The DU Lounge

or even at their unfamiliarity with works I can sing in my sleep, and I now keep the snobbery of my youth to myself. In my dotage I'm just delighted that someone has just discovered a work that has long been familiar to me, even if it's something that every orchestra plays every season and every classical radio station seems to play over and over. But not everybody goes to concerts or listens to classical radio stations, and there's a reason some pieces are played over and over - it's because they're great, and they touch people. Many years ago, as a stuck-up know-it-all music major I wondered why Beethoven's 5th symphony was so popular, they play it all the time, how boring, why not more Shostakovich, blah blah blah. But eventually I turned off my musical elitism and really listened to it, and finally understood why: It's great. It's brilliant. It's revolutionary. So, whatever it is that you discovered, be proud you discovered it and that you love it. If it's that familiar it's because a lot of people love it, and it's not junk. And I apologize for the snobs.