I find it odd that this composer's works should become the focus of a discussion on ugliness in modern music. I came across her music a few years ago and was immediately taken with her work which I find dark, intense, and maybe on the verge of painful at times, but ugly is the last thing that comes to my mind. And I doubt that anyone can say with any confidence that Ustvoskaya is responding to the ugliness of the times with her music because I do not think this composer, who apparently is a near hermit, has ever had much to say about it. Frankly, I have heard very little art music I would consider "ugly". Is music that is harsh, overly aggressive, arhythmic, unsettling, nerve-wracking, annoying, or infuriating by definition ugly? I don't think so, but even if I were to concede an objective ugliness to some music, I don't see how Ustvoskaya's work falls in that category. And anyway, I would never concede such a thing as objective ugliness in art. I can be moved, intrigued, and sometimes delighted by music that raises the hackles on my neck and feels like a nail through my eardrums. If it engages me, then as far as I'm concerned it has accomplished what I seek from art and in that sense it contains a kind of strange beauty. I know this sounds like a kind of aesthetic nihilism and I'm not always comfortable with this notion that every artistic and moral judgment is basically an individual decision. But what can I do? I know what I like. Regards, John Parker Tucson, Arizona