Mats Norrman wrote:

>Somebody, with whom I have chatted about this privately, remarked on the
>list that the ignorance of music audience is increasing.
>
>I wonder how that can come.  With radio and recorded mediums I am tempted
>to believe the knowledge of the audiences has increased.

Perhaps it's a matter of depth versus breadth? I would think it logical
that people have more knowledge about the existence of more kinds of music
(jazz, pop, world etc.).  But perhaps at the expense of knowing a
particular genre exceedingly well.

Many concertgoers, I would expect, would find a Haydn symphony pleasing to
listen to.  But how many of them would be able to follow his compositional
techniques, the way he tweaks the rules regarding sonata form and such? I
confess that I don't know, or whether the proportion of those who do
differs much from past audiences.  And has been discussed before, how
relevant is it to make the comparison?

>If the ignorance of the audiences now is increasing, how will that affect
>the future output/repertoire/performance practice?

I'm not sure it's very predictable myself.  It could be that some audiences
are less adventuresome regarding new musics, others could be moreso.

Bill H.