The Death of Classical Music?

[germancomponist]

Not the money, the greed, the greed is it!

[Braindrop]

For those of you who absolutely hate your FM classical station, check out Sirius radio. There is a "Sirius Pops" channel that is pretty much your average classical greatest hits, but "Symphony Hall" plays some serious music, multi-hour-long pieces, and stuff you just won't hear on land-based radio.

They've got a free 3-day streaming trial, check it out. I've got it in my truck, my wife's car, and a jambox for my glassblowing shop.

Sorry for the thread hijack, you can go back to insulting each other now...

[KeithW]

No offense taken. I don't know about other developers, but we have repeatedly stated on numerous ocassions that our goal is to lead people to the real thing.

You cannot replace a musician who has spent a lifetime mastering their instrument. What sample libraries excel at is education and providing sketches.With these tools, opportunities and jobs are created.

Many colleges and universities are teaching orchestration and classical music with these tools. For the first time students can get an approximation of what their music sounds like. The integration of GPO playback with notation programs like Finale and Sibelius has been a boon to classical music and orchestration studies worldwide.


Gary Garritan

I can personally vouch for this, even at the High School level. I know several pretty bright student musicians that use Finale and/or Sibelius in conjunction with sample libraries to do some pretty amazing things. As long as there are students like this, Classical music will not die.

And as for replacing musicians with sampled performances, blame the studios/producers for this, not the Sample Packages. I remember when the Yamaha Disklaviers first came out and started replacing pianists at clubs, hotels, and bars. People blamed the technology, but it was clearly the management of these venues that were to blame. Many of these same places went back to real pianists, because that's what the patrons wanted.

I saw a wonderful live performance of Bela Bartok's "Concerto for Orchestra" (1944) last night and I can't imagine anything like that performed by computer. The Symphony Orchestra that played this last night was filled by competent, passionate musicians, and they clearly worked hard to play this very difficult work.

Keith Walls

[SeanHannifin]

Here in the US - in the late 50's and early 60's there was an Author named Ayn Rand - she wrote a number of things - probably most notable "Atlas Shrugged." she left us this quote -

"So you think money is the root of all evil? Did you ever stop to think about what the root of all money is?"

Stephen

I love that book. Like my avatar?

Money itself is just means to an end... it's how it's used that's important.

[SeanHannifin]

Money is simply a way to exchange goods and services. Its use can of course be abused, just as the use of a computer can with hacking, but money itself is not evil... it is in fact a very convenient thing (as are computers). Ayn Rand never advocated the collection of money for its own sake, that would make no sense.

[SeanHannifin]

Not really.

Then you're using it wrong.

[Edi]

Money is simply a way to exchange goods and services. Its use can of course be abused, just as the use of a computer can with hacking, but money itself is not evil... it is in fact a very convenient thing (as are computers). Ayn Rand never advocated the collection of money for its own sake, that would make no sense.

You are partly right but the main function of money is to store buying power and that is where the problems come from. From that it becomes an object in itself which can be traded, lent at usury, stolen, killed for, etc. All the great things humans excel at. Particularly those who embrace Social Darwinism, even as they deny scientifically verified Darwinism in nature.


Ed

[nikolas]

Money is simply a way to exchange goods and services. Its use can of course be abused, just as the use of a computer can with hacking, but money itself is not evil... it is in fact a very convenient thing (as are computers). Ayn Rand never advocated the collection of money for its own sake, that would make no sense.

Money, cash, credit cards and the stock market are insanely overvalued.

I am much simpler man.

I buy in salt and sell my services! I need salt to live! I can live with a goat I have in my backyard but not with a banknote. I don't see what youcan do with a banknote except to burn it to light a fire or something... ???

(<- I'm an alien, aren't I?)

[jesshmusic]

In my humble opinion, classical music and art music should and is about live performance. I would much rather watch "Delusion of the Fury" by Harry Partch live than hear a recording or even see it on a DVD. I like the feel of a live performance, the spontanaity. As long as concert halls are filling up to see the orchestra, classical music will be fine.
Another problem is all of these recordings... have been recorded. Why rerecord a piece when a fantastic recording has likely already been done? Especially considering the expense of recording an orchestra. If one looks at the number of performers and composers in training at universities and conservatories they will see that this genre of music is in good shape. To try and relegate classical into the same realm of music that sounds best when recorded is a bad idea and just plain wrong.

[Edi]

...It's called an Umlaut (German)...

Back in the nineteen fifties a German fast food restaurant opened on eighth street in Greenwich Village. It specialized in various kinds of German sausages and wursts. Its name was Zum Zum. On the large sign outside, the u in Zum Zum had a little sausage above it. I went inside. There was a gorgeous blond waitress with high cheekbones reminiscent of Marlene Detriech. I asked, "What's with the sausage over the u?". She replied with some hauteur, "That's not a sausage its an umlaut."

Ed