[Chooriwrocafn]

It's a valid question, to ask about what people think of Contemporary Art music (I prefer to use that term rather than 'classical' music). People are leaving the concert hall in droves because of the avant garde, which is a more esoteric area of the contemporary scene. I don't blame them because, for me, music must have some kind of melody - even 'implied' melody. Without this ingredient music has all the emotional appeal of a dictionary and I can do better by reading a dictionary!! The remoteness of composition to audience expectation was alluded to recently by Roger Norrington in the film 'In Search of Haydn'. Norrington observed, "Haydn was always wanting to please his audiences. Wouldn't that be something novel today; composers actually wanting to please audiences". I think Norrington has summed the issues up with that single sentence.