Bernard Chasan replies to my rant:

>>The very large trends are a decline in amateur music-making, the rise
>>of a consumer-oriented, passive listenership dependent on recorded music,
>>an increasing irrelevance of classical music in general to the culture at
>>large, and ancillary to some of this, the weakening (perhaps to oblivion)
>>of major recording labels, who no longer seem to know exactly what their
>>business is or who their audience is.
>
>What a qvetch!!!

Well, he asked.  It's not much of a defense, but it's the only one I have.

>You can still get to listen to almost anything you wish,

For how long? The danger is that a small audience will be ignored in a
musical environment dominated by commercial considerations.  On second
thought, that's just one danger.  Karl Miller indicates another:  that what
we listen to gets sanctioned and canonized because it's there.  What isn't
there doesn't get listened to, and the idea already exists that it's not
worth listening to simply because it's not there.  Once I heard such an
attitude even on this list.

My brother-in-law happens to be a jazz buff for the Twenties through
the Forties and has been teaching me a lot about it.  He listens to Haydn,
Beethoven, and Brahms, but no classical music after 1900.  I decided to
return the favor and taped some Martinu for him.  He had never heard of
Martinu.  He's now a big fan.  The point is, I guess, you can't love what
you don't know, and a shrinking repertoire limits what most people can know
because most people don't perform.

>there is still a vital concert life (albeit a tad unadventurous)

uhhhhh..... "Vital" in what sense, if unadventurous?  Commercially?

>and there are still many amateur chamber musicians and community choruses
>out there.

I guess we could fight over the definition of "many." Again, most of my
thoughts on this subject are strongly influenced by the fact that I live
in New Orleans.

>But, as I have said on other occasions, the classical music community
>(performers, composers, listeners) surely can find ways to spread the word
>about their passion.  The POETS are doing it.

In my experience, almost the only people interested in poetry are people
who think they write it.  I have very rarely met a disinterested poetry
reader.

>Finally it should be pointed out that while "large trends" are of obvious
>interest, the relation of the individual music lover to the music is what
>is most important.

No argument from me.

Steve Schwartz