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Well, I'll have to reread, but the evaluation of its decline seems pretty well thought out.
I'm not really sure what you'd like to discuss from the article, but I'd assume it would be the decline of classical music.
He cited the culture, but I think connotations of class and culture changing during the 1960s is only part of it. The use of classical music in popular culture has devolved it to the point of being thought of as soundtrack music instead of as simply music. It is hard to listen to Ode To Joy without thinking of the commercial uses of the melody to sell us a product. To listen to Oh Fortuna from Carmina Burana without thinking of one of the many epic movies that it was used in (although the use of it in Excalibur was quite tasteful in my opinion) is damn near impossible. Listening to the Nutcracker at times painfully reminds me of horrible Christmas movies and TV advertisements.
Modern classical music suffers the same fate. Composers either compose scores for movies, or they are out of work.
I think there is a lot more to it than that of course. Recordings contribute to it too, as well as the blurring of the lines between musician and composer.
The only argument I could make for the importance of classical is that some of it is very good. Taruskin seems to point out that other reasons given for its importance are part of why classical music is in the state it is in.
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