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Fri, 2 Nov 2001 18:35:23 -0500 |
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Robert Peters wrote:
>You scold the intellectuals (well, don't you belong to the learned?)
>but you forget that music always was a pastime from intellectuals for
>intellectuals and the nobility. The "general public" you refer was a
>pretty small section of the population. What about the workers, the
>pasants (did they ever hum tunes from the Pastorale?), what about the
>sailors, the soldiers, the workmen? Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven didn't
>write for them. Classical music always was a pastime for the happy few.
And yet, during WWII, countless classical musicians toured military camps
stateside and overseas, generally performing before enthusiastic "full
houses" comprising a cross section of the population and not just the
intellectual elite. And in a German POW camp, Messiaen wrote his *Quatuor
pour la fin du temps* for performance before his fellow prisoners (who,
while literally a captive audience, nevertheless, didn't appear to have
received the work w/ sullenness or reluctance).
Walter Meyer
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