Page 265 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2024. Glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes ▪︎ Music Criticism – Yesterday and Today. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 7
P. 265
what is happening to music criticism?
these reviews contain practically no evaluation, with the exception of the
number of stars appearing next to the review.14
This situation, this “dumbing down,” is a consequence of the deliber-
ate cultivation of the good consumer, who is supposed to feel unique, one
of a kind, exceptional. Someone, in short, who deserves more and who only
deserves the best, where this best usually means the most heavily promot-
ed and the most popular, wrapped up in shiny packaging and, most impor-
tantly, not too demanding. In the world of classical music, we have been
seeing for some time the phenomenon of “young and attractive” musicians,
where the focus of attention is shifting to their appearance, while their mu-
sical qualities are increasingly of secondary importance. Criticism is also
moving in this direction. At a symposium on music criticism held in Dort-
mund in 2006, the critic Christoph Schmitz summed up the situation as
follows:
The music scene, musical life, that was the general assessment, has de-
veloped strongly in the direction of the cult of stars. . . . Music criticism
today is, generally speaking, all about praising the big stars, but at the
same time something that, in musical theatre for example, no longer
places the music in the foreground but the staging. And when it comes
to staging, no one asks any more whether the music can communicate
its own content or if the staging communicates what is actually con-
tained in the music.15
Criticism is therefore adapting to and, to a certain extent, contribut-
ing to the present situation, since as a result of its “uncriticalness” it is los-
ing credibility.
What is music(al) criticism?
Let us now look at what criticism actually is, or rather what it should be. In
the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, we read:
Criticism, Musical. The profession of writing about the aesthetics, his-
tory, and evolution of music and of reviewing musical compositions and
performances in newspapers, periodicals, books, and on the radio or
TV.16
14 Rotovnik, “‘Kr neki’ o uprizoritvi + zvezdice = gledališka kritika.”
15 Helm, “Kritik an der Musikkritik.”
16 Michael Kennedy, “Criticism, Musical,” in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music
(Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 156
265
these reviews contain practically no evaluation, with the exception of the
number of stars appearing next to the review.14
This situation, this “dumbing down,” is a consequence of the deliber-
ate cultivation of the good consumer, who is supposed to feel unique, one
of a kind, exceptional. Someone, in short, who deserves more and who only
deserves the best, where this best usually means the most heavily promot-
ed and the most popular, wrapped up in shiny packaging and, most impor-
tantly, not too demanding. In the world of classical music, we have been
seeing for some time the phenomenon of “young and attractive” musicians,
where the focus of attention is shifting to their appearance, while their mu-
sical qualities are increasingly of secondary importance. Criticism is also
moving in this direction. At a symposium on music criticism held in Dort-
mund in 2006, the critic Christoph Schmitz summed up the situation as
follows:
The music scene, musical life, that was the general assessment, has de-
veloped strongly in the direction of the cult of stars. . . . Music criticism
today is, generally speaking, all about praising the big stars, but at the
same time something that, in musical theatre for example, no longer
places the music in the foreground but the staging. And when it comes
to staging, no one asks any more whether the music can communicate
its own content or if the staging communicates what is actually con-
tained in the music.15
Criticism is therefore adapting to and, to a certain extent, contribut-
ing to the present situation, since as a result of its “uncriticalness” it is los-
ing credibility.
What is music(al) criticism?
Let us now look at what criticism actually is, or rather what it should be. In
the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, we read:
Criticism, Musical. The profession of writing about the aesthetics, his-
tory, and evolution of music and of reviewing musical compositions and
performances in newspapers, periodicals, books, and on the radio or
TV.16
14 Rotovnik, “‘Kr neki’ o uprizoritvi + zvezdice = gledališka kritika.”
15 Helm, “Kritik an der Musikkritik.”
16 Michael Kennedy, “Criticism, Musical,” in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music
(Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 156
265
