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This talks about how enthusiastic his fans were, but still nothing to indicate that his fandom extended beyond the sphere of aristocratic power that was the mai
by giraffe_lady 2y ago
This talks about how enthusiastic his fans were, but still nothing to indicate that his fandom extended beyond the sphere of aristocratic power that was the main audience for classical music at that time.
The historical record tends to be overwhelmingly biased towards the interests of the ruling classes, mostly because they were the ones creating the historical record. But taking that into account while reading this, and remembering that people outside of this class were the vast majority of people, I don't see any reason to think he had a massive body of fans outside of this small powerful group.
- defrost 2y agoThe claim was that "only the rich and powerful could listen to [classical music] played by an orchestra at a dedicated concert hall" thus limiting the general awareness. While that's as aspirational as having the time off and the money and the luck to attend a taylor Swift Concert today, the hoi pollai were indeed familiar through d/loads today and, in past times, through sheet music in beer halls and smaller parlours - music was widespread throughout society beyond just grand concert halls, it was played by "gypsy" trios and quartets who played their own styles and riffed on motifs by "the greats", Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt, etc.