Bernard Chasan replies to me:

>>When Beethoven and Haydn arrange British folk songs, do they
>>change from classical to popular?
>
>And the answer is- of course he changed.

But from classical to popular?

>I assume that when Beethoven wrote a string quartet or a symphony his
>approach and his intent was quite different from his approach to his
>song settings.

Sure, but I'm not certain that it was a classical/popular distinction in
its later sense.  Beethoven did distinguish between music for the public
and music for the connoisseurs.  He felt that his Grosse Fuge had one
audience and that his music for Die Ruinen von Athens had another.  But
he *never* considered himself a pop artist.  Indeed, he got angry when
something of the sort was suggested.

>Which does not make the settings inferior- just small scale.

True enough.  Now, consider the case of Johann Strauss II.  It seems to
me here the line becomes even more blurred.  Brahms, after all, loved
Strauss's music and, for all I know, may have modeled certain of his works
on them.  Strauss is obviously not a folk musician.  He *is* popular, but
he also knows more music than he needs to in order to write a waltz, and
this shows in his works.

Steve Schwartz