Question

Music critic: Fewer and fewer musicians are studying classical music, decreasing the likelihood that those with real aptitude for such music will be performing it. Audiences who hear these performances will not appreciate classical music’s greatness and will thus decamp to other genres. So to maintain classical music’s current meager popularity, we must encourage more young musicians to enter the field.
Which of the following, if true, most weakens the music critic’s reasoning?

(A) Musicians who choose to study classical music do so because they believe they have an aptitude for the music.

(B) Classical music’s current meager popularity is attributable to the profusion of other genres of music available to listeners.

(C) Most people who appreciate classical music come to do so through old recordings rather than live performances.

(D) It is possible to enjoy the music in a particular genre even when it is performed by musicians who are not ideally suited for that genre.

(E) The continued popularity of a given genre of music depends in part on the audiences being able to understand why that genre attained its original popularity.

Answer 1

Answer:

(B) Classical music’s current meager popularity is attributable to the profusion of other genres of music available to listeners.

Explanation:

The 21st century for classical music presents itself with a profound and complex problem: the acceptance of classical music composed today. Repeating old and accessible buzzwords results in momentary and ephemeral successes. Giving free access to an airtight conception results in contempt. In fact, unlike the early twentieth century, when tumultuous premieres of works such as Stravinsky's Rite of Spring or Parade de Satie even had police intervention, today's public reacts the worst way to a work they don't like: If there is success there is ephemerality If there is a complex thought there is contempt Difficult life of the classical composer of the last 50 years Rudolph Reti (1885-1957), Serbian musicologist and pianist (It was the pianist who debuted the “3 pieces for piano opus 11 ”by Schoenberg”) in his 1956 book “Tonality im modern music” - Collier- NY - has a kind of re He has a different approach to musical aspects, and his term “Pantonality” seems to be very appropriate, since his view, which is not tied to dogmas, is extremely convincing. Far from any kind of ideology we have seen solid and consistent works emerge. Undoubtedly there is something of Pantonal in three great composers of the late twentieth century: Witold Lutosławski (1913-1994), Gyorgi Ligeti (1923-2006) and Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992).

This “pantonal” way of expressing itself, without dogma and shortcuts, seems to guarantee greater perpetuity. At least this is the case of these last three composers I mentioned. I confess that I have reservations about the commercialism and obviousness of contemporary works such as Philip Glass's Symphonies, or even Penderecki's “neo-Bruckner” style, but I see with extreme optimism, for example, the skillful manner in which the Englishman Thomas Adès ( born in 1971) deals with the consonance. The same is true of Frenchman Thierry Escaich (born 1975). His 2012 opera “Claude” is testimony to that.

Once again to paraphrase Schoenberg's phrase, shortening it:“ There is still a lot of good music to be composed. ”Let it be tonal, atonal, serial, pantonal, random, whatever, but good. stylistic design of our time is both fearful and fascinating.