The issue of whether there is a mainstream audience for modern classical music is a complex one, its complexity stemming from the difficulty in defining both the term ‘modern classical music’ and the term ‘mainstream audience’. ...
What is modern classical music? ...
Is it an electronic version of the above, where the composers use, instead of a traditional orchestra, electronic synthesizers to compose and perform their music?
Is it the kind of music which, while it has nothing to do with classical music, is considered serious in the sense of complex music as opposed to light, popular music?
Is it the experimental electronic music blended with acoustic musical sounds and real-life noise which is accessed through the various modern forms of media like films, television movies and commercials, video and computer games etc. ...
Is it finally whatever kind of contemporary music has no lyrics and is not pop or rock either? ... )
All these kinds of music constitute the musical landscape of the twentieth century which is related in one way or another to what we call classical music. A close relationship with traditional classical music cannot be found, in my opinion, except in the movements of the first decades of the century like post-romanticism and neo-classicism. What characterizes music composition of the greater part of the century, especially the period after World War II, is experimentation and a constant search for new systems of writing music, new forms, new styles. It seems however that the closer to tradition a composer stood, the more acceptable and successful his music was. ... Their superb melodies and dramatic plots are both characteristic elements of the classical tradition. ... There is also a big audience for composers like Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Bartok who wrote music directly descended from the approved models of the past and just invested it with some modernistic elements. ... An example of popularity based on the combination of classical and popular styles is the American composer Gershwin who, in his operas, used elements of blues, jazz and Latin dance-rhythms that were prevalent in the 30s, that is the period in which he lived.
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