Classical Music as Relics for easy listening

Although the Canadian wing of the Republican Party, called up here in Canada the Canadian Alliance, since the Refoooorm Party and its nasal leader did not fare too well in uniting the right (there is a God!) would rather see the American Way triumph and no public money ever going to culture, we can still rely on the CBC. Both the English and the French services actually produce radio worth listening to, although the French is far ahead insofar as serious music is concerned. Another reason to bask in Canadian culture. At least part of our tax dollars are well spent, I believe. Better than spending on WMDs and such... Maybe globalization will put an end to that damn socialist radio and all the great US hucksters will be able to invade the Canadian market and bring us sanitized everything... $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

What all of you are saying is correct, but my point, and maybe I did not state properly, is other than dedicated music companies that produce living composers music, how can
one hear and appreciate modern music, if the radio stations nor the symphonic orchestras will not play modern classical music? It is like going to a Museum of Music. It was not until Mendelsohnn (or was it Beethoven?) looked at the scores of Bach that composers seriously looked at past musical performances. And the cult of the conductor that developed from Mendelsohnn and after, created a situation in which the conductor only specialized in a certain dead composer. And perhaps on a societal-historical plane the decline of the subsidized artist to a free lance composer caused the decline of new music. Brahms catagorically stated he wrote for the masses, not for fine art, though I would beg to differ on the assessment of his work. Perhaps when the middle class, the conductors and the musical directors looked towards the past and not the hear and now, let alone the future, did classical music become a museum of the performing arts. And to the modern composers, they are subsidized again, either as professors at music schools or grants from the government. The exceptional few, are free lance. Just look at any textbook for Music 101. Three quarters of the book takes you to 1910. A few pages on modern classical music, the rest on jazz, blues, musicals, pop, and rock. Maybe that is what it should be, but then again maybe not. I guess it depends on your perspective of what you consider music as art. Of course what is a good definition of art?

The best solution for that is to move to NYC area with pretty good tuner and catch college radio stations such as WFMU(from Jersey City), WFUV, WBGO(Jazz88 from Newark).

Again, Shubie, your critique applies to a lot more than just classical. In fact, I would say it applies even more to rock than it does to classical, because I think rock has historically been more dependent on radio, and is the more radio-centric art form. As a result of the stifling national formatting and ownership situation in modern radio, as well as MTV and the like, rock has largely been deprived of the regionalism and independent label heritage that helped make it vital in the first place, and now industry execs wonder why sales are declining when their product is clearly homogenized and stagnant. Of course classical, including newer classical, has its own set of difficulties extending beyond radio and what applies to rock which uniquely handicap its continued viability and expansion compared to pop forms, but I'm not so sure that the radio situations are fundamentally very different between the two.

Shubertmaniac, you are right in many ways. But one reason modern classical has tanked so badly has been its excessively non-melodic intellectualized nature. Composition gets trapped in styles for periods of time and has to re-emerge in a form people enjoy listening to, not just analyzing. I think this has been correcting itself with composers like Adams, Rautavaara, Tavener, Ades, among others whose works actually do get a fair amount of performance in their respective countries.

Also, don't underestimate the lowly CD. It is a form of music distribution that has never existed before and it greatly improves the lot of struggling composers.