Category: Articles

Frank J. Oteri Photo by Melissa Richard

No issue has been more divisive to people in the music community than the current debate over the free dissemination of music over the Internet and that dissemination’s inherent violation of the copyright laws governing intellectual property. We’ve decided to jump into the fray ourselves this month.

Intellectual property was the theme of my conversation with Carl Stone, a composer whose sample-based music is largely promulgated on the Web. We also offer comments about downloadable music by Richard Danielpour, Amy Knoles, Amy Scurria and Jeff Harrington, composers from around the country who create music in a wide variety of styles and whose music has received varying degrees of public exposure. For balance, we also offer some thoughts by Mark A. Fischer, a leading intellectual properties attorney, and for context, we offer Heidi Waleson’s HyperHistory of intellectual property legislation. We hope that you will share your thoughts with us as well.

For people in the pop music record business, the issue would appear to be pretty cut and dried. The pop music record industry makes most of its money from the short-term sale of the latest hit. People hear it on the radio, or in a store, or wherever, and hopefully millions of them run out and buy it. There has always been and will probably always continue to be artistically conceived pop music that succeeds financially as well; but the way pop music is negotiated, packaged, and marketed is a business first and foremost. This is “dot.com” music: music that is expected to make money. Allow people to freely distribute virtual-soundalike copies of the latest hit single and chances are they will never buy the record. (In the minds of record executives, this is like offering people a free three-course meal and then expecting them to still be hungry enough to pay to eat at a restaurant an hour later.)

The issue is much more complex, however, for the “other music,” the music that almost never shows up on the radar screens of the big record companies, whether it be new so-called classical music (from new orchestral works to electronic experiments), jazz, or any kind of specialty or fringe musical genres (from bluegrass to experimental rock). This is “dot.org” music: it rarely makes money from the sale of recordings and survives by people’s exposure to it which leads to commissions, ticket sales at concert venues, etc. Dot.org music doesn’t get much radio airplay and almost never gets on television. In fact, the more truly alternative or “more dot.org” it is, the less exposure it has seemed to get. Until the advent of the Internet…

The Internet has been a great equalizer of music. In fact, it is the only medium where the music of Milton Babbitt, Meredith Monk or Cecil Taylor can compete with the music of Britney Spears or ‘N Sync or whatever is currently being thrust at us as the “must-have” music of the moment. The recent rise to the Number 1 Billboard position of an album as experimental as Radiohead’s Kid A, an album widely available for complete download online, proves of the power of the Internet as does a recent report in SonicNet which states that 30% of online CD sales are for classical music and jazz. If people discover something worth hearing more than once, they’ll eventually want to have access to it in a tangible format.

A frequent problem with “dot.org” music in the past has been the amount of time it takes for it to become widely available and an even wider timeframe for it to catch on and get repeated hearings. Sometimes it takes years for a record company to release a recording of a new piece; by that time, it’s no longer new. (For example, it has taken four years for the 1996 Pulitzer-Prize winning composition, George Walker’s Lilacs to become available on a commercial recording!) In a competitive, “hot-off-the-presses” marketplace, it’s hard to call something new that’s four years old.

What, you may be wondering, does any of this have to do with intellectual property and free music downloads? Plenty, because if our music is to be relevant in today’s society, it must be more widely available than it has been. Until recently, a great deal of the vital music being created was not generally available to people, and what was available was hard to find unless you already knew where to look for it. Music downloads, however, are allowing people to discover a much wider range of music than standard media outlets lead you to believe is currently going on. Unfortunately, the way things are currently operated, composers who make their music available for free download may end up angering companies, musicians’ unions and the industry at large. This needs to change, as it is in all of our best interests to work together to create an environment where everyone can succeed.

We cannot allow the infrastructures of record companies, publishers, performing rights societies, service organizations simply erode, given their history of promoting “dot.org” music in a “dot.com” world. In the past, many of the greatest recordings of music by contemporary composers and avant-garde jazz musicians were prestige ventures financed by the wide profits from those companies’ pop music recordings. If those revenues are gone, so is the ability to re-channel those funds. There needs to be a balance and many of these organizations are still trying to find it.

The organizations that nurture “dot.org” music need to be encouraged and supported! Metallica and Dr. Dre are against Napster and other peer-to-peer sharing Web sites. Of course they are. Plenty of people know who they are and repeatedly buy their CDs. Many composers and players of “dot-org” music, however, have mixed feelings about Napster or even support it as a way to get their music heard. Does this make it ethical for “dot.org” music aficionados to break copyright laws? Rather, my advice to the would-be Napster-ite is to ignore Metallica and Dr. Dre and discover the infinite array of truly alternative music that is out here on the Web in formats that respect the rights of all the players in this drama. Check out the sound samples that sites like NewMusicBox have to offer. And if you like something, “do the right thing”: buy it or go to a concert.

