On Jan 13, 2007, at 9:43 PM, John Howell wrote:
prior to the 20th century "popular taste" could not exist in the stratified, class-conscious societies of Europe and, yes, America, with its pre-melting-pot amalgam of ethnic enclaves and rigid class distinctions in the Eastern seacoast cities, where the upper classes paid for the construction of concert halls and opera houses.
This is conventional wisdom, but it's simply untrue. Any culture, at any time, that has an identifiable classical music must also have a popular music lying outside those boundaries. Certainly in 19th c. America there were quite distinct classical and popular song styles that can be very easily distinguished even within the work of single composers (classical: virtuosic solo singer w. piano accompaniment; pop: non-virtuosic solo stanzas alternating with 4-part "chorus" refrain, with piano or guitar accompanying). I could cite examples from both A.P. Heinrich (a classical composer who dabbled in pop) and Henry Clay Work (a pop composer who dabbled in classics).
Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
