Dr. Colin Eatock, composer
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It was fun while it lasted

5/31/2018

9 Comments

 
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During elections, candidates sometimes announce they are “suspending their campaigns,” which sounds a little softer than saying they are “giving up” or “throwing in the towel.” And it also leaves the door open just a crack, to permit the possibility that they might some day re-emerge in the political arena.
 
In a similar spirit, I would like to announce that I am suspending my activities as a music critic.
 
For more than three decades, I’ve written for various newspapers, magazines, websites, and for my own blog, “Eatock Daily” (which you are now reading). But for the last year or so I’ve been wondering if I really want to continue reviewing concerts and writing about music.


In January, I respectfully severed my ties to the last few publications that would still pay me a modest fee for my work.  And now, I’ve also decided to stop posting concert reviews to this blog.
 
Why? The demise of music criticism in the mainstream press is certainly a discouraging factor. However, I don’t share the view that some people in the business hold as to why this has happened. I don’t think it can be entirely blamed on declining print-media revenue, or on philistine entertainment editors who care only about pop culture. These are contributing factors, to be sure – but I think there are more deep-seated reasons.
 
I believe that our culture (and by “our culture” I’m talking about North America, and perhaps also Europe, to some extent) has undergone a fundamental shift. Expertise is no longer much valued in the cultural sphere; rather, it seems that the currently prevailing belief is that any one person’s opinion is as good as any other’s. Furthermore, if critical judgements are acknowledged at all, they are the judgements of the masses, expressed in economic terms: what is best is what sells the most.
 
There are some determined “elitists” who steadfastly oppose this trend. I wish them well, but I’ve come to the conclusion that to stand against this sea-change is to defy the incoming tide, as King Canute once tried to do. And even Canute knew when his feet were wet.
 
As a profession, classical music criticism emerged in the early 19th century and remained an esteemed aspect of musical culture to the end of the 20th century. It had a good run. But to cling to the idea, in the year 2018, that music criticism remains somehow relevant, and to soldier on with it, is to behave like a child clinging to a much-loved but hopelessly broken toy who refuses to throw it away and get on with life.
 
On a more personal note, I will add that I’ve enjoyed my years as a critic and journalist writing about music and musicians. It was fun while it lasted, and the free tickets were much appreciated! But at the same time, the precariousness of the work has taken a toll. For the last decade, the life of a freelance critic has become an increasingly difficult and frustrating struggle – and the end-result of the struggle was not any kind of advancement to a more secure, ongoing situation, but just more struggling.
 
However, all is not doom and gloom chez moi. I have never forgotten that my involvement in criticism was tangential to my main musical interest. I am a composer, first and foremost, and my chief musical goal is and always has been to write music. And as my interest in criticism has waned, I’ve felt a renewed energy and sense of purpose as a composer.  It’s my intention, at this time (having reached the ripe old age of 60), to focus my time and efforts on composition.
 
Will I continue to contribute to this blog, in any way, shape or form? Will I write as a composer, rather than as a critic? Will I find some other subject to write about? Maybe – but truth be told, I don’t really have any inclination to blog about anything at this point in time.

But, of course, I am only “suspending” my campaign!

 
© Colin Eatock 2018
9 Comments
Nancy Malitz link
5/31/2018 05:02:18 pm

What's the music are you writing?

Reply
Colin Eatock link
6/1/2018 11:37:13 am

These days, I'm writing a lot of choral music. I just finished a Veteran's / Remembrance Day piece for a professional choir in the USA. If you want to hear some samples of my music, go to "Catalogue of works" on this website.

Reply
Daniel E. Gawthrop
6/2/2018 10:37:39 am

I am both sympathetic and empathetic with your situation and agree completely with your assessment of the situation. I am very fortunate to have made a full-time living from commissions and publication for the past twenty years (also primarily in the field of choral composing) but I did write music criticism for the Washington Post for a few seasons some decades back. This is a confusing time for the arts--it's a dog-eat-dog world and the dogs are definitely winning!

