I don't have a nice cut and paste email program, so I'll just refer to the
others' comments.  Chris Bonds' comments, I think, are right on.  Somehow,
most Americans see classical music as being European and old.  In a very
real sense, they are right.  Creating a national contribution to the genre
seems to be an essential element in a nation appropriating CM in general.
Our contribution to music is a)jazz/blues and b)academic & eclectic music.
Neither of these seems to be particularly important to CM today.  Sure, we
have Gershwin's Piano Concerto, and sure, a few people like Milton Babbit,
but Gershwin died early and no one else cares about the Babbit-types.  An
oversimplification, but yall know what I mean.  As Bernstein suggested,
when the musical evolves into a great art form, America will have arrived.
But, it seems to have been mostly downhill and corporate after West Side
Story.

All of this occurs in light of the fact that more people are probably going
to concerts than 50 years ago.  (At least in the South, where I am, where
there might have been 2 professional orchestras in all of NC, as compared
to today, where there are at least 10 or 11 (probably more).  Culture
critics need to realize this fact.

And, of course, these improvements are in real jeopardy, with the
incredible apathy among the young (and among school boards).  Probably the
most disheartening stat in terms of the future is the fact that far smaller
of a percentage of young people are taking a musical instrument than ever
before.  That seems to be an objective, simple, and incontrovertible fact
that there's a problem.

Robert Shaw
Wake Forest University