Karl Miller wrote:

>I think one needs to put the invention of the phonograph into that
>equation.  On a day to day basis, back in 1900, if you wanted to hear
>Music, you made music.  You might enjoy reading "Men, Women and Pianos."
>It is an interesting social history of the piano and may provide some
>perspective on how music making was really much more of a part of the
>social fabric at one time.  I don't have the percentages either, but
assumptions, assumptions that would agree with Steve's perspective.

I did read it and I did enjoy it.  But there is a puritanical strand in
all of this- how much better to play music than just to LISTEN to music!!!
Yes, and how much better to grow our own food.  And make our own clothing
!!!  But that is not the world in which we live.  The fact that your
assumptions agree with Steve's perspective hardly makes the case, But I now
realize that this is not a particularly interesting or important argument.
What is important is the here and now, and how our musical life can be
improved, or at least saved from decay.  That is a challenge.

Professor Bernard Chasan
Physics Department, Boston University