Jocelyn Wang wrote:

>Breathe too loudly? I'd be happy if matronly women would manage to unwrap
>a cough drop in under five minutes.

AGREED. What they don't realize is it's like taking of a band-aid; it will
hurt least if you do it all at once.

While attending a concert of the New Hampshire Symphony orchestra (this
happens twice a year on my hometown of Portsmouth) earlier this year,
when I was not being moved to tears by the music (Glinka, Tchaikovsky,
Rachmaninoff) I was angrily composing in my head a letter to the editor
of the local newspaper explaining to the populace that a concert is not
the time to make witty jests to your neighbor, and that whispers are
unbearably loud during a concert no matter how quiet you are, performance
halls being of course designed to amplify and distribute sound.  Also,
several irritated looks at the old lady with the candy, who is following
both Jocelyn and myself to the concerts we attend, had no effect.

Incidentally, the NHSO dealt a great blow to classical music in the
Portsmouth area this weekend, by programming an obscure Prokofiev suite,
Liszt's Totentanz, and some newly-comissioned unbearable 30-minute musical
disaster.  Not to slight Liszt or Prokofiev, or those particular works,
necessarily.  These works are probably better mixed with other offerings.
I might like guacamole, but I'd rather not have a dinner exclusively of it.
And if I served such to my guests for dinner, I would not expect them to
return for another dinner.

One friend commented that the hall was half-full, and next time it probably
would be a quarter full.  I think Billy Joel knows what he's talking about.

On the issue of key signatures and opus numbers, I think the accusation
we hear is not what is referred to.  Since composers frequently name
non-vocal music by its form, distinction must be made between all the
different impromptus, divertimentos and symphonies, if we are going to
establish what piece we are talking about.  (imagine if all radio songs
were just called "song" e.g.  song by the Beatles in B-flat [1967]).
So people shy away from this...  and the more popular works among
non-classical music listeners tend to have distinguishing, even if spurious
names.  (Moonlight, Raindrop, Emperor, etc.) Each probably begets the other
to a certain extent...  music with a title is more readily identified in
the memory, and music that is accessible is more readily given a
descriptive title.

Part of the problem for composers and serious listeners alike, is that
music is not necessarily programmatic, and they wish to avoid misleading
titles or subtitles.  Yet perhaps this consideration should be secondary
to the idea of making music more readily accessible to the masses.  I know
my interest in music (20 years ago at the age of four) developed out of
pure program music...  Fantasia!

Food for thought.

Michael Cooper