Reply
Nurhan Arman link
6/3/2018 06:51:45 am

Dear Colin, Congratulations on your "suspended" career as a music critic. Your assessment of the current state of the arts and culture is unfortunately correct. Let's hope for better times. Best wishes for all your future projects.

Reply
Jane Susanna ENNIS
6/3/2018 08:44:40 am

Let me explain the story of King Canute. He knew perfectly well that he couldn't command the waves, that was his POINT......A practical demonstration to his courtiers and subordinates that there are some things that even kings can't command.

Reply
La Cieca link
6/3/2018 08:53:02 am

You do know that the story of King Canute is a parable about humility, right? He countered the flattery of his courtiers by ordering the waves to stay away from him and yet he was drenched anyway, thus demonstrating that temporal power is vain compared to the supreme power of God.

He is reported to have said, "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws."

Humility is an trait more critics should cultivate.

Reply
Larry Molinaro link
6/6/2018 09:39:02 pm

To start - your depth of expertise here isn't in question in what I will offer here.

That said, what I would question is the whole model of the "expert" who attends a concert and then writes up his/her musings with no back and forth with the musicians. I am a professional musician but I'm also involved with leadership and organizational development. The idea that, in any professional environment, someone would pass judgment on something (performance, presentation, report, etc.) without testing his/her assumptions with the presenter/writer is now completely foreign within most professional circles. Professional environments thrive on collaboration, which includes a healthy back-and-forth criticism and analysis.

So when I read typical reviews of concerts my first question (for the critic) is always something akin to "well what did the performer say when you ran your reflections by them"? Which, of course, almost never happens. (And I wonder why - did you reach out by email with questions and they didn't respond? Did you interview them prior or following the concert?)

Music criticism that explores ideas, that probes, in a lively exchange with performers, why programs were constructed (e.g., working to discern what the narrative behind the program was), trends in performance practice, currents in compositions, etc. -- hopefully this type of music criticism still has a place within print and digital (and social) media.

Music criticism that simply proffers an opinion or verdict with no exchange of ideas (eg., two thumbs up! two thumbs down, meh... etc.) deserves, in my opinion, to go the way of 20th century arts management (control of distribution) - ie to extinction. It has no place in this modern world.

But - in the spirit of my argument above - these are my assumptions. How might you disagree or even agree?

Reply
Rob Kennedy link
7/5/2018 07:43:44 am

As a fellow composer and a music reviewer, but living in the capital of Australia, and almost the same age as you Colin, I agree with your statement, and fully understand the way you feel. I’ve come to the same conclusion and feel that reviewers words are only read by the artists being reviewed.

I find that I don’t read reviews any more, because there’s so much going on and so much being said, that almost every word is meaningless. Everyone is a writer, a composer, an artists and a critic, and none of us are listening to each other, we are all screaming at each other and none of us are being heard.

I used to subscribe to the view off my colleagues, mostly academics, who always said, “reviewing is critical to the growth and development of art”. I’m not sure that was ever true, it seems it was just something we thought we had to believe to justify its existence.

But, the same thing is happening with music itself, I bet you that you have never heard of me and I have never heard of you before I found this post of yours. I understand that there are 100,000 albums released every week across the world, how can any of us even hope to hear just one percent of that?

Back to music, for you, and me, if there’s a point to it that is.

Rob

Reply
rg
10/4/2018 02:25:41 pm

Colin, when did you turn 60? Wikipedia doesn't say. Asked by a 1958 baby. Thanks and best wishes.

Reply



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    Eatock Daily

    I'm a composer based in Toronto – and this is my classical music blog, Eatock Daily.

    When I first started blogging, Eatock Daily was a place to re-post the articles I wrote for Toronto’s Globe and Mail and National Post newspapers, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star and other publications.

    But now I have stepped back from professional music journalism, and I'm spending more time composing.

    These days, my blog posts are infrequent, and are mostly concerned with my own music. However, I do still occasionally post comments on musical topics, including works I've discovered, enjoyed, and wish to share with others.


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