Like many young singers, my introduction to lied came via the works of Schubert, in particular Die Forelle (The Trout). For my sins, I’ve sat through countless renditions of The Trout, most of them horrible, and more often than not performed by small, tubby boys who’ve been cajoled by their mothers into singing lessons and, ultimately, public humiliation at local eisteddfodau.
As the article in Harper’s Magazine (linked below) suggests, the lyrics are deceptive in their simplicity. What a joy it is to finally divine new meaning from a piece of music which has become so devoid of it for me.
Armed with this knowledge, enduring changing voice renditions of Schubert just became infinitely more endurable, if not enjoyable.
Schubart’s Defiant Trout (Harper’s Magazine)
In direct contrast to the approach adopted by the CEO of Universal (which I posted about last week), Warner Music have signed a deal with YouTube which allows its material to be legally used.
The BBC writes:
The agreement also covers the use of material in homemade videos, which form a large part of YouTube’s content.
Both companies hailed it as a landmark agreement, coming days after Universal Music said it was considering legal action over sites such as YouTube.
A royalty-tracking system has been developed by YouTube to detect when videos on the site are using copyrighted material and work out how much Warner is owed in advertising revenue.
Note the bit about “use of material in homemade videos”. This means that Warner have sought to effectively protect not only material which they created or licensed, but also new content which exploits their copyrights. Hurrah to an innovative corporate approach to new ways of accessing the art.
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