Rorem: How Classical Music Lost Its Audience In The 20th Century

Ned Rorem “has a novel theory that newspapers and critics shaped the county’s musical conservatism in the early 20th century, entrenching a certain Eurocentric repertory because that’s what newspaper people believed their audience wanted to hear and read about. ‘The general public avoids contemporary music. But of course now most contemporary musc is comparatively listenable. It’s a twentieth century thing’.”