Klarinet Archive - Posting 000027.txt from 2010/11

From: John Dablin <jdablin@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] What's Wrong with "Contemporary Classical"?
Date: Wed, 03 Nov 2010 09:35:46 -0400

On 03/11/10 10:28, Joseph Wakeling wrote:
> On 11/02/2010 09:31 PM, John Dablin wrote:
>> An interesting polemic. I personally think there's something in this,
>> though I'm sure many will disagree...
>>
>> <http://mises.org/daily/4790>
>
> I think this is a revealing passage:
>
>> Rod Rojas is a holder of the Canadian Securities Course designation
>> and performs as a financial adviser in personal, corporate, and public-
>> policy matters. He is a proud member of the Ontario Libertarian Party.
>
> I'm not sure this is really about the music -- sounds more like some
> bugger with a political axe trying to end state subsidy for the arts ...

Well, one of the aims of that website is to campaign for limiting the =

role of government. But that doesn't necessarily invalidate his argument.

I've long had a feeling that government subsidy for the arts was =

actually a malign influence, but I couldn't put my finger on why. One =

possible clue is in this other article about the New Queen's Hall =

Orchestra which I read recently...

<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer/8038171/The-swee=
t-sound-of-a-self-sustaining-orchestra.html>

The part that stuck in my mind was "Mr Boyden argues, with some =

justification, that the last piece of new music to seize the public =

imagination [in the UK] was Britten's War Requiem 48 years ago =96 because =

the music now written for these orchestras is created to satisfy not the =

musical public, but the taste of a handful of bureaucrats. As a result, =

orchestras are denied acceptable new material for their audiences, =

forcing them back on the output of dead composers."

I know I risk being labelled a troll, but I was genuinely hoping to =

stimulate a discussion to seek other points of view and clarify my own =

thinking.

John Dablin
Aylesbury UK
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