It's almost Thanksgiving...

and it's turning into another dismal year for some poor composers of long works. It's just hard for me to understand why a classical radio station that is listener supported finds itself totally unable to broadcast any works of length. My favorite peeve is Beethoven. His first 8 symphonies have been broadcast on KVOD anywhere from 21 times thus far in 2007 (symphony #3) to 29 times (or more) for symphonies 1,2 7 and 8. Yet symphony number 9, the mighty Chorale has only been broadcast 3 times in all of 2007 -- and one of those times was on a special series that I caught that features "Listener Requests"!!!

Then there is Mahler. 2 broadcast each for symphonies 1, 2 and 5. Poor Bruckner has had only 4 symphonies broadcast, one each for 1, 4, 8 and 9. Bruckner has had only 14 pieces broadcast in total for 2007 including smaller religious works. Ravel, on the other hand, clearly a better composer by KVOD's broadcast standards, has had 362 broadcast.

In music appreciation classes (when there were music appreciation classes!) Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique" was often the example of programmatic music. Remember the
"Dream of the Witches Sabbath" and "March to the Scaffold"! Well, the 'all classical music - all the time' stations are broadcasting individual sections and not just the whole piece. KVOD broadcast the entire thing 4 times, WQXR 9 times and KING 6 times.

I cannot understand what causes stations that broadcast round the clock to have to limit pieces based on length. Forget opera, also -- but that's another issue. I also think it somewhat disrespectful to single out individual movements for separate broadcast. But who cares, the composers are dead and not complaining. Perhaps I'm the one complaining too much.