An observation about "Modern" classical music.

A reader doesnt like Dante "Divine Comedy" or doesnt understand Joyce "Ulisses". What's the problem? The book or the reader. There's no hard books, only lousy readers. And the same aplies to music.
Who said that music is made to be easy?
Music it's not made to be an enjoyable item. We are talking about culture. We must ear with the senses and feel with the intellect.
Do you understand Boulez "Sur incises", Carter Sympnony or Ligeti "Atmosphere"? No!

No news, you dont understand either Bach "Welltempered clavier" or Beethoven "Grosse fugue".
Who's fault? Bach, Beethoven, Boulez,Carter Ligeti, ......No way.
There must be an effort from the listener to fully appreciate the beauties of life.

Contemporay music as evolved from the melody, harmony, rhythm paradigm. If you want this there is the latest Robie Williams or Madona for you. (it's very easy on the ear :)

Should the composer (or any artist) be slave of the public? IMHO, NO.
Just some provocative thoughts.

"I like music if I can hum it" - This narrows your musical choices.
Take a sonata form; you ear the theme exposition, maybe the re-exposition, skip the development (the biggest part of the composition), and click on the play at the end to ear the theme recapitulation. By this I assume that almost all the music from the Romantic Period, wich subverted and by this broadened the classical forms, like the sonata form, is not your cup of tea. Composers like Brahms, Bruckner, Schumann, Wagner, Mahler, etc, are out of your list?. And what about Beethoven ?! Not the melody type of composer for one to hum. Dam you Beethoven for beying a lousy melodist.

Music is not just melody. Melody is just a part of the music. Ok, for you the most important, but by going this way you are just hearing a small part of the musical composition.
IMHO you must try to broad your horizons, to ear the musical compositon in all of its facets, as a whole.

PS- Dont try to hum Stravinsky "Rite of Spring" cause you will get hiccups.

Eldartford, I love Classical Music including Contemporary Classical Music, and I'm extremely pleased that you love it too. I'm just trying to get new public to modern music.

Of the examples you gave I apreciate all of them. But I must say one thing about Beethoven 5th. Althougth everyone hums this, we are talking about a rhythmic motif, not a melodic one. And he brilliantly makes a symphony out of it. Breath taking. A gigantic leap in terms of music composition. In is time the reponse to is music was very ambiguous.

Brahms is a difficult composer. Is ideas are dense and hard to grasp. Every passage, note, gesture as a key role in is big canvas of composition. Even is chamber music as a symphonic character (the string quarttets). Concentration and memory is very important for the music of Brahms to be understood. Sometimes a music diploma, unfortunately.

Prokofiev is another composer that uses rhythm as, almost, the main ingredient of is music. I'm glad he dindt stop at "Peter and the Wolf", and wrote some woderfull piano sonatas, piano concertos and violin sonatas, and ........
One of the major leaps in XX century music was in terms of rhythm.

Cheers, and continue to enjoy music you love, but I hope you open your mind to new stuff.

PS- As I wrote this Beethoves piano sonata nº 12 in A flat, Op 26 is being played by the great Alfred Brendel.