Walter Meyer wrote:

>As Romain Rolland had his hero, Jean-Christophe, consider, as he lies dying
>at the end of the novel of the same name, which first appeared about 1910:
>
>"He saw clearly...how surely all modern music was doomed to destruction.
>More quickly than any other the language of music is consumed by its
>own heat; at the end of a century or two it is understood only by a
>few initiates.  For how many do Monteverdi and Lully still exist?"

Rolland's lament is from the pre-recording era, when to live, it had to be
incorporated, not by a few musicians, but by many.  Now, with the focus on
dead sound coming out of speakers - it is possible for music to have this
unlife if even a few musicians record it.

Stirling Newberry
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http://www.mp3.com/ssn