The Christian Science Monitor’s Mark Guarino posts the following story on classical music’s dance with new media and new instruments. I disagree with several of Mr. Guarino’s assertions about the vitality of classical music, but this article is still worth the read — especially the comments at the end.
FROM CSMONITOR.COM:
Every season at your local concert hall, the drill is the same: Musicians tune up their instruments, a conductor walks onstage, taps a baton, and works of past compositional masters spring to life.
This scenario has not been tampered with for centuries, a fact that many cherish and others lament about the symphonic experience. Now, threatened by the high costs of producing orchestral concerts, shrinking endowments, an aging subscriber base, and the slashing of music curriculums across the country, which diminishes the role of music in young people’s lives, classical music has arrived kicking and screaming into the Digital Age. Computers are helping change the way people make, perform, and listen to symphonic music. Read on…