From the BBC Proms to Bernstein's Young People's Concerts, initiatives
to promote classical music have been a pervasive feature of
twentieth-century musical life. The goal of these initiatives was rarely
just to reach a larger and more diverse audience but to teach a
particular way of listening that would help the public "appreciate"
music. This book examines for the first time how and why music
appreciation has had such a defining and long-lasting impact--well
beyond its roots in late-Victorian liberalism. It traces the networks of
music educators, philanthropists, policy makers, critics, composers, and
musicians who, rather than resisting new mass media, sought to harness
their pedagogic potential. The book explores how listening became
embroiled in a nexus of modern problems around citizenship, leisure, and
education. In so doing, it ultimately reveals how a new cultural
milieu--the middlebrow--emerged at the heart of Britain's experience of
modernity.