Pretentious vs. Ordinary

A few posts back, I posted about wanting a Chowhound version of classical music. Well, it's not quite Chowhound, but after looking through the myriad of classical music groups on Facebook (yes, I'm probably too old to be on Facebook. But then, I'm probably too old to be blogging too? Except that now everyone of all ages seems to be blogging. Even at the old, stodgy place where I work, where the average age is probably more than twice my age, people are blogging away like a bunch of gen-y-ers.) , I think I found a discussion group that I like.

Many of the discussion threads for this group seem to be over my head (as in, I don't recognize half of the people they are talking about), but the discussions seem to be lively, mostly interesting, and quite ane (yes, I know that's not a word, but it should be.) compared to some of the discussions on other more popular classical music groups. Even if I have no opinion on the "Kurtag vs. Ligeti" debate, I have already gotten a lot of good recommendations to add to my CD collection from trolling around on their discussion boards.

The only problem is that the group is called "Pretentious Classical Music Elitists", which brings up a question/issue.

I agree with the basic premise of the group, which eschews the notion of classical music as "soothing, relaxing" (mind-numbing, valium. . .), etc. and is against anything that dumbs down classical music. We are also on the same page with regard to radio stations that dumb down classical music to the masses.

However, their response to these problems is kind of lame.

I mean, does one have to be "pretentious" or "elitist" to properly appreciate classical music? What about those of us who don't know enough about classical music to be pretentious or elitist, but still demand a decent radio station that doesn't butcher great orchestral symphonies or dumb down this genre in general?

This is such a Manichean, either/or world-view of classical music. Either you like Pachelbel's Canon and listen to classical music to relax, or you are elitist and pretentious?

Maybe it's because of such attitudes that people are scared off from the likes of Elliott Carter or a Bruchner symphony (this is a reference to a specific blog entry, which I won't bother linking to, b/c it has restricted access, but I didn't want people to think I just pull my references out of thin air. . .:-P)

Such dichotomies don't quite help make classical music (and I mean stuff beyond just one movement of the ubiquitous Four Seasons, Pachelbel's Canon, etc.) more accessible to a wider audience.

It doesn't fill seats of concert halls or bring much-needed $ to performing arts groups that are attempting to do their part in introducing audiences to a wider and more interesting repertoire of classical music.

We have enough Manicheanism in the current administration; please don't bring such reductionistic thinking into the world of classical music, too.