Concert agencies enforce a conservative repertoire that kills interest in new music.

Evidence

Schoenberg stated in a circular that the composers’ organization was intended to emancipate both artists and the public from the concert agencies and companies, which were trying to exclude everything from their programmes which did not ensure certain financial success, and which had `already caused a general waning of interest in music with their invariably identical programmes’. Numerous and frequent first-class performances would make familiarity with the new music possible. This was a precondition for any sort of appreciation of it to develop, and it was more necessary than ever, he claimed, because of the increased complexity of the new music. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 294

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Adorno’s critique of the culture industry and the standardization of cultural products. Schoenberg’s attack on concert agencies prefigures the Frankfurt School’s analysis of commodified art.