Bernard Chasan ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Classical music is unpopular because it requires an attention span and a
>commitment.

True, but then so does the kind of fanaticism many display towards one
sport or another.  In the same wat that people on this list can doubtless
rabbit on for hours on, I don't know, Beethoven symphonies, Bach's keyboard
music, etc, etc, there are people out there (and not a few I suspect) who
can tell you about batting averages in the 1950 World Series and the like.

I think there's also a cultural dimension to this.  As I have said before
(probably on this list too), when I first emigrated to N America I noticed
that, unlike Europe, there is a distinctly anti-intellectual "culture" at
work here.  When I was in school my musical friends and I may have been
considered odd in our tastes by our contemporaries, but I don't ever recall
being derided for them.

In N America I offer the use of the term "longhair" as a term of abuse.

How, I wonder, did this come about.  It is a comparatively recent thing, as
Stokowski (according to Chasins' biography) was impressed, on his arrival
in the USA, at what a musical culture it was/had.

deryk barker
([log in to unmask], http://www.camosun.bc.ca/~dbarker)