Tim Dickinson wrote:

>Arts organizations, including symphony orchestras, are struggling for
>survival and yet some worry about people who applaud classical music.
>This topic has reared its head in this thread by people who describe
>the associated performances as "great" and "fine".  Hello?  *This* is
>a problem?!?!?

That art organizations are struggling is not reason to dumb them down
to the level of sporting events.  Orchestras etc are struggling because
of a culture that values the lowest common denominator over that which
truly takes more than brute physicality to accomplish.  We have a
government that is more willing to make war than art.  A sad commentary
indeed, when many less fortunate countries than ours still manage to
uphold and support that legacy of their history and culture.

>If I attend a sporting event, I stand and cheer when a touchdown, run,
>or goal is scored by my team.  And when I attend a musical performance
>that I honestly enjoy, I stand and applaud.  If I don't enjoy it, I don't
>stand (though I don't begrudge those that do).  But I like most musical
>performances that I attend, which is why I go in the first place.

To compare a football game to a symphony concert is like comparing a
comic book to Tolstoy.  They are at different levels of intellect, and
value to our merit as a society.  Very few people site great historical
football plays as some window on the American (or British, or French or
where ever you choose) way of life.  Touchdowns do not define who we are
as a people. Art and literature does.  They should not be placed on the
same plain of value.

>If you don't feel that a performance merits a standing O, by all means
>keep your seat.  But don't look down your nose at those standing and
>clapping - contemplate instead the empty seats next to them.  You should
>hope for more of us non-discerning philistines.

If we hand that which is the apex of our culture to the Philistines,
then it will meet the same fate as other fallen great societies.  What
we treasure as that which is our finest, will soon lie in ruins alongside
the coliseum and the Colossus.  Some things are still worth preserving
at their highest levels.  The enjoyment of some things is still worth
an effort to attain.  I don't buy the egalitarian view of high art.  It
isn't for everyone, only for those who make the effort to truly appreciate
it.

Kevin Sutton