>Here in Europe, in many countries like Italy, Germany, Austria, and so on, it did exist. Concerts, operas, etc, were popular affairs, at least from middle clas

>Here in Europe, in many countries like Italy, Germany, Austria, and so on, it did exist. Concerts, operas, etc, were popular affairs, at least from middle class and above. Precisely, the mass consumption of literate (i.e. notated music) was created in the 19th century. Only two of Beethoven's piano sonatas were played _in public_ during his lifetime; the piano recital as we know today was invented by Liszt. Orchestral concerts and Opera also enormously expanded in popularity in the 19th century with the rise of the middle class and their cultural aspirations. Previously Opera has been the only truly "popular" art, and even then it has to be heavily subsidised as it can never survive on the support of the population at large. The 19th century is a tiny slice in history for notated music in the West which stretches back to the Carolingian empire in the 9th century! Throughout vast swathes of history notated music was limited to chant and then polyphony which was cultivated by the musicians and their circle. Even the hugely democratising effect of printed music only brought in amateurs, who need to learn the notation and play or sing for themselves. This is not comparable with the situation from the invention of the recording when any person can access a large slice of the entire repertory of notated music at leisure. >Public music, in festivals, churches, rituals, celebrations and so on, was the norm throughout history. And folk musicians has been a job since forever - even in rural areas. Here in Southern Europe, for example, its a tradition lost in time... Precisely, and because they were not notated, it's very difficult to get an idea of what was played. We have the notation for literate music and we still debate endlessly on how they should be played! Those ephemereal music played in the taverns and markets are the true predecessors of "popular" music made for and by the people, not music for musicians like Mozart or Bach; Notated and unotated music form parallel traditions which intersect but remain distinct. You will note how I painstakingly repeat the terms "literate music" and "notated music" because that is the one distinguishing factor that unites everything from Perotin to Poulenc, and is a coherent topic on which discussion is possible rather than the much more amorphous idea of just "music". A lot of confusion surrounding this topic arose in the first place because no such distinction was made.