Steve Schwartz:

>In the case of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and friends, what gets played is the
>result of a process remarkably like the pop radio station, because the
>goal -- a non-aesthetic one, by the way -- is to a large extent the same.
>Programmers look at play figures.  Some of them, I admit, may even like
>the pieces they program and may have heard them before.  However, if you're
>trying to suggest that Intrinsic Merit Wins Out or that this shows
>something true about the nature of popular classic music itself, we must
>agree to differ....

I must be communicating even worse than usual.  No, indeed I was not
suggesting that the basis of the RC or radio airplay is Intrinsic Merit.
I proposed that popular (classical or otherwise) music seems to be oriented
towards catchy melodies, but I am interested in other opinions.  To me,
"play figures", "averaged tastes" and other explanations along that line
are unsatisfying in that they beg the question of *why* a *particular* work
has high play figures or is located at the average point of many listeners'
tastes.

Mozart's PC 21 is in the RC and gets a lot of airplay.  So this is due to
play figures.  Fine - why does PC 21 get great play figures while, I don't
know, say, L'histoire du Soldat does not? Why are there many people who
could enthusiastically hum you the "Ode to Joy" theme but could hear the
entire first three movements of Beethoven's 9th without recognizing it? Why
is "Moldau" so much more popular than the rest of Ma Vlast? Anyone else out
there interested in these sorts of questions?

Richard Tsuyuki
Virginia, USA