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From: greg@olivej.UUCP (Greg Paley)
Newsgroups: net.music,net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Why classical music is not popular
Message-ID: <192@olivej.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Jul-84 21:05:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: olivej.192
Posted: Mon Jul 23 21:05:05 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Jul-84 06:44:24 EDT
References: <659@flairvax.UUCP> <211@fisher.UUCP>
Organization: Olivetti ATC, Cupertino, Ca
Lines: 38

I found Mike Ellis' comments interesting as always.  I don't
really disagree with what he had to say, but want to mention
something that I think gets overlooked in discussing the
phenomenon of 20th Century composers and the lack of
regard and appreciation they seem to get from the "classical"
audience.

To me, there is no lack of intellectual stimulation to be
found in a large number of new works.  That was true in the
case of the great 18th and 19th century composers also.
What they did have that seems lacking today was the ability
to communicate to the heart as well as the mind.  I'm not
interested in sentiment or "kitsch", but I find much of the
music of Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, Berlioz, Mahler and
Debussy, among others, able to stir me in ways that are
immediate and intuitive and communicate on a level which
does not require playing extensive intellectual glass bead
games in order to get the message.

To me, someone who can appreciate music only with his
intellectual facilities or a composer whose work can only
appeal to these facilities is missing something, to say
the least.  With the exception of some works of Britten,
earlier works of Copland, and numerous wonderful things
by Virgil Thomson and Charles Griffes, I find a lot of
contemporary music lacking in this regard.

Maybe the other is there and I'm just not getting it.
I always feel that what you are able to appreciate in
a work of art or performance says as much about your
capacities as a human being as it does about the artist
or performer and I'm probably expressing a limitation
in myself by saying that I find the majority of contemporary
works I've heard arid and sterile emotionally.

	- Greg Paley