3.2 How to get rich?

Admittedly this is a rather primitive calculation as the overhead costs for an orchestra will be much higher, but it does clearly illustrate the dilemma: the new music is completely dependent upon state subsidies and per ticket it is an expensive form of music. Whenever politicians are in a generous mood, the new music flourishes; when, for whatever reason, they lose the motivation to support this music, performances of new music become quite problematic at once.

3.2 HOW TO GET RICH? Why is it that it is quite possible to become very rich in modern visual arts, while this is practically impossible in new music without a great amount of subsidy? There are at least two important reasons for this: - In the visual arts objects are sold that have a certain trade value.

Much modern art gains in value or at least retains its value if it is not bought at too high a price. A musical work is a performance and many people can listen to it, but when the performances are over, all that remains is the memory and a pile of invoices. As an investment it is only of value if the publishers can create a hype around a composer (nowadays in the form of the honourable mentions and awards for composers mostly controlled by the publishing house

Boosey and Hawkes) or if composers create such a hype themselves.

In the case of Messiaen his birds and his Roman Catholic faith were important publicity tools; Stockhausen had his mystic self-glorification as a genius; Xenakis had his music as mathematical model.

In pop music this collectivity is even stronger. Together with the pop artist, the audience creates an event that is ruled by strict, albeit unwritten rules. Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor managed to ruin her career in one minute by tearing up a photograph of the Pope on TV on 3 October 1992. This unambiguous stand, no matter how well-intended, was not what her audience had come for. It went beyond the hedonistic non-committal nature of a pop concert and the spell between Sinéad and her audience was broken.

- Music is a performing art, which makes it fundamentally different from, say, a painting. The wider audience buys an experience, or at least an enjoyable afternoon or evening . When visiting a museum to look at modern visual art we can schedule such an afternoon as we please. Whatever we deem ugly or boring we simply ignore. Research has shown that the average time of looking at modern work of art can only be expressed in seconds! Usually there is