The only “borrowed music” this month comes in the form of “arrangements,” and, unfortunately for our ‘theme’ this month, the source music was all borrowed properly! Guy Klucevsek’s adaptations of two Burt Bacharach tunes, “The Blob” and “One Less Bell to Answer,” on his CD Free Range Accordion, are both entertaining and strikingly original. If you haven’t heard Klucevsek before, this disc will entirely reshape your perspective of what the accordion can do. Free Range Accordion also contains three of Klucevsek’s own pieces, plus substantial works written for him by Lois V Vierk and Aaron Jay Kernis, and others.

Arrangements are frequently something of a necessity for woodwind quintets, although this necessity could be diminished by programming interesting new pieces like Roger Zahab’s your offending kiss, recorded by the Akron-based group Solaris on their new CD American Quintets. And appropriately enough, for this centenary month, The Prairie Winds’ new CD, Gale Force, includes a transcription of Copland’s arrangement (!) of the song “Simple Gifts” for the ballet Appalachian Spring.

Having accompanied my share of music arranged for winds, I am happy to note that this month has also brought two new CDs of original solo wind music. The Music of David Maslanka features his lyrical music for saxophone, including the “Song Book,” scored for the unusual combination of sax and marimba. The CD of Matthew Bennett’s chamber music is impressive, not just for the breadth of the music, but because the composer himself solos on flute, clarinet, and bass clarinet.

An intriguing group of CDs this month invite the listener into entirely personal sound worlds. Carter Scholz’s Eight Pieces.are experiments with tuning systems and the harmonic series: “Rhythmicon,” for instance, is based on the first seventeen members of a harmonic series, organized in meters from 1/8 to 7/8. Overtone Music.is a collection of electronic improvisations by Hubert S. Howe, Jr., all slowly-evolving, swirling explorations of the acoustic components of different sounds. Rodney Oakes’ Music for Midi Trombone features some pieces with explicitly political motivation, my favorite being “Erotic Rhapsody,” which describes a meeting of political figures and television evangelists that devolves into an orgy. Slybersonic Tromosome is the name of both the disc and the group formed by Peter Zummo, on trombone, and Tom Hamilton on synthesizer. Their compositions make use of a variety of other instruments, as well, like the “beat thing,” the “irrigation hose” and the “super funnel.”

A retrospective disc of the late Lucia Dlugoszewski’s music, Disparate Stairway Radical Other, includes her “Exacerbated Subtlety Concert (Why Does a Woman Love a Man?)” for the “timbre piano,” her own invention. Basically, the composer plays the inside of a conventional piano with objects ranging from paper to baby food jars, producing a stunning array of different effects. If this is somewhat reminiscent of Cage’s work with the “prepared piano,” then Randy Hostetler’s forty-five minute all-spoken tape piece Happily Ever After is reminiscent of Cage’s text pieces. The whimsically-conceived Conspirare: Chamber Music for Solo Flute.features Patti Monson – both in solo and in ensembles of herself – in pieces that “expand” the instrument, either through the use of tape or through extended techniques.

Worthy of inclusion in the “personal sound worlds” collection, though no electronics or “super funnels” are involved, is the new CD of Lou Harrison’s dance score Rhymes with Silver, commissioned by Mark Morris in 1997. The influence of Turkish music is particularly evident in three of the movements, but there is also a funky “Foxtrot” that combines the spirit and rhythms of the familiar dance with percussive clusters in the piano.

Hale Smith’s music of the past fifty years is represented on a new disc from CRI. Two new recordings of recent works are included along with reissues of the powerful Innerflexions of 1977 and the In Memoriam of 1953. George Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Lilacs has finally been recorded and released on a new Summit CD that includes a performance of the Violin Sonata No.2 by the composer and his son.

Another premiere recording issued this month is Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 5. commissioned by the Salzburg Festival as a celebration of the millennium. The two-CD set comes with twelve earth-toned pieces of folded cardboard, each inscribed with a song text; unfortunately, given its absorbency and pretty design, I am really inspired to use the libretto as a set of drink coasters! Also in the strange packaging department comes the Albany release of The Rollicking and Boisterous Music of Don Gillis: Music inspired by the American Southwest. The cover features a sepia-toned photograph of two young women with violins, one of whom has the phrase “Yeeehhaaaa!!!” issuing forth from her obviously closed mouth, and is adorned by a star containing the words “Music that’s really fun!” Well…to their credit, the music is fun, in a full-bodied, forthrightly American kind of way.

Minus the potential coasters, Philip Glass’ music made another appearance this month in the form of a new CD of solo piano works. UC San Diego professor Aleck Karis has recorded not only the ever-popular Metamorphosis, but also the less familiar Wichita Vortex Sutra. Another West Coast pianist, Tanya Stambuk, who teaches at the University of Puget Sound, has recorded another new CD devoted entirely to Dello Joio’s piano music. Stambuk’s playing is perfect for this music, and the “Short Intervallic Etudes for Well-Tempered Pianists” are really worth hearing. Alan Mandel has accomplished the impressive feat of recording, on two CDs, the major solo piano works of Edward MacDowell: all four of the difficult sonatas, the “Woodland Sketches” and the “Sea Pieces.” Allen Brings’ chromatic music for piano, harpsichord, and organcan be heard on a new Capstone disc; his six Praeludia for organ are powerful, because the instrument itself highlights both the intimacy and the thunder inherent in the score.

