CLASSICAL SMACKDOWN

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

Heather Mac Donald and Greg Sandow have been feuding very entertaingly over whether classical music is now in a golden age (Mac Donald) or in decline (Sandow). To simplify linkage, I’ll send you only to Mac Donald’s presumably final rebuttal to Sandow here, and from there you can follow links to her original article and to Sandow’s five-part argument against her theses.

Sandow’s basic point these past several years has been that classical music is doomed because it has strayed so far from today’s dominant culture, and must find ways to engage with the “real” world if it is to survive. I have had some sympathy with his points, but Greg is really arguing from a false assumption: that what we call “classical music” ever played a significant role in mainstream culture. Mac Donald has a succinct answer to that:

A seventeenth-century mass by definition is remote from the twenty-first-century world around it; it is silly to wish away the irreducible foreignness of the music of the distant past. Either you are willing and able to enter that foreign world, with its lost language of feeling, or you are not. No amount of allegedly “audience-friendly” tweaking with our performance tradition is going to overcome the initial division between the modern world and music that came out of a courtly tradition.

For now, I’m inclined to side with Mac Donald, and dispute Sandow’s notion that classical performances and presentations need to interweave more thoroughly with pop culture. The reason that classical music has any appeal, I think, is that it’s different from so many other things; otherwise, why pay any attention to it at all? The same can be said of jazz, most folk music, and just about anything else that isn’t oversaturated on Top 40 radio. The motto of Austin, Texas is “Keep Austin Strange”; if classical music is to have any appeal, we need to keep it “strange”—that is, distinctive—as well.

Read the arguments and see what you think.

IT'S NOT OUR FAULT

posted to Rappaport's Notebook by Robert Rappaport

NPR recently announced that their news anchors are now running their own boards (consoles) and that effort has become quite noticeable on the air.

For those of you not familiar with how radio works, a newscaster reads the news and, depending on the market, operates all the controls to fire soundbites, commercials, sound effects, etc. I've been running my own board since my first day in the business, so it comes as no challenge to me. However, the big boys at NPR always had others doing all the control work, until recently. I'm not exactly sure why the change happened (budgets, I presume), but it did and it's not working very well, at least according to me!

If you've been listening recently, especially during the 7 a.m. news, you've noticed incorrect soundbites being played, dead air, two things playing at once and drastically different audio levels. These problems don't make for a good network sound.

Stations were told via email (which I apparently deleted) about the change and to be patient, as the newscasters get used to their new duties. Well, patience is wearing thin.

SIMONE YOUNG VS. MUSIC JOURNALISM

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

From what I’ve heard of her Bruckner recordings, Simone Young is quite a fine conductor. But in her native Australia, she suffered from her country’s notorious “tall poppy” syndrome, whereby any bloom that stands above the rest is immediately chopped down. Young had to establish herself in Europe in order to be taken seriously, and now even the Australians have to acknowledge that she’s worth some attention.

Invited back to give a lecture recently, she seemed to be smarting a bit, either from the local treatment some years ago, or more likely from having to endure a series of newspaper and magazine profiles that focused on her status as 1) a woman in what is still, barely, a man’s field, and/or 2) her conflicts in Australia. She’s had enough, and advocates music journalism that’s all about the music:

It was around this time that the catch-phrase “back story” emerged, because it wasn’t enough to be a great singer in order to be in demand—there had to be a story behind the artist, something to catch the attention of jaded editors desperately seeking a “new angle”. If one could not report on a moving struggle against adversity to achieve greatness despite setbacks, then quirks and eccentricities would have to do. It’s not enough that a woman is a great pianist—excitement is generated in the media by the odd fact that she keeps wolves. 18 yrs of age is no longer young enough to generate interest in a brilliant violinist—at 14 however, such talent can be viewed as something a little suspect, providing a titillating hint of over-ambitious parents, a pushed child, risk of burn-out and break-down. What is not discussed however is the music—and it is the music that makes these people special, not the eccentricity of living with wild animals or of being an astonishingly mature child, nor of being challenged by a handicap, physical or social. It is that these people exist for the music they make and that they create musical performances of excellence and exceptional quality. Why is the pursuit of beauty and excellence seemingly of so little interest, but sensationalism and hints of scandal capture so much attention?

The pianist with wolves, by the way, is the excellent Hélène Grimaud, who eventually got awfully tired of talking to reporters about her Wolf Conservation Center instead of Brahms.

Young’s argument, unfortunately, contains the seeds of its own destruction:

We, the musicians and artists, must find some way to make the story be about what we do, the music we make and our passion for it, rather than the story of who we are or how we became who we are. We apologise for the fact that to speak in detail of what we do demands of our audience a level of musical education and musical literacy that would be taken for granted were our specialty economics or sport.

So if the readers don’t have the knowledge to understand what the musicians are saying, why would they even read such articles? Young’s seems a rather arrogant position.

