Both my husband & myself grew up in homes listening to "classical" music.
His father loved the symphonic works & my husband & his siblings all
played in band & sang in madrigal groups, etc. My father listened to the
popular classics & opera. Both of my parents enjoyed music from the
theatre as well & I started with dance lessons at 4 but switched to the
organ after becoming ill in the 1st grade. My grandfather sang in a
community opera company in Italy before coming to the US so he was always
listening to opera, Italian folk songs & some of the popular Italian
singers of the day whose style bordered on jazz. My mom liked a lot of
music from the 40's & 50's so I've always had a soft spot for jazz & the
"standards". And can't some of those "standards" be considered "art
songs" in their own right??
I'm prone to think that I actually had to learn to like pop music because
I didn't get very interested in it until I was in 3rd or 4th grade. That
was partially due to peer pressure & partially due to the fact that this
was around the time that you had prime time shows such as the "Partridge
Family" & "Sonny & Cher" so everyone was inundated with pop music. And
like every style of music that has gone before, there will be some pop
songs that will become "classics" & others that will fade from the face
of the earth. Remember, just because something has "aged", like wine, it
won't necessarily be good.
Oh, in a similar vein, I would be hard pressed to say that classical
music has not made the crossover to being used in contemporary mediums.
More & more commercials are using opera arias & much of the current movie
music is greatly influenced by the symphonic composers. Some of John
Williams wildly popular music from "Star Wars" is obviously influenced by
Holst's "The Planets". I think that someone who doesn't watch TV or go to
films might overlook these influences. In looking at the history of movie
music, especially from the 30's after the flight of a lot of artists from
Nazi Germany to the US, many names of 20th century composers show up on
the scores of films...the first one that comes to my mind being Korngold.
I'm sure that many of you can think of others.
Pat
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