 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: bradfordlloyd
Date: 2013-09-01 21:49
Great article. The state of America's orchestras is indeed bleak. Thanks for sharing.
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2013-09-02 14:45
It has already been experienced by professional concert bands, decades ago. There are few, if any, remaining.
richard smith
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Author: Ed
Date: 2013-09-02 20:47
Excellent reading. Thanks for the link.
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2013-09-03 13:39
Very wide-ranging article that covers all the problems but, not unexpectedly, finds no one with any concrete, workable solutions. Probably because no one has come up with any.
Karl
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Author: William
Date: 2013-09-03 14:38
It is not up to us--the public will decide the fate of the professional orchestra, just as they do for most entertainment venue. It may come down to the "pro" musician playing essentially for free to sustain the major symphony, or--in words we do not want to hear--prevent the dinasour from becoming extinct. There is a real reason why Justin Bieber makes more money than the classical musician, even the best known. For whatever reason, its all about how much they like the music and what they are willing to pay to hear it--and we not be the ones in control of that. Sorry........
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Author: Sylvain
Date: 2013-09-03 16:12
Here is another side of the coin. A small window into what has been working on the other side of the pond. A strong involvement in the community, a collaborative way to run both the musical and financial aspect of an orchestra:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-woodcock/berlin-philharmonic_b_2433951.html
--
Sylvain Bouix <sbouix@gmail.com>
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2013-09-04 16:32
It's already been done - "This is a sym-pho-ny..." not to mention (which I won't) the words sometimes sung to the main tune of Tchaikovsky's 4th, 1st movement. Fur Elise is the one tune every one of my students seems to know already, even if they're missing a few of the notes when they try to bang it out on whatever keyboard is handy. Is the Jurrassic Park theme now "classical?"
The cure might be worse than the disease.
Karl
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Author: cyclopathic
Date: 2013-09-04 16:53
and yet there is no shortage of attendance at Justin Bieber concerts
no one ever lost money underestimating the taste of american public
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2013-09-04 17:12
cyclopathic wrote:
> and yet there is no shortage of attendance at Justin Bieber
> concerts
Since you brought it up, what is the general demographic of the audience at a Bieber concert? Is it mostly parents accompanying their too-young-to-drive-themselves teens and pre-teens (or younger), or is there actually an adult component independent of the juvenile part of the audience?
What pop-rock performers/groups are drawing significant numbers of adults not connected with children?
Maybe a completely naive question, but I don't go to One Direction or Lady Gaga concerts to have seen the audiences there (although I once played in a backup orchestra for Kansas). Is part of the problem that adults in large numbers have abandoned live performances entirely or that their interest is predominantly not in "classical" or symphonic music?
Karl
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Author: cyclopathic
Date: 2013-09-04 18:04
>Since you brought it up, what is the general demographic of the audience at a Bieber concert?
I wouldn't know but your guess is as good as mine. I've taken my (underage) kids to rock concerts, and there were alot of young adults, mostly pre/post college age.
>Is part of the problem that adults in large numbers have abandoned live performances entirely or that their interest is predominantly not in "classical" or symphonic music?
yes it is not about what orchestras do, did or didn't do, it is about that noone listens to classical (or jazz for that matter) music anymore. You can't get deaf into musical hall, even if you bring a midget show..
IMHO if you want to change it, you have to start with elementary/middle school kids if it is not too late, and it would take years before situation changes. Heck when was the last time you walked into store and they were playing classical music? How many classical radio stations left in the country? how many downloads on iTune?
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2013-09-04 20:22
cyclopathic wrote:
> IMHO if you want to change it, you have to start with
> elementary/middle school kids if it is not too late, and it
> would take years before situation changes.
Well, these days in the U.S., if it doesn't increase scores on standardized tests of reading and math, it's not a priority. We can thank No Child Left Behind for that, even if the President and Congress have made recent modifications - the legacy of the past 10 years will take time to die.
> Heck when was the
> last time you walked into store and they were playing classical
> music?
Actually, I find this happens more than occasionally. Also on phone queues at doctors' offices and commercial customer service sites. But there's a limit to how many times you can listen to the same distorted-sounding 32 bars of Beethoven's 5th without wanting throw the phone at someone. In stores classical music specifically chosen for the purpose can be a lot more unobtrusive than most rock. Not that there isn't a lot more rock than classical on store public address systems.
> How many classical radio stations left in the country?
In the metropolitan Philadelphia area there are actually several classical FM stations - but I think all are university-sponsored, not commercial.
> how many downloads on iTune?
You have me there. I don't know, but I'm certain it's many times more than the number of classical downloads from Amazon or HDTracks or the smaller MP3 online outlets that offer classical recordings.
Karl
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Author: BartHx
Date: 2013-09-04 21:02
My experience is that there is a lack of exposure to classical or jazz. I am a retired high school science teacher (biology, chemistry, and physics). When my students were working in the lab, I frequently would play music in the background. When I would ask, at the beginning of the year what they wanted to hear, they would nearly universally reject classical. It didn't take long into the year to gradually transition to classical and have them asking for it. A significant number would even want to know the details of what they were listening to. It's human nature to tend to avoid things with which we are unfamiliar. Remember that what we consider classical used to be pop. Classical is likely to continue fading until people again get familiar with it. A large part of what was popular in the 1960s is making a come back and my students were always amazed that I had the original on vinyl.
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2013-09-04 22:01
After you explained what that round vinyl thing-y was?
Karl
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Author: Bobby McClellan
Date: 2013-09-05 00:23
Ed,
Thanks for posting this article. I gain alot of information out of articles such as this and any others that get posted here. Being on the board of a all volunteer Community band even lessons learned form the professional groups corrolate dow to community bands and how they are run.
Bobby
Bobby M. McClellan
Flowood, MS
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2013-09-05 04:58
William, that was foul. It reminds me of an SNL sketch, "Classical Music Classics."
Can't find video, (SNL pulls its stuff from YouTube) but a transcript... http://snltranscripts.jt.org/00/00qclassics.phtml
The lyrics to Also Sprach Zarathustra are nothing short of brilliant.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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