Steve Schwartz wrote: >I would also ask how deeply and how widely classical music has embedded >itself in the culture. I don't think it's either very deep or very >wide. When college-degreed (I won't say "college-educated") people can't >recognize a Beethoven symphony or a work by Bach, let alone Berlioz, >Borodin, Balakirev, Bergsma, or Brahms, it strikes me that whatever >hard-core market is out there is depressingly small. I wonder, what percentage of the population would recognize the names of Bach or Brahms...probably safe to say very few have ever heard of Borodin or Balakirev...and, not to put down anyone on this list, but how many on this list have ever heard anything written by Bergsma... >I would also say that there is no healthy interest in music without some >interest in current music. Otherwise, we're simply talking about a kind >of fetishism, rather than about a living art. Believe me, Tchaikovsky >will not be writing another symphony any time soon, so get over it and >move on. May I quote you...I loved it. Karl