Peter Manuel:

>I would be very interested to hear from list members regarding their
>own sense of how they experience quintessentially "sad' music.

Personally "sad" music (not necessarily with a programmatic support)
makes me feel sad.  I remember now, for example, the third movement
of Beethoven's op.132.  In spite of the title ("Heiliger dankgesang..."),
which I didn't know when I heard it for the first time, I feel a
sort of anguish when I hear the whole piece.  Even the 3/8 major
tonality sections (which programatically could mean "the recovery
from the sickness") seems to me as false joyful moments.  I feel
the same anguish when I hear the first movement, which hasn't any
program at all.  I don't know exactly why this happens, but I think
that this must be the interesting part of this issue.

However, I think that we never listen to music (even new or
previously unknown music) without any reference to our own past or present
experiences.  It's impossible to isolate any music from the circumstances
in which we hear it now or heard before.  "Pure" music actually don't
exist, as no pure significant exists isolated from the general traffic
of meanings.

Pablo Massa
urizen @ciudad.com.ar