I assume the vast majority of people who post on TC are enthusiastic listeners of classical music. The term expert is not trivial to define, but for the purposes of this thread I will assume something along the lines of the following.
A person is an expert in a field if:
1) she has spent a significant amount of time both studying the field and interacting with others who study the field, and
2) others who have spent a large amount of time studying the field recognize her as having attained a superior level of knowledge and understanding of that field.
I am decidedly not a classical music expert. For a long time I have wondered why the works I love are almost always considered "great" works by experts. I think that is true of many/most listeners. While I can imagine reasons why that might be so, I believe it is far from obvious why it should be so. Some works I love such as Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto or Schubert's Piano Quintet are, apparently not especially well composed; nevertheless, they are considered "great". I have always believed this relationship is much less true in popular music.
Why should so much classical music loved by enthusiastic listeners also be considered "great" by music experts?
There are reasons to develop lists of great works and composers (if only for music history classes). While I think such lists ought to be created by experts, do you think it would matter if they were created by large groups of enthusiastic listeners?
A person is an expert in a field if:
1) she has spent a significant amount of time both studying the field and interacting with others who study the field, and
2) others who have spent a large amount of time studying the field recognize her as having attained a superior level of knowledge and understanding of that field.
I am decidedly not a classical music expert. For a long time I have wondered why the works I love are almost always considered "great" works by experts. I think that is true of many/most listeners. While I can imagine reasons why that might be so, I believe it is far from obvious why it should be so. Some works I love such as Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto or Schubert's Piano Quintet are, apparently not especially well composed; nevertheless, they are considered "great". I have always believed this relationship is much less true in popular music.
Why should so much classical music loved by enthusiastic listeners also be considered "great" by music experts?
There are reasons to develop lists of great works and composers (if only for music history classes). While I think such lists ought to be created by experts, do you think it would matter if they were created by large groups of enthusiastic listeners?