A question: has anyone read James H. Johnson, Listening in Paris: a
Cultural History, (U. California Pr., 1995)? I have only seen a
publishers catalog entry for it. I wonder if the approach it employs
would illuminate the questions raised by this discussion. I, for one,
would be interested in hearing more about how music is consumed, as much
as how it is composed. England in the 19C would not look like a land
without music if the assumptions behind the question are changed in this
way. I also would not exclude traditions of popular music, Gilbert and
Sullivan, music halls, etc., which enjoyed a wide audience.
Peter H. Hansen, phansen@wpi.edu
Worcester Polytechnic Institute