David Bringen wrote:

>Classical is a hard sell.  It does take some time to listen and a
>willingness to let the music talk to you, instead of passively letting it
>bypass the ears and send shock waves directly into the skull.  But does
>that make a "good" listener an "elitist"?

"Elitist" means, as I understand it, someone who thinks that they belong to
a superior class of humanity.  While some CM fans might consider themselves
in this light, I certainly don't look at myself (or them) that way.  As
human beings, we are no better or worse, on average, than anyone else.

It's true that there are relatively few of us in the population (though
perhaps more than we might think).  But that's not because we are
"superior" people, or have more highly evolved souls, or something; it's
just because listening to CM takes a higher level of interest in a type of
music which is often complex, many-layered, and carefully crafted than most
people have.

We all put our efforts into caring about different things.  When I want to
sit on a chair, I basically don't care, most of the time, whether it's a
Chippendale or a molded polyethylene True-Value-Hardware, as long as it is
reasonably comfortable and doesn't collapse under my weight.  A furniture
connoisseur is just a person who cares more about furniture than I do, not
a more "refined" or "elevated" person than I.  Similarly, when most people
listen to music, all they care about is something that has a good beat and
(sometimes, but not always) a pleasant tune.  Naturally, they won't bother
to take the time or effort needed cultivate the skills for appreciating CM.
But that doesn't mean that they aren't fine, upstanding people, or even
well-educated people.  Lots of Ph.  D.'s don't care for CM, and many CM
fans don't have a lot of formal education behind them, either.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]