, in Émaux et camées, considered this issue in immortal verses. . . […]
The current state of the recording industry
Founder Klaus Heymann, founder of the successful NAXOS label, on the current state of the classical music recording industry: “We can’t live off CD sales anymore,” says the German-born Heymann, 75, speaking by phone from his base in Hong Kong. When Naxos began, Heymann proved that you could make money selling tens of thousands of […]
Saint-Saëns on the art of music
The artist who does not feel completely satisfied by elegant lines, by harmonious colours, and by a beautiful succession of chords does not understand the art of music. — Camille Saint-Saëns Cited in Milton Cross David Ewan, Encyclopedia of Great Composers and Their Music, volume 2. Double Day, 1969, p.819.
Music with no boundaries
Music can imply the infinite if enough things depart from the norm far enough. Strange “abnormal” events can lead to the feeling that anything can happen, and you have a music with no boundaries. – Morton Feldman, American composer Cited in Tom Johnson, Remembrance, September 1987. Accessed 13 May 2013.
How to win over an orchestra
Haydn was in London in 1791 when he performed in a concert led by Johann Salomon (a violinist/composer).   Salomon played the first violin and led the orchestra, and Haydn sat at the harpsichord, keeping the band together by an occasional chord or two, as the practice then was. Great composers have not always been […]