When I was a child I was told that it was easy to judge music. “Great music” was written by “great composers” who were all male, German and dead! Great composers wrote symphonies, lesser ones didn’t, so while Beethoven was undoubtedly “great” Grieg was less so as his inspiration went merely as far as a concerto, and only one of those! Being Norwegian he could be considered an honorary German, well, at least he wan’t English!

Dance music and jazz were of course at best “rubbish” if not actually evil. This was another aspect of musical judgement in my childhood years, the attachment of moral values to music, and to the arts in general even as far as ascribing vice or virtue to individual instruments! I have read that at an early performance of Job by Vaughan Williams the use of the saxophone was forbidden by cathedral authorities at the three choirs festival, on the basis of its association with “low” music. How times have changed: Gerard McChristal, saxophone virtuoso, has a concert all to himself at this year’s event.

The musical establishment had a problem with “modern music”. It was undeniably intellectual which made it “good” but nobody liked it, so no one went to its concerts. William Glock at the BBC espoused the cause of serialism safe behind his license fee from any tawdry need to entertain and there were of course mavericks who just didn’t fit into any of the neat categories, beloved of critics, notably Benjamin Britten who wrote “good” music, not serial and widely enjoyed, going his own way, ignoring completely the tyranny of fashion. He did write one symphony but it wasn’t a “proper” one, with too much singing to really qualify though his operas perhaps qualified him as an honorary “great”

Now its a free for all and all are equal. Who dares to suggest that any kind of noise however banal or even unpleasant cannot rank beside the “great composers”? Our “quality newspapers” solemnly review “rock” as though it were some kind of art form rather than an extremely popular form of dance music. Serious music has hidden itself in the minimalists folds of trite new clothes whose existence only the bravest critic will deny. It took a daring heroine of a regional newspaper to  describe a concert by a minimalist darling as “mere doodling at the piano” which is exactly what it was!

I was taught, a little later than childhood, that the art of writing a successful essay consisted in the ability to take an intellectual position on a topic then defend it by reasoned and informed argument. How would one dare write an essay today? Is that why I haven’t?