Let me begin with the good news. Over the past decade, classical music—Western, dead-white-European-male music, if you will—has become more popular in America than ever. The evidence of this popularity is to be found everywhere. There are more composers, more performers, more new works being written, more new and old works being played, and more students studying to be performers. There are more symphony orchestras, more opera companies, more professional choruses, and more large music schools. Audiences for live concerts and operas have been steadily increasing for many years; it is also demonstrably true that the so-called revolution has resulted in the sale of extra millions of classical-music recordings to millions of music listeners both young and old. Along with all the purchases of CDs (and video cassettes and laser discs), of course, go sales of billions of dollars’ worth of new and newer hi-fi hardware, some of which at least is used to play classical music. Nor can the extraordinary reach of opera broadcasts on public television, and on various cable channels too, be ignored; broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera are seen by millions of viewers in the United States, and now by millions abroad on their own government-run channels. Furthermore, the Met now has ambitious plans for gala pay-per-view television broadcasts, from which it is hoped that the company will draw large revenues. Even in the trend-conscious academy, the study of great music, not just as notes and sounds but as ideas and influences, has become