Isabelle wrote:
>During the 1800s and early 1900s, the upper classes
>were extremely well musically educated. But the
>middle class was, also.
and
>I doubt that the majority of middle-class women in
>America today can play a piano piece from sight (or at
>all).
All true, but I'd still say that this was a fairly small group overall
as the size of the middle class was still quite small, especially in
the early 1800s.
I also agree that the level of music education in the US is deplorable.
Growing up in the German high school system, where students are
required to take music classes to the 9th grade if memory serves, I was
at least given an appreciation for classical music. That doesn't
translate into any piano playing skills however. ;)
As for Church & Co, I bought my mother a Boccelli CD about 18 months
ago. She loves opera, but I believe that the CD was played all of
twice since I bought it. My own level of musicianship is still so low
that I can't really speak about whatever technical shortcomings
Boccelli may have. The reason why both of us didn't like him as that
his voice didn't appeal to us. That doesn't mean that he is a bad
singer in my book, it's just different strokes for different folks.
Cheers,
Ingo
P.S. I must admit that I play whatever music suits my present mood, and
that can range from 1980s Euro synth pop to ABBA to classical. Of
course, now that I've admitted that I like ABBA I've probably ruined
what little credibility I had to begin with. ;)
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