The cry of CRI

One more short post on this subject, and that's it!

It just occurred to me that Otto Luening would be particularly
unhappy about this situation, since he was one of the founders of
CRI...

Anybody know what confluence of factors would make it more difficult
to run that company *now* than at any earlier time since the 1950's??

Has it become much more expensive to make or market recordings or
some such?? Certainly there is just as many non-profit arts funding
sources as there were at the beginning... probably substantially
more...

Certainly a *lot* of the CD creation expense was borne by the
composers with CRI, so just kindof wondering what happened...

Maybe there weren't *individuals* so committed in carrying it on
these days...?? The market for "contemporary classical" CDs can't be
any worse now than it was in the 1950's, particularly with the
more "pop-oriented" things they have been doing of late...

Curious...

J. Pehrson

Joe,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson <jpehrson@r...>" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:
> Anybody know what confluence of factors would make it more
> difficult to run that company *now* than at any earlier time
> since the 1950's??

Sure, lot's of reasons:

- diminishing (or vanishing entirely) funding of programs like this, including loss of both contributed income and the devaluation of personal and corporate funds (due to the last few years of the stocks) reducing the ability for charitable giving

- an audience for classical recordings that is almost evaporating before our eyes; if the overall sales of classical is so very small, what percentage of that would be consuming say, for instance, the works of Luening or Babbitt?

- the dissappearance of places to have product visible to the public (i.e. "record stores")

- CRI's own desired niche: primarily academic/classical, primarily American composer's music. While there are boutique labels that are coming and going, they certainly don't center around this kind of material

> Certainly there is just as many non-profit arts funding
> sources as there were at the beginning... probably substantially
> more...

You have *got* to be kidding. Talk to any number of arts organizations that rely on this kind of contributed and grant funding - they'll laugh at you as they are crying (we've just seen one *very* innovative performance space / presenting organization close down here in SD. Funding issues.

> The market for "contemporary classical" CDs can't be
> any worse now than it was in the 1950's, particularly with the
> more "pop-oriented" things they have been doing of late...

Give this some thought when you have a chance. I recently read that the very highest selling disc for the BOAC All-Stars, with lot's of Sony push behind it, was 15,000 units. How many of the CRI discs would ever come within a pale moon of the visibility of something like this, and yet they have to plan for new product, have staff, do this, do that...

*Had* to plan, that is.

I wish this weren't so, and maybe a period of decentralization will lead to better ways of disseminating music in the years to come. But CRI did have one little corner, and at least when Jody Dalton was there they had very committed people trying to get the music out to the public.

The times, they are a-...

Cheers,
Jon

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Jon Szanto <JSZANTO@A...>"

/tuning/topicId_41781.html#41782

<> You have *got* to be kidding. Talk to any number of arts
organizations that rely on this kind of contributed and grant
funding - they'll laugh at you as they are crying (we've just seen
one *very* innovative performance space / presenting organization
close down here in SD. Funding issues.
>

***Hi Jon,

I meant pretty much contrasted with the 1950's or thereabouts, not
with the recent past... My understanding is there was not much
Foundation funding for this kind of thing then but, admittedly there
was more *individual* funding, particularly from wealthy donors.
And, your point about the "interest" in this kind of music being
greater "back when" is well put...

J. Pehrson

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson <jpehrson@r...>" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:
> I meant pretty much contrasted with the 1950's or thereabouts, not
> with the recent past... My understanding is there was not much
> Foundation funding for this kind of thing then but, admittedly there
> was more *individual* funding, particularly from wealthy donors.

Well, yes, I would imagine that is correct.

> And, your point about the "interest" in this kind of music being
> greater "back when" is well put...

And mainly just that the last handful of years has seen an entire set of changes across the industry, tastes, economic climate, etc. It is a rather unhealthy convergence, unfortunately.

Cheers,
Jon

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Jon Szanto <JSZANTO@A...>"

/tuning/topicId_41781.html#41791

> And mainly just that the last handful of years has seen an entire
set of changes across the industry, tastes, economic climate, etc. It
is a rather unhealthy convergence, unfortunately.
>
> Cheers,
> Jon

***Well, this is getting a bit in the "Metatuning Land" but I
happened to watch part of the famous Dick Clark New Years Eve show on
TV and was struck by how many rap/hip-hop groups performed. I would
say at LEAST HALF of all the acts, maybe more. None of the
performers even had instruments, not even guitars (undoubtedly they
didn't play anything), but just mics. It made Rod Stewart look like
the height of traditionalism (he included violins in his act...)

This is not to disparage this kind of urban poetry in any way, but
that this "music" was really not much about *pitch* at all... but
only about *rhythm...*

What pitches there *were* were certainly microtonal, hence the
appropriateness for this list...

J. Pehrson