Don Satz wrote:

>I'll use an example to respond.  Let's assume that I'm a composer, and that
>my friend's child has died of cancer.  Although I have not experienced this
>loss, I have the capability of imagining the "intense pain" that a parent
>would feel at outliving one's child.  If I were to write music with the
>intent of conveying this pain, I would draw upon my conception/imagination
>of the pain.  I do not have to actually experience this pain.  At any rate,
>if I was composing effectively, listeners would have the opportunity to
>"catch" my conception of intense pain from such a loss.

It's a good thing that Alban Berg was so taken by the passing of
Manon Gropius that he had enough of his own grief to put into his Violin
Concerto.  If he hadn't I don't think it would be the shooting-from-the-hip
masterpiece that it is.

Aaron J. Rabushka
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