# Article on MUSIC CRITICISM



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

This is more than interesting -- the times, they are a changin'

Thing is, we need professional critics dedicated to the life-long pursuit of talking about both the quality of art and its performance. (This form of critique is parsecs apart from some dilettante's blog, with favored and preferred often taking rank over a more professional assessment 

We are in a period of flux where that is being lost, scaled back, until a ready solution, current with general use of electronic media, adjusts.

http://www.theaterjones.com/2013van.../20130606235831/2013-06-06/On-Music-Criticism


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

trading links-- today's Slate on the 100th anniversary of Pierrot Lunaire

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat...mposition_turns_100_still_sounds_amazing.html


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Kleinzeit said:


> trading links-- today's Slate on the 100th anniversary of Pierrot Lunaire
> 
> http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat...mposition_turns_100_still_sounds_amazing.html


Great that someone's paying attention to the other prominent anniversary...but the centennial was last year, so why now?


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

probably just happened to come up as a marquee story today. Summer reruns.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Thanks for the article, PetrB.

I think this paragraph encapsulates what I think of as good criticism:



> It is that "and why" part that requires a critic to be informed about a myriad of aspects. First, they must know the music being performed, have an understanding of the style of the composer, and then add an overlay of performance practices from the era of the composition and how that translates to modern times. This is the catch. There are a lot of bloggers who write about performances but lack this background so their opinions are valid as far as their own preferences go, but a music critic has to explain why they wrote what they did - good or bad.


The last line about the reasons is important, in terms of a writer giving reasons why they make certain conclusions or form certain opinions. Its also about laying on the table what you got. Uncovering biases and maybe even questioning what you, as a writer, are thinking.

The other thing is that a good number of the writers on music I tend to like (living or dead) where themselves trained in music, as musicians or composers. Going way back, some composers had to supplement their income with criticism. Berlioz did this, Schumann too, Hugo Wolf and I think Debussy also wrote a good deal on music (heaven knows he needed the money).

But as people work in increasingly specialised roles, including in music, composers mostly compose music nowadays, not that many do criticism (is this correct?). Similar how in conservatoria, if you do a music degree majoring in composition, there's less emphasis on that tradition in the past, of composers being masters of an instrument to a high level (eg. pianist-composers like Rachmaninov, Bartok, Prokofiev and so on).

So yeah as always its all changing, but its always changed I think.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Mahlerian said:


> Great that someone's paying attention to the other prominent anniversary...but the centennial was last year, so why now?


Sat on the column for a year and published it only when needed something to fill space?


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

GreenMamba said:


> Sat on the column for a year and published it only when needed something to fill space?


Maybe to better ride on the coattails of the far more generally well known (and known of) Le Sacre du Printemps, that centenary this year, The Schoenberg premiered one year earlier.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

A good article. I've always had a great respect for the art of art criticism: it's a serious business and a great responsibility. Sometimes artists don't understand that (Sibelius is my hero but I find his comment on critics plain stupid). It's the responsibility of critics and the people who employ them to maintain a high level of competence so that the readers (and the artists) don't become disenchanted.

Art criticism is many things but there's one thing that it isn't: easy.


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## dstring (May 14, 2013)

Thanks for the article. One thing I disagree is the need of speed for publishing an art critic. It's not like sport journalism listing the events of the performance. An art criticism should be deeply considered writing that's getting close to an essay (damn you character limitations). It values a performance and keeps an eye on the level of it and should also set the performance to it's time continuum. You won't be able to do that in one hour. It's not like the performance -- let alone the program -- is getting old in one day.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

dstring said:


> Thanks for the article. One thing I disagree is the need of speed for publishing an art critic. It's not like sport journalism listing the events of the performance. An art criticism should be deeply considered writing that's getting close to an essay (damn you character limitations). It values a performance and keeps an eye on the level of it and should also set the performance to it's time continuum. You won't be able to do that in one hour. It's not like the performance -- let alone the program -- is getting old in one day.


Speed is critical: Newspaper reviews of a first night performance can bring many more to the subsequent performance, selling many of any still available seats. The envelope of time around making the public aware of a new recording, to any positive result, is also relatively brief.

People who were hesitant to attend a program they have read about will go the second, third night based upon what reviews say.

You've missed, entirely, part of the virtuosity of the great, responsible performing arts critic. They hear a performance, and that night, within a few hours, write an intelligent, thoughtful and responsible review, submitted to the editor before midnight to make the morning publication deadline.

There's no waiting in this trade.


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