We hope everyone had a good Fourth of July, and long weekend. What we have for you today are the makings of hopefully a strange yet cool act of kindness. (#6, out of 20)
A little while ago, we both read this article in the New York Times, about the ways in which classical music goers can learn from baseball fans. Of course, we absolutely recommend reading the article, but just to summarize: though baseball fans are very into the history of the game, they are still interested in the players of the present. They go to baseball games not to experience greatness necessarily, but the possibility of greatness.
Now of course, baseball fans also go to experience the picnic-like nature of baseball games, but the point is: baseball is not weighed down by the greats of its past. Classical music fans, on the other hand, often only go to the concert hall to experience greatness, for sure greatness, and that means: only going to see performances of pieces by handful of composers, all of which . . . are long dead.
Classical music fans can learn from baseball fans by trying out new orchestral music by today’s composers (today’s composers are like today’s baseball players). In doing so, they can go to a concert hall to experience the possibility of greatness, and also enjoy the atmosphere, just like baseball fans.
So I guess you really don’t have to read the article at this point. BUT the point is, we are going to pass out CDs of contemporary classical music (that we will burn) along with printed copies of the article. We are going to do this at a museum, or some other place that has (potential) classical music fans.
AND, if we read the article, or if you just feel like you understood the concept, you yourself can listen to the music we are going to pass out.
The playlist includes:
- David Lang (author of the article) – The little match girl passion.
- John Adams – Doctor Atomic Symphony.
- Magnus Lindberg – Clarinet Concerto.
- Julian Anderson – Book of Hours.
–while you can’t listen to them right off the site (at least right now), they can be downloaded. If you have any questions about how to do this, just send us an email.
Difficult Things 