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Entry: The Death of Music by the Spirit of Government Subsidies Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_death_of_music_from_the_spirit_of_government_subsidies#16046 Post contents: I am grateful for Dr. Cathey’s comments. I had not meant to suggest that all great composers were unpopular in their day nor that I considered unpopularity a proof of, shall we say, artistic “authenticity.” In addition to the examples he cites, with all of which I agree, I cite a few more: Brahms was popular--indeed, he was the archetypal establishment figure--and posterity feels as warmly about him as his contemporaries did (though Schoenberg, who loved his music deeply, understood its original qualities far better than many a typical admirer, past or present); Haydn, too, of course, as well as the great master of the lute song, John Dowland, who either resented his fame or feigned resentment brilliantly. The point I was insufficiently clear-spoken to make was that it takes but little reflection to see that the power of music is unrelated to the number of people who feel that power. There is no use denying that one salient characteristic of the products of the human imagination is their lack of durability--it’s remarkable that so much from Greco-Roman times has survived, and yet who doubts that almost everything has perished?--hence, the likelihood that a composer who doesn’t make a hit with a statistically sizable segment of tastemakers within a few decades of his death will ever find an audience is small to nil. But equating the voice of the people with the voice of God was, I thought, sooooo last week. I think Irene Wood misses the point of education. There is a tired old joke about an American tourist who takes the tour of one of England’s stately country homes and on the way out collars the lord of the manor, who has been careless enough to let himself be seen. “Nice lawn you got here; how do you get a lawn like this?” The lord replies, “You plant good seed, wait for the grass to appear, and then roll it every day for seven hundred years.” Even the best generalist education does no more than plant seeds, but unless good seed is planted, nothing worthwhile will ever grow--no matter how what the quality of the dentistry. Sent at: 2008 09 06