You would have thought it'd be cellists...

Ok, this is almost too good a headline to be true:

The shocking truth about sex and violas

Lots of interesting tidbits about what violists are, apparently, good for.

But the author glosses over what could actually be an interesting point. Femke Colborne, editor of Muso Magazine (of hottest classical musicians list fame) said the following:

"This industry [sic] could gain a lot from lightening up a bit. Musicians are forever complaining about the lack of prominent classical coverage in the national papers; but by adopting these kinds of attitudes they are probably deterring the media, who are understandably reluctant to publish content that is stuffy, elitist and, well, boring to everyone who is not part of that 'serious' circle."

There is a huge problem about the image of classical music that prevents it from going mainstream, much of which is self-perpetuating, a sense of entitlement and elitism that comes from people dedicating their lives to something that the general public couldn't care less about - a sort of "well, I don't like you EITHER" kind of attitude. A little bit of levity and - god forbid - sex could help.

BUT, and this is a big but, I don't know that the kind of gimmicky approaches to fixing this that Muso takes, or the Telegraph author mentions (gag pieces with trombones and kazoos and the like) are really going to get us anywhere. Putting a new cover on a book you don't like doesn't make the content any better. Classical music can be sexy, and rockin', and wonderful, but it has to be appreciated for it's own merits. Sex and scandal might get classical music in the papers, but what does it do for the art form, really? Soon, everyone would be interested in Pavarotis's drinking escapades, and still, the music would go unnoticed.


But for the meantime....hehehehehe. Sex and violas.