Of course "classical" doesn't refer to that period in music history when Haydn and Mozart reigned supreme (for good reason). The term "classical music" seems to be the catch-all to describe so-called "serious" music from around the Renaissance to the present day. The question remains: after hundreds of years, what is it about classical music that draws its listeners in, new ones every day, from all manner of background and life experience. Even the child who hums the famous ditty from Haydn's "Surprise" symphony, which he is learning in those "simplified" piano versions, all the way to the "serious" afficcionado who, some of which in their mind's ear can "listen"through an endless list of masterpieces in a multitude of "classical" genres: sonatas, symphonies, concertos, choral music...the list is literally endless, without an iPod or CD even in arm's reach. I guess I find myself in this category, but don't take undue pride in what my brain has loved and absorbed for 50 years, over the neophyte who just experienced that first sense of awe combined with understanding that all great art conveys re the universal experience, i.e. being alive.
More to come.
