[Dixielandjazz] "Something that made [Steve Schwartz] angry".

[M J (Mike) Logsdon]

[Forwarded with permission.  (c) 2012 Steve Schwartz.]

Came across this at the ClassicalNet web site.  

"An artist, in giving a concert, should not demand an entrance fee but
should ask the public to pay, just before leaving as much as they like. From
the sum he would be able to judge what the world thinks of him - and we
would have fewer mediocre concerts. ~ Kit Coleman"

What a terrible idea.  As it stands, too much of the audience, used to TV
and radio, believe that art should be free, and most artists subsidize
themselves.  Furthermore, this has nothing to do with the quality of the
artist.  Madonna will command a larger fee than Nicholas McGegan's
Philharmonia Baroque.  More people will buy Tom Clancy than buy even Robert
Frost.  Coleman's is really a vox populi, vox dei bad argument.  What
happens then, as we see, is an aesthetic Gresham's Law, with the mediocre
driving out the good.  This doesn't mean that nothing good is popular or
nothing popular is good, but you will get less of the good.  The mediocre
has a way of finding a sufficient audience -- a self-evident proposition.

There are more Powerball winners than major composers who can actually make
a living from their music or poets who can survive by their poetry alone.
Again, they often subsidize themselves - day jobs which take time away from
creating or even from just the necessary dog work of creating.  Charles Ives
actually went so far as to publish himself and to pay for private
performances.  He had the money to do it.  Elliott Carter lives off a family
inheritance; he can do what he likes and does.  Walter Piston, however, had
to teach.  Martinu lived poor most of his life.  Aaron Copland for much of
his career depended on private patronage.  Stravinsky concertized and
conducted and also shilled for various American firms as an advertising
icon.

Like it or not, we pay a price for art, one way or another.  We either think
it important enough to pay the money, or we get less of what we want and (I
would argue) need.

Steve Schwartz

Sent from my cOmputer