This is all rather strange. The same arguments about how classical music was being dumbed down so it would become more popular could be heard forever, consider the NY Philharmonic's Young People's Concert series, particularly the ones on TV in the 1950s. Consider West Side Story, the music of Gershwin, Copeland, and yes, Anton Dvorzak. Indeed, consider Giuseppe Verdi who was also a ferocious popularizer.
As a beneficiary of the Young People's Concert series who got to hear a bunch of music from Star Wars and walked out with a cassette of Holst's "The Planets," that popularization worked pretty well for me!
This is all rather strange. The same arguments about how classical music was being dumbed down so it would become more popular could be heard forever, consider the NY Philharmonic's Young People's Concert series, particularly the ones on TV in the 1950s. Consider West Side Story, the music of Gershwin, Copeland, and yes, Anton Dvorzak. Indeed, consider Giuseppe Verdi who was also a ferocious popularizer.
As a beneficiary of the Young People's Concert series who got to hear a bunch of music from Star Wars and walked out with a cassette of Holst's "The Planets," that popularization worked pretty well for me!
I won't even get into Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries and Elmer Fudd's Kill Da Wabbit. Too easy.
Interesting points.
John likes to talk about the progressive left as a religion. Yet ironically, he sounds a little doctrinaire on this topic.