Music Library Exhibit: "Rumors of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated"

The situation of Western Art Music in contemporary culture has long been a topic of both cocktail conversation and more recently, book-length academic musing. Is "classical music" dead? Has it been irretrievably marginalized, the rarified province of a few? Or is art music actually as healthy as ever? Defenders, apologists, and the occasional naysayer are all weighing in. Can classical music really be in danger of disappearing through neglect--or have our habits changed as patrons and consumers? This exhibit displays several recent books on the subject, as well as items which signal the ascendent role of the internet in the propagation of art music today.