Ray,
The arts are both a product of, and a partner to, commercial
prosperity -- or at least comfortable leisure. So don't expect that
any of them are in better condition in Europe than they are in
America. Even in Germany, orchestras are finding it hard to survive.
The BBC has only one symphony orchestra now whereas they used to have
six. Besides, the 'serious' arts largely lost their way decades ago.
The graphic arts have become the status symbols of the rich (the
modern offerings being laughed at by most) and 'serious' music has
had to be increasingly subsidized by governments or by the rich at
the request of, and as a comfort to, the middle-classes (the upper
middle-class as defined in America). The youthful audiences who flock
to the Proms here in England are the children of the elite 20% of the
population, not of the majority.
Soon after Futurework started, one FWer confidently opined that the
Internet would never be used for commerce. I took up the challenge.
In the several months it took me to prepare Handlo Music, many
successful businesses, including Amazon, appeared. My own modest
offerings of choral music which appeared soon afterwards still
continue to sell around the world, including China (where, needless
to say, 'serious' music is doing very nicely, thank you. The Chinese
particularly like Elizabethan madrigals, would you believe?).
'Serious' music can't possibly survive in the way some would like it
to. The advent of recorded music means that there's far too much
available music of all sorts to more than fill the hours of anybody's
day. Only relatively small portions of the tens of thousands of
compositions of the 'serious' repertoire will survive. Some modern
'serious' music is good (by that, I mean tuneful and memorable) but a
very great deal of is rubbish. (It's a case of the Emperor's clothes.
Few dare say publicly what they really think about it. In the Prom
concerts of the last 20 years, in which one new composition is
usually tried out, 95% of it is never -- ever -- repeated.)
Keith
At 21:59 01/08/2011, you wrote:
Digoweli
Location
New York City
Comment to the NYTIMES on Arts Outposts Stung by Cuts in State Aid
I've worked in the New York City opera world as a performer,
director, conductor and teacher for the past forty years. During
that time I have believed in the value of the Arts as the prime
developer of the performance of the human instrument.
Recent brain studies by neurologists at McGill University and the
DANA foundation here in the US tested the theory that the Arts were
co-relative to the development of intelligence i.e. "intelligent
people practiced the Arts" NOT "the Arts develops intelligence"
which would be "Foundational" rather than "Correlative." The
surprising results to these scientists were that they were
Foundational and NOT Correlative at all.
My father found that out at Picher, Oklahoma in the 1950s when he
developed the school system of a severely impacted community by lead
poisoning around the core curricula of the performing arts. The
students had almost a 100% graduation rate and most went on to
college and significant careers in business, education and in music.
His discoveries spurred him to go on to two doctor's degrees in Psychometrics.
It also made my working in the arts more palatable since he knew how
American Artists have a post graduate failure rate of 98% in performance.
I had put off going to Europe through the years because I didn't
want to develop European Art but American Art and given the stories
about Europe from my friends who worked and settled there I didn't
want the temptation.
Alas I recently returned from a music conference in Greve, Italy
only to read, in the NYTimes, how depressed the Tuscan economy was.
Funny, the people I met on all levels and the communities were
wonderful, happy and beautiful. I'm not surprised the resisted IKEA at all.
If I had it to do over again I would have immigrated and if I had
the capital to do so now would immediately. America simply doesn't
know the value of the Arts nor their reason. Indeed they don't
understand the economic system and its artistic failures.
Digoweli is my pen name. It's the Cherokee word for "book".
REH
The article can be found here.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/arts/kansas-and-other-states-cut-arts-funds.html>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/arts/kansas-and-other-states-cut-arts-funds.html
Another article from the NEA chairman is here and my comments are:
number s 33,34.
<http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/theater-talkback-what-rocco-landesman-should-speak-about-next/>http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/theater-talkback-what-rocco-landesman-should-speak-about-next/
And for the most pertinent of all check out the performance art on
wall street. In my opinion the artist missed the point. He
should have had them dressed in formal dress from the waist up and
only had their bottoms bared. That's more like the real Wall
Street in my experience.
<http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/bares-not-bulls-on-wall-street/>http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/bares-not-bulls-on-wall-street/
REH
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/07/
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