tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post7765214040864663942..comments2024-03-29T07:38:17.008-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Concerts and AudiencesBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-8140687767479996102017-05-29T14:01:46.827-05:002017-05-29T14:01:46.827-05:00Oh yes, if you are right next to a major universit...Oh yes, if you are right next to a major university then you have access to all sorts of concerts you wouldn't otherwise. This is one of the exceptions I was thinking of. Heck, McGill University alone puts on 300 concerts a year.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-15945960852849143212017-05-29T13:10:33.536-05:002017-05-29T13:10:33.536-05:00That Ibermúsica calendar looks a lot like our New ...That Ibermúsica calendar looks a lot like our New Haven fare, which is thus "standard fare" to me. But I realize this little city packs a much bigger musical punch due to the Yale School of Music, so we have not only the NHSO but also the Yale Philharmonia and the Yale Symphony, plus a lot of other chamber ensembles and dozens of student recitals (VERY good, and diverse challenging solo/chamber repertoire!). Plus the Institute for Sacred Music at the Yale Divinity School gives us a few oratorios (Handel every year but also contemporary works), and usually a Bach mass or other big works, plus organ and choral and early music concerts.<br /><br />Attendance? The oratorios and masses always fill the large church or Woolsey Hall, the symphonies sometimes nearly fill Woolsey hall, but not always, and the many many other concerts range from mostly-full Sprague Hall to very sparse. The crowds are predominantly much older than me (I'm 51), and when young people are noticeable they seem mostly to be YSM students themselves, drawn from all over the world. The local general public in attendance are mostly much older than me.Will Wilkinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01997868915978439364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-19603720120014742492017-05-29T11:34:39.475-05:002017-05-29T11:34:39.475-05:00Could be, could be! I just missed a concert with m...Could be, could be! I just missed a concert with music by Sofia Gubaidulina because I was coming back from Bologna that day. And I haven't investigated specifically contemporary promoters. But I'm sure there would be more of the newest music in the UK, Netherlands, France and Germany.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-58447737463232021512017-05-29T11:09:51.334-05:002017-05-29T11:09:51.334-05:00Madrid might seem richer than many North American ...Madrid might seem richer than many North American venues, but when I lived in the city I definitely felt I was in a musical backwater. Classical music seems to have stopped with Bartok and Shostakovich there, concerts with later 20th-century composers or contemporary music were comparatively rare. Even many Spanish composers of recent decades were easier to hear in France or Germany than on their home turf.Christopher Culverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13497448580399752587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-29088193375747874492017-05-29T01:48:56.601-05:002017-05-29T01:48:56.601-05:00Marc, I was hoping someone would give me some push...Marc, I was hoping someone would give me some pushback on the "hicks" comment. I put it in as a kind of zinger, but may not have hit my mark. The whole idea of class distinctions is a minefield, of course, but one that we in classical music, and particularly in this blog, traverse on a regular basis. How can we acknowledge the origins of much classical music in the world of the European aristocracy while both accepting the wonderful things that have come from that and rejecting the invidious nature of class distinction? I think it is through making the music accessible to anyone who has the capacity to enjoy it, which is what the classical music world, by and large, does. The problem really is, just as you say, that the typical environment in North America tends to leave a lot of our potential for aesthetic appreciation withering, uncultivated.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-41837993585726601142017-05-28T18:47:51.453-05:002017-05-28T18:47:51.453-05:00I think I'd probably dispute your 'hicks&#...I think I'd probably dispute your 'hicks' observation, were there to be anything much gained by doing so-- I mean, I agree with your post as a whole. It just seems to me that 'hicks' implies some regional or class distinctions that aren't necessary to the argument: it is a lack of literary and music education, whether that lack happens in Podunk or Springfield or Galveston. We, faced with something new (at least if our natural curiosity and reasonableness hasn't been left to wither uncultivated), we try to 'get our minds around' that new thing, don't we? and so it is with new (new to us, newly made) music, I hope.Marc in Eugenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04331547981498637474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-6651169111224593302017-05-28T14:44:00.105-05:002017-05-28T14:44:00.105-05:00There's a lot of American pop music playing in...There's a lot of American pop music playing in casual restaurants, but no, it does not seem to have taken over the culture.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-74456707196396221072017-05-28T12:11:44.011-05:002017-05-28T12:11:44.011-05:00The health of classical music in Europe is very go...The health of classical music in Europe is very good news indeed. Perhaps Justin Bieber and Kanye West haven't yet destroyed the musical ear of the entire human race!<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-87379840722686252092017-05-28T09:29:15.813-05:002017-05-28T09:29:15.813-05:00I was startled when I read that statistic about at...I was startled when I read that statistic about attendance at classical music concerts versus soccer matches, but that came right from the German orchestral league. Here is the link: http://www.classicfm.com/music-news/concerts-football-germany/<br /><br />But yes, you are correct, they are comparing to Bundesliga games. But perhaps that was to ensure apples to apples? After all, if we are to count all soccer matches, then we would have to count all classical concerts?<br /><br />I noticed the audience in Italy clapping in synchrony when they were begging for an encore, but no, I have no theory on that!Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-9388391479655508382017-05-28T09:04:55.339-05:002017-05-28T09:04:55.339-05:00"An audience that claps whenever there is a m..."An audience that claps whenever there is a momentary cessation of sound ..." Hmm... I wonder if they'd clap not after, but during a performance of 4'33". Come to think of it, that might make the piece slightly less insufferable.<br /><br />I was startled by your comment about soccer matches. But now I see that surely you mean only Bundesliga games (18 teams). No way more people attend classical music concerts than soccer matches. <br /><br />Years ago, I noticed that East-European audiences clap in synchrony, whereas Western audiences clap as white noise. I always thought there must be deep meaning behind this phenomenon (do Easterners feel the urge to become their own percussion instrument?) but I never came to any satisfying conclusion. Any theory?<br /><br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com