Music appreciation in NYC during some of our childhoods:

>This is the symphony / that Schubert wrote and never finished.

Imagine, to the tune of the second subject of the first movement.  Over
and over.  As Joseph Conrad wrote (in another connection): Oh, the horror.

But then, there was Dave Lampson's teacher:

>As each section was played, she would quietly describe the scene
>being set to music.  What a powerful experience this was for me.

That sounds very good indeed.  Obviously, Dave's music appreciation
teacher was a different type than Mr. Slichta's or mine.  Two interesting
questions arise.  (1) What are the relative frequencies of the two types?
If Slichta's type (whose efforts sabotage their pupil's response to CM)
is more than 50%, than music appreciation in the school is counter-productive
on balance, and it is good that it has essentially disappeared, in the
USA.

(2) What is the basic difference between the two types?  My hunch is
that Dave's music appreciation teacher really DID love music, whereas
Mr. Slichta's and mine were time-servers just going through the motions.
Come to think of it, if this is characteristic of more than 50% of ALL
teachers, then American education serves to sabotage the response of
American pupils to all intellectual life, which may explain many things.

Jon Gallant                and                    Dr. Phage
Department of Gnome Sciences
University of Washington