Sales of Classical Music

[Gyan]

The Washington Post has an article on the state of classical music sales in the US.

A choice quote:

The official total sales of the top 25 titles amounted to 5,000 copies, an average of 200 units a recording (sorry, "under 1,000"). And yes, that includes downloads.

Anyone know of corresponding data for Europe? I imagine sales are better in London, Vienna or Berlin.

[Peter]

Yes that makes for depressing reading and I'm not surprised when you consider the high street retailers have all virtually reduced their classical sections to nothing. It's no better here in the UK but I should imagine the rest of Europe isn't quite so dire!

[Gyan]

I'm surprised that UK is doing no better. With a national radio station dedicated to classical music, and the annual Proms, and all the documentaries on composers that come out of Britain, I'd have thought that classical music was doing alright in the UK.

[Peter]

I'm surprised that UK is doing no better. With a national radio station dedicated to classical music, and the annual Proms, and all the documentaries on composers that come out of Britain, I'd have thought that classical music was doing alright in the UK.

It's not an official position I'm necessarily reflecting but it is a personal perception based on several factors. Firstly as I have mentioned the decline in available classical recordings in main high street stores, second the decline of (classical) music education in state schools, thirdly the relegation of the programmes you refer to less mainstream tv channels and finally the poor financial state of many of our orchestras (reliant as they are on charity and private sponsorship) which are threatened with extinction - even some of the better known names.

[Michael]

When the so-called "Culture" section of the Sunday Times devotes page after page to pop musicians who will probably never be heard of again and a couple of measly columns to classical recordings and performances, what chance have you?

[Bonn1827]

I am terribly depressed to read this!! I now buy my CDs through Amazon, UK, as there are only a couple of decent shops left IN SYDNEY, and I don't always get there. Still, I was recently in Vienna and their Gramolo store in both Stephensdom and Graben (?) were stacked to the (high) ceilings with top quality CDs - and the service was superb. I was served by a student of "Opera Design" at the Vienna University!! He had terrific English and knew all about the best CDs to buy. Naturally I left the store armed to the teeth - including a very well-priced "Ariodante" with Anne-Sophie von Otter.

There's nothing like the pleasure of pawing through heaps of CDs for that "special CD" - but if people don't support these shops.... My son says "download", but you can't necessarily get the one you want - it's too random. I'm not prepared to settle for just ANY performance - after decades of subscribing to "Gramophone" and (less than this) to "Fanfare", which I don't do any more because of storage issues.

Our school music situation in Australia is DIRE. I'm a retired (English) teacher and my experience of school music programs is simple: CRASH BANG. Though there are a few "performing arts" high schools in New South Wales with a tiny number of classical musicians the remainder are usually "pop tarts" - my expression - with built-in ephemera. There is a superb state schools classical orchestra which supports television spectacles of "performers" and a committed conductor, and that's just great. But mostly its Rock Eisteddfod if you are in a local high school. Our State orchestras suffer from lack of funding, though private sponsorship (merchant banks, mining companies, car companies and the like) seems to be fairly consistent. Look - music has always been subsidized: look at the Gonzagas, the Medici, Archduke Ferdinand etc. etc. I feel most angry about the lamentable state of school music education, but what ARE the mainstream musical institutions doing about this? Few, if ever, came to the schools where I taught - though there were always plenty of Shakespearean performers or indiginous people playing Didgeridoo. It was up to individual teachers like myself to bring great music to the classroom and I did this often. My final year English students used to work to the strains of Scarlatti or Bach playing quietly whilst they wrote their essays. I also offered to take some music classes and teach music appreciation with Musicology (as I had these qualifications in spades) but the offer was never taken up. Treading on toes, I expect.

[Bonn1827]

Phillip, I'm unsure about the technical aspects of the Didgeridoo (played by aboriginal people and made from a hollowed out piece of wood, usually from a tree). Playing is affected by simultaneously breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, I understand. Not easy to achieve, which would account for its somewhat strangulated sound. They play pitches which are quite difficult to discern but aboriginal music in Australia is quite complex, as I studied some of it briefly in Ethnomusicology. All related to specific rhythm patterns, from what I could remember. Peter Sculthorpe (Aussie composer) wrote a concerto for orchestra and didgeridoo. I wouldn't buy a ticket to hear it but I'm sure it has appeal. I actually saw somebody playing a didgeridoo in the old town part of Salzburg while I was there in May last year. I wondered how far I'd have to travel to actually get away from them!

[Bonn1827]

I've really forgotten most of what I learned about Aboriginal music, as it was over 20 years ago. The Didgeridoo always sounded great whenever a troup of indigenous players came to a school to perform. It suited the context perfectly and I remember thinking how much skill was involved, but that it was, like the timpani, more rhythmic than "melodic", though pitched. Can't be compared to orchestral instruments. I do remember thinking, though, that there was a relationship between Aboriginal music and the Indian raga, with its sophisticated patterns and semi-tones. Yes, it would be good to get a creditable critical appraisal of Sculthorpe's piece for orchestra and didgeridoo, if there is one. It's a shame that contemporary music (anywhere really) isn't supported well, but I think this has more to do with the moribund state of symphony orchestras worldwide and the lack of funding than with audiences' willingness for something new. I note that in Vienna there are quite a lot of concerts of modern music, even newly composed music, but this doesn't represent a large proportion of the kind of music scheduled to be played.

[Bonn1827]

John Cage, eh!? Pardon me while I wait a long time before saying anything...
(silence). Now, that's music to my ears, Phillip!! Now, be so good as to put the piano lid down.

[Roehre]

How many silences can one have? Shall we start a list?
I'll take the first, obvious one :

(a) Pregnant

(b) reading Philip's contributions

[Michael]

How many silences can one have? Shall we start a list?
I'll take the first, obvious one :

(a) Pregnant

That's strange. Just this minute I finished watching a BBC programme called "Silent Witness". True.

[Sorrano]

Don't forget the Lurking Silence.

[Michael]

How many silences can one have? Shall we start a list?
I'll take the first, obvious one :

(a) Pregnant

The rest is silence. (Hamlet)
(Also a piece of valid musical terminology.)

[Michael]

Beethoven's piano sonata, opus 7, makes striking use of silences in the slow movement. Another good example is the opening of Opus 59, No. 2. And the opening of the Fifth Symphony (not a joke - even a non-musician like me knows that it opens with a rest.)

[Zevy]

And the opening of the Fifth Symphony (not a joke - even a non-musician like me knows that it opens with a rest.)

A non musician (and even some musicians) may not realize that. To the unknowing listener, the begining of the 5th Symphony could sound as though it starts on the downbeat...