Bill Pirkle replying to Don Satz:

>Here's an idea.  Why don't you define what you mean by "classical
>music" and I'll tell you if I love it or just like it ;-)

I've been following with increasing irritation the tortuous paths this
thread has taken.  If Bill says Andrew Lloyd Webber writes classical music
and I say he doesn't, and if I say Jacques Loussier's Play Bach records
are classical music and Bill says they're not, then we have no agreed
definition.  We are not, for heaven's sake, going to arrive at some
all-encompassing definition that we can carve in stone in the sort of
portentous letters they used to use for Superman, and be able to say, THIS
IS CLASSICAL MUSIC - no, Bill, we're not.  But let's accept for the sake
of argument that we did, have we achieved anything worthwhile? Would we
congratulate ourselves on how perceptive we are and feel smug and at peace
with the world? Would we have added one iota of worth to our appreciation
of CM? Would we then use the definition to berate listers who dared to
stray from the One True Path? I'm reminded of an old song which begins, "I
say to-mah-to and you say to-may-to", and ends, "Let's call the whole thing
off."

Or - and forgive me if someone has already mentioned this - as Fats Waller
said - or words to this effect - when a woman asked him for a definition
of jazz:  "Lady, if you've got to ask, you're never gonna know."

Richard Pennycuick
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