Posted by Hoyt Smith on August 4, 2009
I”m not sure Washington Post columnist Anne Midgette was expecting so much feedback on her column last week about the National Symphony Orchestra’s Twitter experiment with Beethoven. 
The classical purists, the techies, the Luddites and more chimed in. The amount of discussion is exciting to me because it speaks to a great passion for classical music. It isn’t a dead art form, but constantly evolving with new audiences and, yes, technology. Addressing the Tweets from conductor Emil de Cou during the Beethoven performance last Thursday, Ms. Midgette writes that ” I don’t think that the Tweets are meant for those who listen with total concentration; they’re meant for people who aren’t concentrating and would like some help getting into the music.” That is very much the spirit here at KDFC. We want to bring as many people to the “party” as we can. Read the “‘New Technology’ and How We Listen” response here.
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Tweets are obviously limited, but their great value is in their immediacy, as well as the fact that they force you to say something important in a small nubmer of words (or at least the goal should be to say something important). They also can have a big impact in alerting listeners (shall we call them (us) “Tweetybirds?”)to something important or interesting. You (Hoyt and KDFC) send out notices of pieces playing that hopefully encourage people to listen. Similarly, I send out alerts to astronomical events people can see in the sky. I think for classical music, a tweet saying something like, “Beethoven’s Lenore 3 Overture coming up next” accompanied by a “listen now” link, and then followed immediately by one or more tweets with tidbits or historical trivia would be welcomed. (That’s a hint about the Lenore 3, as it is a favorite of mine!) Obviously you can’t do this with every piece, but maybe at least one such tweet barrage hourly would be appropriate. And to make it most effective, the tweets should come from one source, such as a KDFC account that all the announcers could post to. Anyway, that’s my opinion and you are welcome to it!
Comment by Larry Sessions — August 4, 2009 @ 4:01 pm