Stanley Crouch was famously fired from his critic’s job at JazzTimes. “Crouch’s position has less to do with color than it does with sound. He defines jazz within famously narrow limits—a music that doesn’t stray far from the blues or the techniques that have traditionally produced it, musicians who never, ever forget where and how the sound was born. One doesn’t have to be black to find a groove (though some critics have taken him to mean this), but one must be willing to bow to the “Negro aesthetic.” He is convinced that the white establishment resents a musical history from which it can’t help but feel alienated, and so champions jazz that sounds “white” instead of jazz that looks backward. In this view, the desire to innovate past swing is tantamount to fearing its origins and the people who created it. The lines between the advancement of a music and the rejection of its history become entangled in the vast mire of racial politics.”
Tag: 06.27.03
Shakespeare In Alabama. And Oregon. And, Well, Everywhere.
“After the Civil War… consumers moved away from communal celebrations and began to enjoy culture in small groups or alone, a development heralding the eventual triumph in our day of the home entertainment center. Yet 150 years later, Shakespeare is undergoing a rebirth in this country, thanks to dozens of well-entrenched festivals devoted to his work, as well as a new initiative by the National Endowment of the Arts. Paradoxically, the biggest name in literature once again finds himself most at home in smaller cities and towns.”
The Ups And Downs of Philanthropy
“Two New York-based not-for-profit research organizations, the Foundation Center and Grantmakers in the Arts, have issued a report showing that while the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks had a deleterious effect on arts and culture philanthropy during 2001 and 2002, the drop in giving wasn’t as steep as first feared. Meanwhile, a new survey… suggests that charitable giving by corporations slackened in 2001, but then, in a surprise, rose dramatically in 2002.” Still, these numbers don’t mean that arts giving isn’t at disturbingly low levels, and the scramble in dozens of U.S. states to fix deficits by slashing arts funding is making matters even worse.
Another Orchestra That Isn’t Collapsing
The Richmond (VA) Symphony reports that it is officially on the list of smaller American orchestras that are not on the verge of folding up their tents and vanishing into the night. “According to a nearly complete year-end tally, the symphony ran a $26,478 loss after spending $3.8 million in the 2002-03 season. The loss could shrink by as much as $20,000 after late-arriving revenues are counted in, said David Fisk, the symphony’s executive director.”
Berlin Can’t Afford Three Opera Houses
There’s no lack of public support for Berlin’s opera scene, which continues to thrive despite a sluggish economy. But the city is out of money, and appears to be on the verge of shuttering at least one of the city’s three most prominent opera houses. “The three opera houses — the Staatsoper and Komische Oper in the former east and the Deutsche Oper in the west — are relics of the division of Berlin. And now they are victims of post-unification budget cutbacks. And like the plot of a Puccini opera, this drama is very likely to end unhappily.”
The World’s Biggest Jigsaw Puzzle Meets The World’s Best Math Geeks
“A mathematical formula is allowing Italian researchers to recompose one of the most complicated jigsaw puzzles in history: the fragmented 15th century frescoes which once decorated the Ovetari Chapel of the Church of the Eremitani at Padua.” The fragments were photographed, digitized, and are now being painstakingly reconstructed on computers, with the aid of “‘circular harmonics’ — mathematical formulas that are able to identify and ‘retain the memory’ of the piece’s orientation.”
Donizetti’s Lost Opera
Nearly two decades ago, journalist Will Crutchfield uncovered a stack of moldy old manuscript papers filled with musical jumbles, abandoned compositions, and what appeared to be pieces of an unpublished opera by Donizetti. “It didn’t take long to discover the pages were in fact a lost opera. But it took nearly two decades, and return trips to Europe, to piece together a version capable of being produced. On July 17, that big step in this ongoing detective story will be taken at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, N.Y., when Crutchfield himself will conduct Elisabeth, the never-produced Donizetti opera he rediscovered.
Where Art Means Business
Asheville, North Carolina used to be a manufacturing town. Now it makes arts, and resident artists think of themselves as leaders of the local economy. “We’re running a business here, not a charity. I might not be making a product that you can load into a truck. Our product may be intangible, but it adds to the quality of life. And I’m not polluting either.”
British Music Crisis? What Music Crisis?
“The British music industry, both live and recorded, employs more than 100,000 people and generates around £3 billion a year, yet it is perceived unquestioningly to be in the slough of despond. The hand-wringing reaches its apogee on Wednesday when Britain’s most popular radio station, Radio 2, devotes five hours to The Great British Music Debate.” But British music has never been healthier. Music occupies a central role in our lives, and look at this week’s Glastonbury festival. Each “festival-goer has paid £100 for admission, and all tickets sold out within 18 hours of going on sale.”
How Gay Is Gay?
“Openly gay and lesbian artists – writers, directors, actors, composers – are more visible than ever in 2003 America. Indeed, when two men can share a kiss on national TV in celebration of their 25-year relationship and the Tony they have just won, it seems as if a milestone of acceptance and assimilation has been reached. And, certainly, gay characters are more in evidence than ever before on stage, screen, and TV. When a mainstream newspaper like USA Today runs an article asking, ‘How ‘in’ is it to be gay? Let us ‘out’ the ways,’ something must be afoot.”