Peter Goldstein:

>I was wondering what people on this list saw as the philosophical essence
>of various composers, and why they felt that certain composers did or did
>not appeal to them.

A composer may appeal (or not) to me depending on the relatively
immediate physical or emotional impact that his music may have on my
liver. The "philosophical essence" of a composer, if such thing exists,
is a generalization that one often makes after hearing much of his
music during a certain period of time.  Actually, I see this concept as
reductive.  One may apply it on a single work, on a single movement, or
even on a particular passage, but hardly on the entire work of an artist.
Moreover, in general terms, I don't see the sense of applying those
concepts to music.  What's the sense of saying "Beethoven's music tends to
emphasize individual struggle and triumph"?.  The meaning of this assertion
"tends" to zero.

Pablo Massa
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