Bill Pirkle wrote:

>Actually I don't count Broadway show music as popular but as classical.

 From my perspective music theater is written to be popular, whereas the
primary goal of art music is to please the composer.  Not an original
thought on my part, something William Schuman said.

>It is the modern form of the opera.

And what about all of those fine composers who are still writing opera?

I remember in a recent interview with Sondheim when the interviewer
referred to Sweeney Todd as an opera.  The composer did not agree.  He said
something like, opera is all about singers and singing, whereas music
theater is about drama.

>And as classical music, it seldom contains a continous drum beat.  Though
>the songs are often simple ABA forms (but not always), the overtures, for
>example the overture to "My Fair Lady" is clearly classical in style.

Pedal points can be found in music from almost every time period.  While
the pedal may not be present for the entire work, the notion is still
present.  Overtures can be found in a variety of forms, through composed,
ABA, rondo, etc.  I would agree that many times the overture in music
theater is similar in structure to overtures for operas.

>I would even be willing to use 95% or even 90% and challenge anyone
>to name any other criteria, other than time of writing and electronic
>instrumentation, that so clearly partitions music into these two classes.
>My comments on this were in response to Chris Bonds suggestion that the
>Library of Congress' categories of vocal/instrumental was the fundamental
>partition.  So I wondered if continuous drums vs.  no continuous drums
>partitioned music into classical/popular better than vocal vs.
>instrumental.

I recall one discussion on this topic which ended with the non sequitur,
"I know it when I hear it."

Karl