Classical vs. popular — the book continues

The new episode

of my book is now online. It’s about the conflict between classical and popular

music in the 19th century. Popular music was Rossini and Paganini; classical

music was Beethoven and Schumann. Eventually the two worlds came together,

which is why we now think The Barber of

Seville is classical music, and put the aura of art around it, something

that never would have been done when the piece was new.

The next episode — in which I’ll start to explore the effect

modernism had on the current state of classical music — will be out two weeks

from today, on October 25. If you want to be notified when new episodes appear,

please subscribe (as of course I’ve

urged before). Just type “subscribe to the book” in the subject line of the

e-mail form that appears when you click the link. And, if you would, tell me a

little about yourself, since I’m eager to know who my subscribers are, and why

they’re interested.