Please Release Me - Treasured 50s Recordings Entering Public Domain A treasure trove of recordings made in the 1950s is about to slip out of copyright. "Copyright protection lasts only 50 years in European Union countries, compared with 95 years in the United States, even if the recordings were originally made and released in America. So recordings made in the early- to mid-1950's — by figures like Maria Callas, Elvis Presley and Ella Fitzgerald — are entering the public domain in Europe, opening the way for any European recording company to release albums that had been owned exclusively by particular labels." The New York Times 01/03/03 

Customizing Your Record Collection Vox Music Group has announced that it will burn individual CD copies of any part of its vast out-of-print catalog through a web site, eliminating the traditional process of a small repeat pressing, which often has been quite unprofitable. The announcement is exciting in part because it may signal a new wave of such 'individual' pressings by other companies, but also because Vox's old recordings are some of the most extensive and sought after in the business. Washington Post 01/02/03 

Former KGB Spies Offer Anti-Piracy Plan A group of foermer KGB spies is offering recording companies a new "watermarking" technology to protect their music from music pirates. This month a music distrbutor "will introduce watermarking technology developed by former Russian spies in St Petersburg, in the hope of attracting more music companies on to the web. The Guardian (UK) 01/06/03 

How To Start A Piano Tuner Riot "Don A. Gilmore, an amateur piano player and professional engineer from Kansas City, Mo, has developed an electronic system that he says could allow pianists to tune their own instruments at the touch of a button." The system relies on heated strings, electricity, and an elaborate computer program which 'remembers' an initial tuning and can replicate it under almost any circumstances. The self-tuning models won't be cheap, but then, neither are piano tuners. The New York Times 01/02/03 

SF Opera - Taking the Bold Road San Francisco Opera has an almost $8 million deficit. But the company doesn't seem particularly worried. Rather than sit back and play it safe, Pamela Rosenberg, the company's general director, has ambitious plans. "We are not going to get through this economic downturn and come out the other end by replacing quality with mediocrity," Ms. Rosenberg, who has set the company on course to becoming America's most adventurous opera house, said in a recent telephone interview." The New York Times 01/01/02 

Homeless Choir Packs It In After 1000 Performances A homeless choir formed in Montreal in a men's shelter in 1996 to sing Christmas carols for spare change in the city's subway, has finally disbanded, a thousand performances later. "The group achieved international recognition, including an invitation to sing at Paris's busiest subway stations in 1998. The choir also released two CDs, was the subject of a book and a TV program and performed at the Just for Laughs comedy festival as a free street act." Why quit? Many of the singers found jobs and their lives became more stable. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/01/03 

Tune Smith San Francisco's Davies Hall is "tuned" for every performance. The computer-controlled acoustical canopy that dangles over the stage looks like some huge constructivist sculpture and reflects sound back to the musicians and out to the audience. It's composed of 59 slightly bowed 6-foot squares of Plexiglas - they collectively cover 3,400 square feet - whose height and angle are adjusted according to the size of the ensemble or to the piece being performed." San Francisco Chronicle 12/30/02 

Readers Defend Baz Boheme Readers take New York Times critic Anthony Tomassini to task for his piece criticizing Baz Luhrmann's Broadway La Boheme. "Mr. Luhrmann has got me happy to stand in line again, and has made some of us (including all the twentysomethings who stood alongside me for three hours for tickets) excited about returning to the opera." The New York Times 01/05/03 

Music As A Football Match Football's popular. So maybe classical music ought to be more like football, writes Julian Lloyd Webber. "In future, all concerts must be refereed. Points for performances will be awarded and performers' league tables established. Issues of promotion and relegation will be keenly watched by merciless, gum-chewing managers, who will have their chosen substitutes from the youth team eagerly waiting on the bench. Wrong notes will be severely penalised and performers adopting too slow tempi will be yellow-carded for time-wasting. String players using over-sentimental portamenti - and pianists who over-pedal - will be justly punished 'for bringing the music into disrepute'." The Telegraph (UK) 01/04/03 
 

Previous Articles/
Busoni The Visionary
The Composer of the Moment:  Mark-Anthony Turnage
Electronic Music
Voices: Henze at 75
Henze Meets Emenim
On Finding Kurtag
Charles Ruggles:  When Men Were Men
Ballet Mécanique
The Adams Chronicles