I have to differ with Andrew: 'classical' music was really far more popular in 18th/19th century America - and in fact especially in the 20th century than you imply. In the mid-to-late 1800s American symphony orchestras and opera companies were sprouting everywhere; every last small town had its Opera House which was routinely sold out when a Jenny Lind or Louis Moreau Gottschalk came through. And yes, of course the existence of such venues was not proof of the popularity of the art forms, and perhaps the presence of the fine arts was seen more as a prestige-requirement than anything else, but those fine arts were ubiquitous and experienced by a wide spectrum of the populace. Whether the cheering mining-camp reactions to touring Shakespeareans or Tchaikovsky's (1891) writings which document his astonishment while touring the US East Coast at the fact that he was far-better known, comprehended and more widely celebrated in America than in his own land, or the plethora of competing music critics in US cities major and minor, the fine arts flourished all over America in a popularity (I feel) great than today. Dvorak was celebrated - and extremely well-known in this country when Jeanette Thurber managed the coup of bringing him here to head the National Conservatory of Music, which was only one of many such American institutions in the 19th centruy, of course. Nearly every parlor in nearly every American home had a piano which served as training ground for yet another Fur Elise rendering; Caruso's 78s were the greatest-selling recordings by far - and the age of radio and later TV produced far more wide-flung, non-specific broadcast dissemination of classical music than we have today - think only of the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, Toscanini and his NBC Symphony Orchestra, broadcasts of the NYPhil, and - especially relevant: think of Bernstein's Young Peoples Concerts broadcasts.
With all respect, I really do think the past 150 - 200 years of American fine arts cultural access is much more relevant than you may think. And perhaps was far more a palpable part of the broad American experience than the more narrow niche it seems to occupy today. Best, Les Les Marsden Founding Music Director and Conductor, The Mariposa Symphony Orchestra Music and Mariposa? Ahhhhh, Paradise!!! http://arts-mariposa.org/symphony.html http://www.geocities.com/~jbenz/lesbio.html ----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew Stiller To: finale@shsu.edu Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2007 9:41 AM Subject: Re: [Finale] OT: John Cage's first national TV appearance (1960) On May 26, 2007, at 12:00 PM, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote: > At 09:14 PM 5/25/2007 +0200, shirling & neueweise wrote: >> this kind of generalization about the state of >> new music really disappoints me, and i have to >> admit, i come across it more from americans than >> any other population > > This seems to be my experience. The differences are sometimes > striking, ... > I don't have any answers, but there is a cultural shift that isn't > limited > to the US. IMO the cultural shift has been in the opposite direction. The fundamental antipathy among ordinary Americans toward classical music has its origins in the country's founding. In the 18th c., almost all classical music was commissioned by royalty or by the established church--both of which are outlawed in the US constitution. The American people, therefore, came to view this music as inherently elitist. By extension, its practitioners came to be regarded as effeminate, which is why Ives was so defensive about the matter, and also is one reason why such a high percentage of American composers 1890-1970 have been gay. Prior to 1960, most Americans lived their entire lives without ever experiencing and opera, a ballet, or a symphony. TV has changed all that--and over the course of my lifetime I have definitely seen other forms of improvement that make the current situation, dismal as it is, much better than what it has been. I cannot, for example, imagine any American boy nowadays being denounced as a "fairy" because he played the clarinet. If "music" now means "pop music" and classical music requires a modifier, that is at least a realistic dichotomy, and is a clear improvement, IMO, over the immediately preceding usage in which popular music was called "contemporary," while anything old was "classical." At least the newer usage allows for the possibility that there might be such a thing as contemporary classical music, or antique pop. Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press http://www.kallistimusic.com/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
