As of December I am officially that Last Woman In America To Buy An MP3 player.  Until then, I openly scoffed at the idea .  “I don't need to have music with me everywhere I go. I prefer to experience reality directly, without an after-market soundtrack. ”  Dear Lord, how I prattled on about that.   To say nothing of my equally tiresome rant about how music deserves to be paid attention to, not just employed as sonic chewing-gum.

That all changed when  I realized that music might keep me distracted enough to endure occasional exercise, something I otherwise regard as a form of corporal punishment. So lately I’ve been going on ½ hour walks, propelled by music that seems designed for that purpose.  I’ll spare myself the embarrassment of publicly divulging a typical playlist; it suffices to say  that I just returned from a lunchtime saunter with the words “WAR! HUH!  Good God y’all” stuck in my head.

 It strikes me, though, that as a Licensed and Bonded Classical Music Announcer, I really ought to include some classical music in my exercise routine.  Any suggestions?  

Classical Grammys:  What’s that, you say?  There are Grammys for classical music?

Sunday evening, much later than I would have liked (since I get up so early), my wife and I watched part of this year’s Grammy awards.  It was pretty spectacular, I have to admit, from Lady Gaga’s costumed spectacle to Pink’s nearly-nude trapeze stunt, the performances were dazzling.  However, and you may not know this, by the time of the highly publicized awards for the main pop categories, there have already been awards held for the many other categories, including classical music.

But you will probably never see this portion aired, and I don’t need to tell you why.  Classical music, at least in the United States, comprises about 3 percent of the total revenue of the recording industry, so it gets little notice.  In fact, on the Grammy site itself, the “classical music” category is second to the bottom, right after “production, classical”, and “music video”.  I doubt that even the top classical artists could match the acrobatics of the women who wowed audiences on Sunday evening.  Perhaps that’s just as well, given the raised expectations of the crowd!

It’s interesting to look over the list and see the type of music that the instrumental and vocal soloists, orchestras, choirs and record producers chose in their nominated and winning CDs.  Here’s a link to the winners of the 2010 Classical Grammy awards.