And the sad truth is that there are so many interchangable artists these days, performing the same music in basically the same manner, that I can’t imagine they would have anything unique to say about their understanding of the music. And alas, they all have the same backstory, too—the same path of study from childhood through the standard conservatories, early success in a couple of competitions, then on to the brilliant career in which they struggle to differentiate themselves from so many other young artists with ostensibly brilliant careers.

So sheltering wolves or struggling against some early misfortune is really the only thing that sets these artists apart as individuals, and will draw people in, cause an audience to want to hear them perform. The general audience comes to the music through the artist’s personality, and that’s not an innovation of our superficial soundbite society; it’s been true for 200 years. Personally, I have little interest in the artist’s backstory unless it truly influences the performance at hand. I agree with Young that the music is what’s most important, but it isn’t what’s most interesting to the uncommitted audience. We need to find a better approach, but also an effective one, which Young’s proposal, I fear, is not.

ELECTIONS AND HOT SUMMER NIGHTS

posted to From the General Manager by Laura McKee

Well, believe it or not, election season is here again and primaries are at the end of August. We’re working hard to make Arizona Public Media your most-trusted source for election information to help you be an informed voter.

Our election page on the Website will keep you up to date on Arizona campaigns, debates, and voting information. Almost all of the candidates have been or will soon be featured on Arizona Illustrated and/or interviewed for NPR KUAZ 89.1 FM/1550AM. And if you happen to miss them, you can always click on AZPM and then the election 2010 button for videos, voter information and resources, and upcoming debates and interviews.

Join us for Hot Summer Nights on PBS-HD Channel 6

We’re rolling out part one of our summer pledge drive from August 7-15 with first time performance specials from Marvin Hamlisch featuring songs of the ‘70’s; Hallelujah Broadway with the best of the old and the new; American Idol star Clay Aiken; the original 1990 performance of the Three Tenors: Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti; a memorial tribute to John Denver plus a grand finale on the final Saturday night with the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin. So stay inside on these hot summer nights and stay cool with some truly great performances. My thanks to the thousands of families who support the programs on the Arizona Public Media stations with their membership dollars. Thanks also for your patience with us during our on-air membership campaigns as we work to encourage your friends and neighbors to join us. Time and again these on-air appeals prove to be the most cost-effective way to increase viewer and listener support – which are needed to help us to keep pace with rising

Jack Gibson

HOWARD STERN VS. CARL KASELL

posted to Rappaport's Notebook by Robert Rappaport

Well, here's a feud I didn't know existed.

You can read all about it here.

WE NEED YOU CHARLIE

posted to Inside TV by Susie Hernandez

Charlie Rose, acclaimed interviewer and broadcast journalist engages America's best thinkers, writers, politicians, athletes, entertainers, business leaders, scientists and other newsmakers in one-on-one interviews and roundtable discussions.

Bill Buckmaster didn't know at the time he got confirmation from the three Republican candidates running for US Senate that we would get this kind of exposure for a debate. We were one of two debates these candidates agreed to. Buckmaster continues to get interviews and will host debates up till Election Day. This interest in public affairs and the election is great for me as we dive into a new public affairs strategy on PBS HD CH. 6 and World (Ch. 27.3).

Starting in August, public affairs on PBS HD CH. 6 will begin weeknights at 4 PM. As reported in a previous Inside TV blog, we are moving away from children’s shows in the afternoons and early evenings. Charlie Rose will be welcomed into the public affairs block as he moves from 1 PM to 5 PM.

Here’s our new public affairs lineup on PBS HD CH. 6: 4:00 PM PBS Newshour (east coast version)

5:00 PM Charlie Rose

6:00 PM Nightly Business Report

6:30 PM Arizona Illustrated

7:00 PM PBS Newshour (west coast version)

On Fridays, we will continue to air Washington Week with Gwen Ifill at 8 PM. She just started tweeting, by the way! Follow her @pbsgwen. PBS Need to Know will continue to air at 8:30 PM.

On the World Channel, nightly public affairs will continue to be prominently featured in the schedule and I’m reviewing more shows to consider to air on weeknights.

Currently, the public affairs block on World has:

8 PM PBS Newshour (west coast version)

9 PM Arizona Illustrated

9:30 Journal

Starting in September the lineup will be:

8 PM PBS Newshour

9 PM Arizona Illustrated

9:30 PM BBC News

10 PM Charlie Rose

11 PM Journal

11:30 PM Nightly Business Report

I think these new public affairs scheduling on Ch. 6 and World will pair nicely. With so many hours and shows to choose from, you decide on when and what you want to watch. In-depth news and information will be available to you on KUAZ, online on azpm.org, PBS HD CH. 6 and World.

I’m thrilled to have Charlie on at 5 PM and the only thing that would make our block complete is having Bill Moyers back. But please, don’t get me started on Bill. I miss him so!

Stay tuned!

Susie

P. S. As debates and interviews get scheduled on Arizona Illustrated, you will be able to find them at the AZPM Election 2010 Dashboard. Personally, as a newbie to Arizona, I'm excited that the online guys here created this feature. I review it quite a bit.

P.P.S. Are you or someone you know a diehard 1 PM Charlie Rose viewer? Don't fret! He is on at 1 PM on the World Channel!