People who don’t listen to classical music are not stupid

“people who don’t listen to classical music” doesn’t mean “stupid jungle camp watchers”. There is space between, filled with great people!
That tweet came from Sven Helbig whose Pocket Symphonies sparked a recent post. Sven makes a very good point, but the currently fashionable condescending classics and TV reality shows will not enthuse those great people. There is a lot to learn from Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s film scores as captured on the 1972 LP above – music that is neither easy nor difficult.

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Comments

Philip Amos said…
I rather think the people who don't listen to classical music are straw men in this conversation. There surely are people, mainly young, whose brains are so wired or their ears so adapted to nothing but the Norwegian Death Metal blasting through their earphones who simply cannot appreciate classical music. But for anyone to say "I don't like classical music" is just a bit silly, for it is to say that they don't like any of the 'serious' music composed over the past seven centuries. But in any case, if they haven't necessarily listened to it, they've heard a lot of it, all unawares, for the amount of it used in movies is vast, though almost always unacknowledged.

Naxos has a series devoted to classical works used in movies, and it too is vast. I was aware of its use, but the extent of that rather shocked me. And so, many people may unaware have heard, perhaps actually listened to, and mayhap liked classical works. When it's been acknowledged in the credits, as with Elvira Madigan and Death in Venice, the effect on sales of CDs of the works has of course been phenomenal. So it is that I'm not certain these people in between actually exist in such large numbers. If they like Korngold's film music, I should think it more likely than not that they may like his purely abstact works, and those of other composers too. Heavens, it's not so complicated, only a matter of the heart responding to a certain rhythm, a beautiful melody, or what Elgar and Beecham used to call a good tune.
3:29 pm
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