Here I would like to tackle Beef Oven's Tenth :-):
It was actually the main founder of the Proms, Robert Newman, who said he wanted “to train the public in easy stages [...] Popular at first, gradually raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and modern music.”
The first point is you only have to look at the early Proms to see that there were no concerts devoted to either 'popular' or 'modern' music. And until Roger Wright's regime a century later there were only occasional ones, years apart.
Second point: Looking at early Prom concerts, it seems clear that by 'modern' Newman was thinking of living 'classical' composers like Cécile Chaminade or Saint-Saëns, or even recently dead like Auber, Benjamin Godard or Wienawski, and whose works might not yet have become firm concert-hall repertoire; not contemporary popular.
Third point: It's not clear how a 'Radio 1 dance-party' at the Proms creates a public for classical or modern music, of any kind. There already is a public for dance-parties. Is it supposed that it will convert regular Proms-goers to dance-parties as well?
It now has to do with Radio 3 because the Proms have been the BBC Proms, since 1927. And the justification for the BBC running the Proms is that the concerts are providing content for BBC broadcasts. Since there is now much less on television, Radio 3's live broadcasts are the principal outlet, the Proms forming an important part of Radio 3's schedule. It might make more sense if Radio 1 alone took the concert and enabled Radio 3 to give an evening outing for one of the lunchtime concerts instead. Otherwise it's not clear what the benefit is of broadcasting a Radio 1 dance-party to a Radio 3 audience. Clearly, there is a benefit to Radio 1's audience who have been unable to get tickets for the real Ibiza dance-party in a couple of weeks' time, having a Prom to go to. But all they're getting is a second-best to being at the real Radio 1 Weekend. I suppose it may become a Proms regular once the government questions why the BBC is promoting a dance-party over in Ibiza anyway. ["It's part of our education and learning remit," I hear them say.]
I'm unsure why a 'Radio 1 dance party' would be outside the remit of the Proms. Forgive me if the remit of the Proms has been authoritatively explicated elsewhere and I've not seen it, but I thought that it was a loose sort of Sir Henry Wood type thing about 'creating a public appetite for classical and modern music'. And what's Radio 3 got to do with any of this?
The first point is you only have to look at the early Proms to see that there were no concerts devoted to either 'popular' or 'modern' music. And until Roger Wright's regime a century later there were only occasional ones, years apart.
Second point: Looking at early Prom concerts, it seems clear that by 'modern' Newman was thinking of living 'classical' composers like Cécile Chaminade or Saint-Saëns, or even recently dead like Auber, Benjamin Godard or Wienawski, and whose works might not yet have become firm concert-hall repertoire; not contemporary popular.
Third point: It's not clear how a 'Radio 1 dance-party' at the Proms creates a public for classical or modern music, of any kind. There already is a public for dance-parties. Is it supposed that it will convert regular Proms-goers to dance-parties as well?
It now has to do with Radio 3 because the Proms have been the BBC Proms, since 1927. And the justification for the BBC running the Proms is that the concerts are providing content for BBC broadcasts. Since there is now much less on television, Radio 3's live broadcasts are the principal outlet, the Proms forming an important part of Radio 3's schedule. It might make more sense if Radio 1 alone took the concert and enabled Radio 3 to give an evening outing for one of the lunchtime concerts instead. Otherwise it's not clear what the benefit is of broadcasting a Radio 1 dance-party to a Radio 3 audience. Clearly, there is a benefit to Radio 1's audience who have been unable to get tickets for the real Ibiza dance-party in a couple of weeks' time, having a Prom to go to. But all they're getting is a second-best to being at the real Radio 1 Weekend. I suppose it may become a Proms regular once the government questions why the BBC is promoting a dance-party over in Ibiza anyway. ["It's part of our education and learning remit," I hear them say.]
) make a value judgement (it's good/bad).
I was struck by the fact that 'avant-garde jazz' was the only music that I wouldn't describe as 'popular music': R&B, soft rock, folk[?], punk, heavy metal. The story didn't mention classical music at all, though it did say 26 styles were analysed. Was one of them 'classical music'? or did it mention symphonic (classical, Romantic), chamber, art song, early polyphony, choral, opera, contemporary &c?
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