Don Satz wrote:

>...  In the realm of music composition, excessively emotional composers
>tend to write in an exaggerated fashion for the sake of exaggeration; the
>over-wrought musical passages do not have any reasonable foundation or make
>any sense.

What do you mean by "reasonable foundation" or "make any sense"? Music is
such a subjective art (as are they all) that one man's " reason is another
man's insanity.

>This excessively emotional music can be most readily found in the
>composers of the Romantic era.  The two composers, in my opinion, who best
>represent this type of music making are Liszt and Tchaikovsky.  Their music
>is loaded with over-wrought passages of indulgent emotionalism without any
>provision of a foundation for taking that route.

I think a person's "inner" life can be entirely at odds with outer
appearances (although I know some self-pitying people, too).

>Of the two, I have to pick Liszt as the most indulgent because of a
>combination of his personality and music-making.  Except for the last piano
>works he composed, Liszt's music most reminds me of a petulant child who is
>always going over-board in his declamations.  Any other opinions?

I think you detect the basic insincerity of Liszt's music.  Tchaikovsky
is marginally more tolerable both for his sincerity and somewhat better
compositional technique (in my opinion).

>Fortunately, there are over-emotional classical music lovers who eat up
>this type of music.  No matter what type of music, one can usually find an
>appropriate person to match it up with.  To some degree, you are what you
>listen to.

I've never responded to Liszt, but a fine performance of Tchaikovsky's
Pathetique can still move me.  I also think Rachmaninoff's Second symphony
is one of the most underrated masterworks of the early twentieth century.
For me, at least, sincerity can cover a multitude of sins.

David Simmons
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Virginia Beach, VA