Weekly Digest – July 5th, 2012

Something of Substance
I wanted to offer you something substantial and non-textual this week. So…

and speaking of substance…

Read a Book (maybe even this one)

Slate reviews an exciting looking new book (remember those?) on John Cage.  Written by an art critic, not a musicologist, it goes into specific and exacting detail on the non-musical ideas and people that influence Cage’s compositional development.

Where the Heart Beats: John Cage

Nano Guitars

Alan, but not this Alan
2 items featuring Alan Gilbert of the New York Philharmonic. The second one in particular is something different from what we usually get to see and hear when discussing support for the arts

Philharmonic 360 – Surround Sound Through the Centuries 
(from NYtimes.com – this might count against your monthly article
allotment)

The Corporate Raider and the Composer
     A provocative piece by Bard College’s John Halle on certain ethical
aspects of private arts patronage.

If I Won the Lottery

Moving from the ethics of production to the ethics of consumption, we here at IPAP were, once again, slightly ahead of the curve last month when we posted David Lowery’s article on the economics of downloading that was originally published on our wordpress.com sister-site The Trichordist. Well, soon thereafter, Mr. Lowery published a follow-up piece that set fire to my little corner of the internet, if nowhere else.  Whereas his previous essay focused primarily on the relationship between content-providers and artist, this piece explores many of those same issues within the context of the artist/audient relationship.

      A Letter to Emily White
               (for anyone who’s interested, Emily White’s original NPR piece
can be found here:  I Never Owned Any Music to Begin With