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Entry: A Worthwhile Book Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/a_worthwhile_book#15154 Post contents: Paul Gottfried has asked THE question concerning classicalmusic composition, and it is one that perhaps does not has a really easy answer in our post-modern age. If we posit that what we call classical music has always appeared as a kind of organic outgrowth of a culture, and out of a cultural context, plus the ability on the part of the composer to transform his ideas into music, then the next observation I would make is this: certainly since Schoenberg and Alban Berg and the Dodecaphonic Vienna School there has been a movement to divorce what we call classical music from the cultural context, that is, to intellectualize it; but also, as Sid and others have pointed out, the cultural contexts themselves have radically changed in Europe and the United States, so that the "popular" and "folk" traditions that once inspired Josef Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and Bruckner, no longer exist. Perhaps even more significantly, if we consider the history of Western/European music as deeply intertwined with Christianity, the decline and decay of Christianity has most assuredly had an effect. The Progressivist de-emphasis of Gregorian chant since Vatican II, for instance, has had a disastrous effect liturgically, and there has most certainly been a ripple effect. The calculated decision by the major broadcasting companies (ABC, NBC, and CBS)in the early 1960s to de-emphasize classical music programming (e.g. Voice of Firestone, Bell Telephone Hour, et, athe end of commercial radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, New York Phil, etc.) has certainly had an effect. From the general view that classical music was something to be offered to all the people, a view that existed up until the 1960s, we now live in a society where it is considered "elitist" or worse to listen to classical music. When I was in what is now called "junior high," we had courses in "musucic appreciation." My nephews, both of whom went to superior sxholls, had none (or very little) of that. What they did get they got in choir; but nothing gnereal, nothing directed at ALL students. I do think Sid is correct, however, in that there are still composers who attempt to "connect" to a traditional and "popular" culture, although such culture is under quite a bit stress. One can point to the success in the 20th century of Aaron Copland, Howard Hanson, and more recently, Carlisle Floyd whose operas all drink from the traditional culture of Americana. Still, the tendency which predominates in a lot of music schools, I fear, is to "intellectualize." Perhaps not as far as John Cage or Karlheinz Stockhausen, but still, disconnected. This is even more radically apparent in opera. Few contemporary operas can hold a billing for any length of time. Yet, Giacomo Puccini was "contemporary" in the 1920s, and Richard Strauss in the 1940s (when he wrote his scintillating ARABELLA!). Such composers, in addition to being geniuses, also absorbed inspiration from their culture (which was still present) and from the traditions that had inspired hundreds of other composers previously. I remember a symposium I attended a few years ago, where the question was posed if our age could ever produce another Anton Bruckner (my favorite symphonist). The response was mixed, but the question, I think,remains quite topical. I thank Paul for the essay, and like Sid, I think it's good to range out in such issues. Sent at: 2008 11 21