tones
compulsive cantater
Graham, sorry for being responsible for sort-of hijacking your thread with the Led Zep debate, but in a way it's illustrative of the problem faced by classical music. Several generations have now grown up with the idea that Led Zeppelin and the like is quality music, or even music of any kind - and before anyone starts on me, I respect your right to regard Plant & Co. as geniuses, it's just that I never, ever will. The whole thing is, in a way, a sign of youth wanting to be different, of creating sounds that are diametrically opposed to "adult" tastes - think of the reaction to the first rock'n'rollers, who look just sooo innocent these days, to the filming of Elvis only from the waist up! The thing is that the rebellious youth are now old fogeys like myself, but musically they haven't moved on from, as Tom Lehrer put it, "rock'n'roll and other children's records".
As a result, the language of great music is foreign to the average listener. I also find the "crossover" endeavours that seek to make classical more appealing to a wider audience to be pretty pathetic. So what to do? Frankly, I don't think there's anything that can be done, except soldier on. Classical music should not muddy itself with popular stuff. I don't think this is elitist, it's simply a recognition that the two are different and that they do not belong in the same trough. Does this doom classical to extinction? I suspect not. A lesser presence perhaps, a regrettable reduction in choice perhaps, but great music will live on and the flag will still fly, even in the musical wasteland of dirigibles constructed of heavy malleable metals, simply because it's part of a great artistic heritage, one of the gems of Western culture, and, as people still admire Rembrandt, people will still adore Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc. because their work remains ever fresh, ever relevant and will continue thus long after the abovementioned dirigibles have been melted into bullets for the US Army or whatever.
So, Michael, where do I resign from ZG?
As a result, the language of great music is foreign to the average listener. I also find the "crossover" endeavours that seek to make classical more appealing to a wider audience to be pretty pathetic. So what to do? Frankly, I don't think there's anything that can be done, except soldier on. Classical music should not muddy itself with popular stuff. I don't think this is elitist, it's simply a recognition that the two are different and that they do not belong in the same trough. Does this doom classical to extinction? I suspect not. A lesser presence perhaps, a regrettable reduction in choice perhaps, but great music will live on and the flag will still fly, even in the musical wasteland of dirigibles constructed of heavy malleable metals, simply because it's part of a great artistic heritage, one of the gems of Western culture, and, as people still admire Rembrandt, people will still adore Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc. because their work remains ever fresh, ever relevant and will continue thus long after the abovementioned dirigibles have been melted into bullets for the US Army or whatever.
So, Michael, where do I resign from ZG?