28 Jan

No living composer sat BBC Music Magazine Awards   by  scott_good

sorry...time to rant

http://www.bbcmusicmagazine.com/awards2010

If you care to peruse this link, you will notice something rather peculiar...wait, no, something completely normal!

Not one living composer represented.

Now, I understand this isn't 'the point'.  But there is a message here, and that is "living composers are not part of the game".  We are a side show.  Not really worth noticing, actually.  And if you are a performer, especially a hard working ambitious one, it is best advised to avoid new music as it won't get you recognition.

Ok, only one award - fine.  But this is the BBC!  I expect more from them.  And understand that as I write this, the funding for Canadians to record new music has been scrapped.  Gone.  So, not only do we have to "compete" against Mozart, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky for a crumb of attention, but now we (in Canada, but your turn might be coming) can't even get support to try.

Oh, it's an old argument, I know.  But, I'll say it again:  This is another blow down for classical music.  Slowly inching its way into museum like obscurity. We stand close to the edge, folks. Or, are we already in the hole?

Here are some quotes from reviewers I'd like to highlight:

            -"Tchaikovsky’s songs for solo voice and piano are relatively unfamiliar"

            -"Pianist Iain Burnside here presents a superb selection of Liszt’s mostly too-little-known    songs"

I'm just in tears.  I hope another 120 years will allow these masterpieces to finally realize their potential.

            -"Two of the three works on this disc are more than 50 years old, but they still tend to be regarded as 'new music', though Agon is one of Stravinsky's most appealing scores."

            -"With so many Verdi Requiems on the market, it would normally be hard to justify  another. But these are exceptional circumstances."

Yes, these are exceptional circumstances.  New music isn't new.

            "This is your chance to have a say in the UK’s biggest classical music awards."

Well, they are very good recordings, for sure. And I love all of this music.  But this is where my 2 cents lies today.  I'm just in that kind of mood.

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 RichSaunders commenting on No living composer sat BBC Music Magazine Awards:
29 January 2010 at 00:38

Your two cents are respected. This is actually one of the reasons why I stopped subscription service with BBC Music - mostly lazy reporting on their part. It's akin to Rolling Stone magazine for rock; unless you're Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Bob Dylan or John Lennon, you're nobody. They set their sites on the familiar and then coast the rest of the way.

It seems to me that if we are to bring the music of now to the forefront of the public, the alliance between composer and performer must be stronger than ever. I'm well aware of the "quota" of baroque/classical/romantic music that is needed for each season of a typical U.S. orchestra. The boards of these organizations are mostly to blame. Having to be at the mercy of contributors and benefactors renders these orchestras nothing more than an over-glorified jukebox. I think the attention should be how orchestras make money. Find a way to fund the orchestras without favor and we pave the way for more modern repertoire.

The other aspect of this is with new music is marketing. Quite frankly, it sucks. Just because someone wrote a new piece of orchestral music doesn't mean people MUST pay attention to it.
There's an old adage in marketing: "your client always has three questions you must answer:
1) Who are you?
2) What are you selling? and
3) Why do I want it?"
If we can answer that as composers we're infinitely ahead of the game than most. Maybe we can start by giving our answers to BBC Music?

 ruska02 commenting on No living composer sat BBC Music Magazine Awards:
30 January 2010 at 00:52

Why in the world must we be on the same page as these commercial crapping Adagio... give to the people what they want and what sells is good...I do not want to qoute here the tons of music that was completly disliked at first and than praised ...I want to simply notice that in the last European EACEA Research on Creativity vs Culture two basic artistic attitudes were outlined

1) The western todays aspect of artistic production : to create a product that must be sold for some educational, entrataining or funcional purposes.

2) The eastern attitude towards the creative research whose aim is simple to reveal something that has never been before and that is striving to obtain perfection and an existence of his own

In the wonderfull years in which the western world is collapsing in its worst "I buy therefore I am" attitude I praise you all, friends, to step back towards something less
exposed to biblical crowds and prizes and more important to you and your devoted comunity

Want less be more
Robert David Rusconi Composer

 judithbingham commenting on No living composer sat BBC Music Magazine Awards:
30 January 2010 at 12:22

And - of course - no women composers! Same old, same old.