Robert Peters responds to Len Fehskens:

>>Once again I am reminded that I am in the company of sophisticates in
>>comparison to whom I have wooden ears.  I go to concerts regularly, even
>>Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts conducted by the routinely maligned
>>Seiji Ozawa, and I am enthralled.  I have to wonder how my wooden ears
>>give me so much more pleasure than those capable of making such exquisite
>>distinctions that my experiences are "lifeless" to them.
>
>Well, the answer is easy: your ears may be wooden (what I doubt), but your
>heart surely is not.  Ah, I think the final circle of hell for every music
>lover is to become an expert.  I like what I like and I don't care if an
>"expert" (and all the experts are so highly subjective) dooms the artists
>who make an impact on me.

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, in a country that does not exist
anymore, a famous composer of serious music looked at a waltz.  He sighed,
and wrote "Not, unfortunately, by Johannes Brahms".

There are many who seem to worry that if their tastes become refined,
they will lose the ability to be moved by that which is not refined.  This
impression is reinforced by snobs of all varieties, who need a reason to
justify their having become snobs.

While to some extent this is true, one will find that cheap tricks and
shoddy work do dim in ones eyes a great deal, that it is largely false.
One will see that it is as difficult to come up with a swooping good tune
as it is a symphonic theme, as difficult to come up with a good minimalist
pattern as it is a tone row with potential, as much an acheivement to be an
Offenbach as a Verdi.  Comedy and tragedy are two faces of the same mask.

I find that, indeed, there are some works that delight me less than at
first.  On the other hand, there is all the greater joy when I find that
some youthful attachment proves to have more and deeper resources than I
could have imagined on first hearing.

Liszt's Mephisto Waltz, Ravel's Piano Concerto for the left hand, Debussy's
La Mer - all works which I understood on a naive level once, and returned
to them to find that there was an insight into music which was far more
reaching than the surface.

While one can't fault anyone for deciding not to chase sophistication in
every field - I am sure my wine cellar would gather guffaws from the true
sophisticates - it should never be out of fear that one will loose out.  On
the contrary, one will only gain.

Stirling Newberry
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