Jeremey McMillan wrote:

>Well, let me add this.  Music and songs that were considered "popular" in
>the 19th century are considered as "classical" today.

Nope!  The argument that classical music as we know it today was the pop
music of days past is simply wrong.  Art music was intended then as it is
now as an expression of something higher than tavern songs.

>So I ask the same question that Bill asked.  What was classical and whtat
>was popular in the 19th century? How can one make the distinction?

Classical in the 19th c. was Brahms, Schumann, Bach, Handel, Haydn and
Mozart just as it is today.  Popular music included works by Stephen
Foster, Parlor songs, drinking songs and ballads etc.  There has always
been a distinction between the music for the masses and the music for the
cognicenti.

Kevin