Why You Can't Learn to Like It

Why is it that most people writing about saving classical music invariably sound hopelessly out-of-touch (hopelessly because they do not seem to realise that they are out of touch)?

Bernard Holland answers Why You Can't Learn to Like It. His out-of-touchness is clearly expressed when he says:

Schools have not done a good job of passing classical music along, and popular culture has grown hugely powerful. Mozart's music remains central for the enclaves that still embrace it. But set against the avalanche of rock recordings and concerts, Mozart is for the world at large - despite wishful thinking - a fringe, not a center.

Music, for the last two generations more than at any earlier time, has become for lawyers and day laborers alike almost an expression of current events, a form of self-definition both moral and political. It is perfectly reasonable to argue that music 200 years old possesses qualities that bear deeply on our immediate world. It still does for a lot of us, but tell that to the young people pouring into rock concerts around the country.

I wonder: was 16th century music at the centre of the lives of those who listened to Mozart in the last part of the 18th? And when was music not "an expression of current events, a form of self-definition both moral and political"? Perhaps that's part of classical music's problem, eh Mr. Holland? Perhaps he does not see this because in this article he puts forward an incredibly stunted view of the world of music (European classical vs. "rock").

Furthermore, who was Mozart's audience? It clearly was not "the people":

With that, the floodgates were opened and the invitations poured in. Because each appearance was rewarded -- the empress sent an honorarium of 100 ducats -- Leopold tried to arrange as many concerts as many as possible. "Today we were at the French Ambassador's. Tomorrow we are invited to Count Harrach's from four to six, but which Count Harrach he is I do not know. I shall see where the carriage takes us to," Leopold wrote. "The nobles send us their invitations four, five, six to eight days in advance, in order not to miss us."
(The Mozart Project, referring to the early 1760s)

In 1787, Mozart was appointed to the post of Kammercmusicus, although the salary did little to lessen the couple's financial hardships. The post required Mozart to compose dance music for court balls.
(http://www.incwell.com/Biographies/Mozart.html)

And yet, Holland makes a good point regarding how one appreciates music:

I don't understand an elm tree, but give me the right one, and I like to sit under it. Knowing its biology may help, but the heart is not a biologist.

In other words, "Ya like what ya like." So why doesn't he apply this thinking to today's popular music, which he subsumes under the banner of "rock"? Superficial (or rather, non-existent) attempts at understanding a contemporary music world that has shunted classical music aside is not going to advance any crusade to "save" it.