Henk van Tuijl wrote in response to Deryk Barker:

>> No, the performer performs and the listener takes what (s)he
>> can/wants to from the performance.
>
>Is this not an underestimation of what an artist does?  And in a
>sense a degredation of a musical performance?

I don't think so.  It's just a recognition that the artist has control
over the performance but not over the response of a particular listener.

I can identify with Henk's desire for some sense of "objective" musical
order and/or the ability of a great artist to "convince" an audience.  In
the aggregate, I think this happens.  However, it's still the case that if
out of an audience of 100 persons, only one does not find a performance
"poetic", nobody can prove that person wrong.  It's art, not mathematics.

Don Satz
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