This week, the third week of December, one of the categories on the TV
quiz show "Jeopardy" was classical music.  Also listed were archaeology,
the civil war, and a few others.  Contesting for the valuable prizes
were two college professors and, yes, a Philadelphia lawyer.  Now guess
what happened: all three avoided the classical music category untill all
the other categories were disposed of.  In a few cases, there was silence
and the inevitable beep-beep when no one know the question-phrased answer
in the other categories.  Then, when they couldn't avoid it, one of them
said "classical music, Alex".  The two easiest questions that dealt with
Puccini operas and a clue about Mendelssohn's wedding march went well;
after that it was all over.  No one knew the Ibsen play for which Grieg
wrote incidental music ("Peer Gynt" of course)...one person lost points
for "Doll House".  Now the last one was tricky, a Strauss opera that
means in English a Whim..."Capriccio" of course; maybe "caprice" would
have passed the judges scrutiny.  Now on several occasions, classical
music writer Greg Sandow has commented on how a knowledge of classical
music is no longer considered a marker of educated discourse.  People
who wouldn't dream of being out-of-step on the most important issues of
the day, the latest best-seller and most commented-on movie, are perfectly
comfortable with saying they don't give a fig about opera and classical
music.  Like John Seabrook of the New Yorker (in his book "Nobrow"),
they may even feel free to inflate the quality of mass-marketed recordings
and discuss THEM as art works.  Remember, these were TWO college professors
and a lawyer...  and the funny part is, I predicted to myself that they
would hold off on the classical category just from some of my past
experiences.  Did anyone out there view this show, and did you get the
same impression?

Laurence Glavin
Methuen, MA