Sam Kemp wrote:

>It's certainly true, I think, that it's quite possible to put a CD of
>Beethoven on the Hi-Fi whilst performing some other activity and still
>appreciate it to some extent - I will probably be iminently decried as
>a philistine by various list members, but I have Verdi's Otello Act IV
>playing now!  - whereas a piece of atonal music simply because it seems
>so strange to us needs one's full attention for any appreciation.

And the rest of you - viz.  those who don't decry Sam Kemp as a philistine
- will probably apply that damning epithet to me, because I find that the
best thing to do with strange atonal music is to put it on and not listen
to it.  After doing this a few times, either I decide that I don't want to
play it again yet awhile (or ever), or I find that the strange atonal music
is no longer so strange and now compels closer attention.

Most of Beethoven, Verdi et al., OTOH, ('Otello' certainly included!) I
cannot deal with as background music.  I have to stop what I am doing and
listen, or I have to turn it off because it is distracting me.

Alan Moss,
(written after listening to the Philistines in Saint-Saens' "Samson et
Dalila")