The discussion of concert programming made me wonder about the related
question of programming on commercial "classical" radio.  Forget about
Webern: on our Seattle radio station such music as Hindemith, Honegger,
Walton, William Schuman or any Stravinsky after Petrushka is all strictly
forbidden.  This is not merely stodgy, it is the stodginess of about 50
years back in time.  What CAN they be thinking?  Deryck Barker's quote
from Aaron Copeland provides the essential clue:

   "They use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it,
   relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living."

The commercial broadcasters evidently calculate that aural pillows
provide the most relaxing intervals between advertising messages; the
pillows are presumably chosen to soothe the listeners into the highest
level of receptiveness.

Returning to the question of concert programming, maybe in some venues
this soporific view of CM has clouded the minds of the board members and
managements of concert organizations.  This might occur where the local
"classical" radio station pretends to be part of the local arts community,
despite the obvious fact that it really belongs to the advertising
industry.

Our task as devotees of serious music is to keep reminding the real
local arts community of the rest of Copland's message:

   "...Serious music was never meant to be used as a soporific,
   Contemporary music, especially, is created to wake you up,
   not to put you to sleep.  It is meant to stir and excite
   you, to move you - it may even exhaust you.  But isn't that
   the kind of stimulation you go to the theater for or read
   a book for?  Why make an exception for music?"

By the way, I think these words are also an incisive account of what
we can find in (some) atonal music.  Copeland surely knew what he was
writing about.  His own music ranged from the atonal (Connotations)
through extended tonal (Organ Symphony, Short Symphony, etc., my own
favorite of Copeland's various idioms) to the archly diatonic, populist
style of Appalachian Spring and its like.  These latter pieces are so
calculatedly easy-listening that you can even get to hear them (but
nothing else of Copeland's) on commercial "classical" radio.

Jon Gallant
Department of Gnome Sciences
University of Washington

             ***********************************************
The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R)
list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability
Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery.  For more information,
go to:  http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html