For me, it was Elvis Presley's "You Ain't Nuthin But a Hound Dog" when
I was 7 years old that convinced me that I never wanted to listen to
pop music ever again. Fortunately, growing up in Philadelphia, there
was a great classical music FM station, and the Philadelphia Orchestra
under Eugene Ormandy, and when my Mother gave me a guitar for
Christmas, I was able to find a teacher who had studied with Segovia.
Unfortunately, it is true that many young people today don't get to
experience that combination of influences. However, from what I hear
coming from my teenager's phone, the pop music is even worse!
A. John Mardinly, Ph.D., P.E.
Classical Guitarist/Lutenist
On Aug 27, 2020, at 12:15 PM, Nancy Carlin <[1]lsaq.edi...@gmail.com>
wrote:
Howard is right about the graying of audiences and it's been talked
about for years here in the US. I think one problem is that early
music is the poor step-sister of "classical music" - a category that
was solidified (along with ethnic, folk etc.) back when record stores
started. It seems to me our music was the pop music of the day, with a
bit of a division between music for use in church, court and things
like popular ballad tunes. Currently I see a couple larger baroque
orchestras and concert series moving past the baroque, but I also see
some interesting series who explore putting on concerts in
non-traditional venues, such as bars and coffee shops. We had an
article by Deborah Fox a year or so in the Quarterly - about some of
the things her Pegasus music is doing to encourage a younger audience.
Stephen Stubbs in Seattle (Pacific Music Works) in Seattle is also
doing this.
I suspect that all this targeted music aimed to fill medium sized
concert venues will change because of Covid-19. It will level the
playing field and people will have found out it's very nice to listen
to a well-produced concert on your TV (via YouTube). Recently I have
listened to online lute concerts by Paul O'Dette, Ronn McFarlane and
Brandon J Acker. In each of them there was no ticket price, just a
suggestion to follow a link to donate on PayPal. None of those
concerts took place in my part of the continent and I would not have
heard them without the pandemic. I think this will continue even after
we get our vaccine. The success of these kind of things will depend on
things like Facebook spreading to work far and wide as well as people
contiruting - Brandon Acker has done a great job getting lots of
connections on Facebook, so has access to his potential audience.
Nancy
On Aug 27, 2020, at 8:58 AM, Is Milse Póg <[2]ishdai...@gmail.com>
wrote:
I am a young amateur lute player (just 21), so I guess I am a part
of
the next generation of players. I think the lute will continue to
be
played for the foreseeable future, since there's always someone
strange
enough to fall in love with the lute's music and sound, but it's
sad to
see little to no young people in ancient music and classical music
concerts in general. Perhaps it has to do with the distance that
has
grown between contemporary composers and the general population,
the
former usually earning their bread through the academia.
It has to do with classical music being a taste that listeners tend
to acquire as they get older. Old listeners are replaced with lots
of middle-aged listeners, and not so many young ones.
Alarms about the "graying of the classical audience" have been
sounded for decades, and in the USA probably peaked in 1988. The
general manager of the public classical music station in Los Angeles
came back from the Audience 88 conference that year convinced that
classical music was dying and he had to wean the station away from
it. He was gone within a year or so. The station was was playing
Satie, Rossini and Beethoven this morning.
It reminds me of the line in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
that the galactic emperor is "nearly dead and has been for
centuries."
To get on or off this list see list information at
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uth.edu_-7Ewbc_lute-2Dadmin_index.html&d=DwIFaQ&c=l45AxH-kUV29SRQusp
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--
Nancy Carlin
Administrator THE LUTE SOCIETY OF AMERICA
[4]https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__LuteSocietyofAme
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PO Box 6499
Concord, CA 94524
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[5]www.groundsanddivisions.info
www.nancycarlinassociates.com
References
1. mailto:lsaq.edi...@gmail.com
2. mailto:ishdai...@gmail.com
3.
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.cs.dartmouth.edu_-7Ewbc_lute-2Dadmin_index.html&d=DwIFaQ&c=l45AxH-kUV29SRQusp9vYR0n1GycN4_2jInuKy6zbqQ&r=VLPJ8OE-c_C6joGeE1ftlvxMmQPq9N6mpKZONBRt90E&m=KMYvwUsvGjaVOD6cleXVSoMKP9nFd3ijL9CQFs5llgM&s=rL3IU7WixPtSojb1442MfyTRogbgFqqku0HzR8Www9A&e=
4.
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__LuteSocietyofAmerica.org&d=DwIFaQ&c=l45AxH-kUV29SRQusp9vYR0n1GycN4_2jInuKy6zbqQ&r=VLPJ8OE-c_C6joGeE1ftlvxMmQPq9N6mpKZONBRt90E&m=KMYvwUsvGjaVOD6cleXVSoMKP9nFd3ijL9CQFs5llgM&s=9uKqMn_O5Ddb4-DQGS5qFnN-QZ9vPieA_V4o_tsFXTU&e=
5. http://www.groundsanddivisions.info/
