ablyth

This is fairly belated entry to this discussion so I am probably just rehashing another contribution. However all music should aspire to the status of pop music. The problem in classical music is that it has ceased to be a popular music. Brahms made no money from his symphonies or piano concertos but lots of money from his Hungarian Dances and Liebeslieder waltzes. The reality of most famous classical composers( Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Dvorak, Chopin, various Strausses, etc.) is that they made a living from writing music and it was usually the popular forms (Magic Flute, Cantatas on well known tunes, Der Rosenkavalier, various songs and short pieces) that made them the money. The ideas that the two types of music , popular and classical, are at odds is a notion that has only developed as classical composers have lost touch with what audiences wish to listen to and are unable to relate to the society in which they live.