After Otello, among other things I learned about Modernism. I learned about uncompromising artists such as Ezra Pound who thought if you couldn't read Greek or Sanskrit, you could learn it and then maybe you could get a handle on his poetry. He sure wasn't going to explain it to you.

I liked that approach. Terms such as "user friendly" or "accessible" were not in vogue. I could not have imagined that they ever would be. I liked the idea of the primacy of art and artists. I still do personally, but it doesn't help much with making program notes in the early part of the 21st century.

A lot has happened since The Ed Sullivan Show. Whereas Ed never explained anything, you may now go to any fine-arts museum today and order up a headset. You may then stand before any artwork and listen to a voice telling you what to think about that artwork. People pay for those headsets. Sometimes it's a movie star telling you.

Museum-goers now walk by works of art, take a picture of a painting or sculpture with their magic phone, and then move to the next painting or sculpture. Repeat.

We are in the age of mediated culture, which means we are in the age of mediated reality. Few things are experienced without a screen through which to view and record: instant memory! Reality needs to be realized through something--a gadget, a device, a guide.

With all that--this amazing rapid shift in human consciousness--I know that I should not be so aggravated by the very low-tech program notes (although they are available online). They are downright homely in comparison to all the other vehicles through which we are bombarded with information. Moreover, dare I say it, program notes may be irrelevant. Anyone may gather information about anything whenever and however they want. Why rely on printed--how archaic!--program notes? The information age is a DIY world.

And it is with this idea I come to realize a reason for program notes to be.

(final installment tomorrow, honest)