# A Populist Plea for Classical Music



## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

This article appeared in the local paper last week.

http://articles.philly.com/2013-03-...ssical-music-claude-debussy-ethereal-melodies


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*It is never too late*

As a newbie, you will find that many, many people here are adults who are new to classical music. After spending their youth listening to more main street fare they discover classical and are drawn into it.

Two famous examples are the composers William Schuman and Eric Whitacre.

When Schuman was younger, he was a tin pan alley composer and wrote over forty songs with Frank Loesser. His sister dragged him to a New York Phil concert and he was overwhelmed. He quit his job and enrolled in the Malkin Conservatory and the rest is history.

Whitacre is from Reno, Nevada and was a garage rock musician. He entered UNLV as a music major and had to sign up for an ensemble. He entered the choral because in his words they had the best looking chicks. The first piece they learned was the Mozart _Requiem_. He has an epiphany and is now one of the hot choral composers.

Closer to home, my oldest son is mid-thirties. Until he was in the ninth grade he played bassoon in the band. He gave it up so he could play ice hockey. He played goalie for the club team at Virginia Tech and continued to play amateur as an adult. Unfortunately he had a serious knee injury and had to give up playing the game.

As far as music was concerned, classical was that stuffy stuff that his old man played and listened too.

Well about a year ago he got one of these highfalutin xyz-pads. He signed up for an application that gave him access to this large library of 50,000 some recordings including classical. He decided to try some classical and a monster was born. Once or twice a week he calls and I get the, "Dad, guess who I just discovered" call. He is now obsessed with Mahler, a chip off the old block. What he really likes is chamber music. He now knows more about the chamber music of Schubert, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Brahms than I do. I have discovered that for most of the new classical people it is just a matter of exposure.


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## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

That's a great story about your son. I agree with you about it being a matter of exposure. Classical music was always elevator/background music to me until a few years ago when I married a Jersey girl and she started playing it around the house.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Pyotr said:


> Classical music was always elevator/background music to me until a few years ago when I married a Jersey girl and she started playing it around the house.


Hail, Jersey girl!


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