| Tuesday, July 24, 2012 11:50 AM

Trouble in the world of culture. The Cultural Ministry is suggesting we have too many orchestras. In this they are right. What we actually have is too many orchestra hangers on. People associated with the orchestra and costing us too much money, not people who play a violin but the admin and the management and the publicity.

The ministry is suggesting change. This I can assure you in certain circles will cause uproar. If you are a purveyor of publications like the Listener, watch what happens. It will not be unlike the Save TVNZ7 campaign. People will come out of the woodwork espousing the value of things like orchestras. They’ll talk of culture and heritage and its place in our lives. Their arguments will have examples of how we’ve gone wrong as a society, how our values are warped, TV is bollocks, kids are lost and the modern world is shallow and without sound foundation.

The fact that orchestras change none of this will not be discussed at any particular length. Their argument will be driven by dramatic contrast thus nailing home their point with the sadly forlorn hope that it will somehow change the minds of those that have seen the reality of your  average orchestras plight and are suggesting a new way forward. This is unfortunately the handicap of many of those who will be fighting it.

Forward is not a direction they’re overly familiar with hence their upset. We are here of course because orchestras make no money and they make no money because people don’t want to buy tickets not unlike bad movies or rock acts. The Cultural Ministry has quite rightly come to the broad conclusion that as ticket sales drop, government funding has to go up to sort out the shortfall. Given the general state of play in the old books department this can’t go on forever hence the recommendation for change.

Their best solution would appear to be one orchestra. A national orchestra. We have one now and it, by most accounts, is good and that’s what the country needs.

Culture is important, the same way the general concept of doing something well is important. So if we can’t afford several regional orchestras plus a national one, then what we want is one top shelf one. Those opposed will find a million reasons why this doesn’t make sense – they’ll say it’s heresy, it will make us an international laughing stock. But once all that hot air clears and wise heads prevail, we will find like so many of these debates the world didn’t stop turning, no one died and a bit of order will have been restored.

But given this is just the start of the debate this has just been a heads up as to what’s about to unfold.