Steve Schwartz on the trends in classical music:

>The very large trends are a decline in amateur music-making, the rise
>of a consumer-oriented, passive listenership dependent on recorded music,
>an increasing irrelevance of classical music in general to the culture at
>large, and ancillary to some of this, the weakening (perhaps to oblivion)
>of major recording labels, who no longer seem to know exactly what their
>business is or who their audience is.

What a qvetch!!!  You can still get to listen to almost anything you wish,
there is still a vital concert life (albeit a tad unadventurous) and there
are still many amateur chamber musicians and community choruses out there.
It IS a sad state of affairs that classical music is such a minority affair
- as is poetry and serious fiction.  That is the only "irrelevance " worth
considering.

But, as I have said on other occasions, the classical music community
(performers, composers, listeners) surely can find ways to spread the word
about their passion.  The POETS are doing it.  Finally it should be pointed
out that while "large trends" are of obvious interest, the relation of the
individual music lover to the music is what is most important.

Bernard Chasan