demusic1-4, Exercise 3: The canon

Model answer (one possible answer):

The nineteenth century began the habit of building concerts around a core of older "masterworks", where earlier audiences expected mostly new music. Today that habit means orchestras and opera houses return again and again to Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and a few others.

One benefit: great works are kept alive, played well and studied closely, and audiences share a common repertoire.

One cost: music outside the core, including music by women and by less fashionable composers, is performed rarely, and living composers have a harder time being heard. The canon can also make a national "line of greatness" look natural when it was chosen (see Chapter 10).

Fair conclusion: the canon is both a way of preserving music and a filter, and it is worth asking who built the filter and why.