Prokofiev Passing Ravel

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:11:51 -0400

Some interesting news from France. Le Monde reports that the 2007 SACEM (France's music rights organization) list of most exported music from France shows a change of position between Maurice Ravel's Boléro which was passed by Serge Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.

The list, which includes the top 10 pieces which were exported from France in 2007, includes all types of music, be it popular, classical or other. You can see the list here.

The significance of this is the fact that both pieces feature the saxophone in their instrumentation. You can include Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (orchestrated by Ravel) which is also featured on the list. In fact, of the top ten pieces, four are classical while the others are the popular song variety. To me that says that classical music is far from dead.

I also find it interesting that of the four classical pieces, three include the saxophone. Composers take note, if you want to break into the top tier, you may want to consider including some saxes in your music. ;)

June 2008 | MulesRasch

Prokofiev Passing Ravel