Maggie's Farm

I do not know what "classical music" means, but I understand that it tends to be used to refer to old music and art music.

Mrs. B. says "Bach isn't classical music - he's Baroque."  OK. 

I keep it simple: There is folk/pop/Broadway music, and there is more demanding music. No idea about where to put jazz. I won't obsess about the categories because jazz makes me focus completely. Keith Jarrett. I enjoy all sorts of music but music which demands more of me, as a listener, keeps me interested longer. 

But to obsess a little longer, are Verdi's operas pop, or other? What about Charles Ives, and Benjamin Britten? All music is for fun and entertainment, or for spiritual enhancement.

For the non-musically trained, I believe a bit of (legal) cannabis can enhance listening. 

There was a time in north America, and lots of other places, when every kid had some musical instruction, whether voice or instrumental and regardless of talent.

This is apropos to MacDonald's  Classical Music’s Suicide Pact (Part 1). Succumbing to specious charges of racism, America’s orchestras, opera companies, and conductors are abandoning the Western canon.

She quotes this:

  Garrett McQueen, then an announcer for American Public Media, told a Composers Forum roundtable in June 2020: “You are complicit in racism every time you listen to Handel’s Messiah.”