Dave Harmon writes: 

>It slways seemed like a sell-out to be peddling Gershwin as 'immediately
>gratifying' while equally attractive and tuneful composers like Goetz
>or Schwarenka lie in obscurity...

My only question here is: who or what are Goetz and Schwarenka?

Bernard Chasan reminisces about music education in the NYC public
schools of 60 years ago:

>However we were required to recognize little pieces - by MacDowell,
>Ethelbert Nevin, excerpts from Schubert and Beethoven- all with little
>texts.  (" This is the symphony which Schubert wrote but never finished").

Reading Bernard's words, I experienced an awful shudder, and those very
words sang themselves in my brain to the tune of the 2nd theme of the
Schubert 8th first movement.  It was burned into my brain by a vinegary
old witch in a schoolroom about, well yes, almost 60 years ago.  I have
no doubt that this experience delayed my appreciation of classical music
by a good four years.

When I DID discover classical music, a few years later, it was through
some passionate music (Beethoven's Appasionata Sonata, Sibelius' 1st
symphony) that I heard in live performance, and through recordings of
Stokowski's Bach transcriptions.  After that, I just dived into classical
music of all periods, and have never come up for air.  Oh yes, after
about 50 years I found that I was, at last, able to listen to the first
movement of Schubert's 8th.  I've even become mildly fond of it, in my
dotage.

Jon Gallant                and                    Dr. Phage