I am definitely rushing out to find the music for Edward Smaldone’s piano pieces “Scenes from the Heartland,” part of the CD of the same name devoted entirely to Smaldone’s music. Like his Rhapsody for piano, the Scenes represent a rich combination of free atonality, Mahlerian lushness, and jazz. An interesting companion to this recording is the new CD of Alec Wilder songs – not just his snappy jazz tunes, but also his “art songs,” in particular the moving “If You Are Happy (Covenant),” based on a poem by Tennessee Williams. On a personal note, I should add that the bassist on that CD, Aleck Brinkman, taught me almost everything I know about computers when he was a professor of theory at the Eastman School (he is now at Temple). Here’s to versatile musicians!!

Patrick J. Buchanan

“Everyday we see new evidence of the corruption of our popular culture: Filthy art financed with tax dollars. Television steeped in raw sex and romanticized violence. Movies that mock religious faith. Music that extols social chaos.”

Real or fake?

“There’s the American music that the elitists at the universities want you to believe is American music, and then there’;s the real stuff, the music of the American people, the ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’ and ‘God Bless America.’ And there are new songs, there’s a new one by Steve Vaus, ‘Take America Back,’ something like that. A good, proud, American song.”

Real or fake?

George W. Bush

“America has always played home to the greatest minds in all professions. Not just in the sciences or in sports or in business, but also in writing, and in music. Our children must be taught take pride in America not only as the home of Tommy Lasorda and Dinesh D’Souza, but also Clint Eastwood and Howard Hanson.”

Real or fake?

“America has one national creed, but many accents.  We are now one of the largest Spanish-speaking nations in the world. We’re a major source of Latin music, journalism and culture.”

Real or fake?

Al Gore

“National Public Radio has been indispensable to its local listeners across the country. Each station across America tailors its programming to meet local needs. For example, when school funding for classical music training was cut, it was KUER in Salt Lake City that produced a series introducing elementary school students to classical music.”

Real or fake?

“I think that the Internet has wonderful potential to bring diverse kinds of music to new audiences. Schoolchildren in Georgia may, before long, have the opportunity to hear orchestra concerts in New York without having to leave the classroom, and university students in Japan may have the chance to experience their first fiddling contest without having to get on a plane. At the same time, like any new frontier, the Internet poses dangers, as well. Napster is a useful tool, a great idea, but we need to find a better way to protect the rights of the musicians whose music is, in essence, being stolen. And it is becoming far too easy for our children to stumble onto websites promoting music that contains explicitly violent lyrics; we need to find an appropriate way to shield their eyes.”

Real or fake?

Ralph Nader

“With hundreds of radio stations owned by a single company, it comes as no surprise that the programming reflects the economic desires of that company, not the greater interests of its listeners. Instead of challenging programming, we get mind-numbing mock analyses of non-stories crafted solely for entertainment value. Thanks to the 1996 Telecommunications Act, poets and musicians and scientists and free-thinkers around the nation are finding that it is becoming harder and harder to get heard.”

Real or fake?

“Well, if you look at modern merchandising it is extraordinarily sensual – whether it’s junk food, music, entertainment, you name it, addiction… That’s the genius of the modern corporate marketing is that it is enormously sensual in both “good” and “bad” ways. I mean, just look at modern packaging, the stuff inside may be junk but the packaging is beautiful.”

Real or fake?

Patrick J. Buchanan

This is the real quote!

“Everyday we see new evidence of the corruption of our popular culture: Filthy art financed with tax dollars. Television steeped in raw sex and romanticized violence. Movies that mock religious faith. Music that extols social chaos.”

From Patrick J. Buchanan, “PJB On the Issues: Culture,” Tuesday, March 02, 1999

Patrick J. Buchanan

We made this one up!

“There’s the American music that the elitists at the universities want you to believe is American music, and then there’s the real stuff, the music of the American people, the ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’ and ‘God Bless America.’ And there are new songs, there’s a new one by Steve Vaus, ‘Take America Back,’ something like that. A good, proud, American song.”

George W. Bush

“America has always played home to the greatest minds in all professions. Not just in the sciences or in sports or in business, but also in writing, and in music. Our children must be taught take pride in America not only as the home of Tommy Lasorda and Dinesh D’Souza, but also Clint Eastwood and Howard Hanson.”

This one’s FAKE, but wouldn’t it be nice if he listened to Howard Hanson?

George W. Bush

This one is REAL

“America has one national creed, but many accents. We are now one of the largest Spanish-speaking nations in the world. We’re a major source of Latin music, journalism and culture.”

From George Bush’s August 25, 2000 speech entitled “Century of the Americas,” Miami, FL