[vintermann]

I'm not a fan of classical music's cultural self understanding myself - although I do like a lot of classical music. So I do understand where you're coming from.

However, we can't entirely divorce music from its context. If you only listen to music you like without ever asking what it is, who made it, and what they were trying to do with it, you're going to miss out on a lot of things you easily could have liked.

We shouldn't treat music as if it was just sound waves for producing feelings. I think music is communication, people trying to say things, things that maybe aren't so easy to fully say in words. And as with any communication, context matters, and language matters. Understanding non-verbal messages from hundreds of years ago is worth a little effort, I think.

[JasonFruit]

I think we're in agreement on this. It's true that the best classical music has great depths to be plumbed, and some of it requires an understanding of the techniques and intentions of the composers, but there's still plenty that can be taken in by an uneducated listener. My point was that until that uneducated listener gets a bit hooked on it, telling them that they can't possibly appreciate it until they've engaged in serious study is going to sound like off-putting elitist claptrap, and put them off completely. (Which was probably not what you were saying, but it was about my turn to fail at nuance in online conversations.)