And, don't I know it!
But, Doug, if you cannot appreciate Schoenberg, why do you jump to the conclusion that it has something to do with education? Have you by any chance seen that old Hollywood oddity that stars Jascha Heifetz? One scene made a strong impression on me. Haifetz is playing some kind of last minute benefit performance, saving a settlement school for poor music students. The mothers are all so excited about the school being saved in the nick of time, they're all aflutter outside the door of the hall. A big burly policeman shushes them up, saying, "Can't you hear that?" Evidently, it was believable at that time (say, 1940) to portray a policeman as man who wants to hear the Mendelsohn Violin Concerto.
When I was a child, my father taught at the American School in Guatemala City. I was too young to remember, but my parents have told me many times about the city park, to which poor villagers would come from far and wide to hear Mozart played over radio loud speakers.
Actually, if you read some of Schoenberg's recollections, you will find that he was often meeting people from less privileged rungs of society who knew his music, and thanked him for it.
I myself have had the experience of performing original electronic music in places where it was truly "unheard of," and I had mostly, if not entirely, friendly responses. I'll never forget two elderly women who stumbled into a concert of mine in the Las Vegas Public Library. "When are you going to do this again," one asked warmly. I don't say this to brag about my music, but only because at that time my music was greatly influenced by avant guarde composers like the Italian, Berio, and it wasn't a bit less radical in form or style. Yet, people liked it. My landlady in Vegas had a particular fondness for my music, and I know for a fact she had NO musical education. Anne Murray was about her speed.
One can of course study music all through life without reaching the end of it. Yet, no particular education is required to appreciate fine art music, of the past or the present. All that is required is, if you'll allow me to resurrect an obsolete usage of a word that I think we need today, a certain sensibility. Alec - you asked me what is wrong with popular music. There is nothing wrong with it. But I wonder why we are not asking, what is wrong with classical music, or, is it ok for people NOT to have classical music? Because that really speaks more to the reality of a society that is largely demoting the position and role of high art. I don't know that you could call the classical music world oppressed, but the classical musician surely is. But, that's beside the point. The real thing I think we should be concerned with is the decline of human sensibilities in general which is a product of the society we live in. It is not just indigenous culture that is "gone with the wind" that blows from Wall Street.
The reasons for the cultural domination of popular music today have their origin in the political economy. I won't go into those reasons here, except to say that, as in other spheres of life, the political economy dictates that musical sensibilities be driven down to a relatively primitive level. There is a utility in reducing the human rhythmic consciousness to the span of two beats to the bar. I wouldn't have thought it possible, but our culture has very nearly succeeded in wiping triple-time entirely off the musical map - nuked it, as it were, although, of course, the country folk hang in their with their Waltzing Matildas. I had a friend once who claimed that there could be no war, if only marches were in three-four time.
Daniel