Stirling Newberry asserts:

>Private enterprise is very good at supplying what people think they
>want right now, if there are enough people who think they want it. ...
>
>Is there a solution? Of course there is.  It is the obvious one - rebel.
>In this month's atlantic a writer of very limited imagination feels
>that the sheer diversity of styles available to consumers makes rebellion
>impossible.  But then, rebellion has seemed impossible to every overbearing
>establishment.  The means to rebel is simple - consumerism is the dominant
>ethos, stop being a consumer.
>
>But then, on a list focused on record collecting, I realise that these
>words fall on largely deaf ears.

Strange though it may seem, there are those of us who choose, for whatever
reasons, not to live in large cities.  Because of this, we do not have easy
access to concerts by symphony orchestras or by CM musicians in general.
Other than the web, we have very limited access to reference material on
music.  We know personally very few people who share our interest in CM.
Some of us, including me, did not decide at an early age that our destiny
was to write nine symphonies, maybe a concerto or five, and a whole raft of
string quartets that would lay 'em in the aisles, and thus, we did not, you
will read in increasing amazement, even see the necessity of learning to
read music.  Had I realised how important CM was to become to me, I may
well have chosen a different life path.  But I didn't.

What all this means is that - with the occasional rare exception - the only
access I have to CM is through recordings.  I buy as many as I can afford.
Thus I am a non-rebellious consumer.  I enjoy seeking out new composers and
new works.  I like reading of other people's discoveries.  I like sharing
mine with others.  I actually believe that there are some recording
companies who believe in their customers and not elegantly-formatted
spreadsheets.  I don't have the theoretical knowledge or instrumental
skill, but then neither do many other music lovers.

Stirling, old mate, your comment about a list focused on record collecting
may not have been intended to imply for you an aura of superiority, but
after considering it for some time - admittedly from a perspective of what
many would regard as musical inadequacy - that's the way I understand it.
I would be delighted to read otherwise.  In the meantime, I will muddle
along as best I can, enjoying music I will never read or perform or attempt
to emulate through composition.  And, dammit, I'm happy!

Richard Pennycuick
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