Mikael Rasmusson wrote:
>In my eyes, neither Wagner nor Tchaikovsky is hysterical. Haydn,
>on the other hand, has his hysterical and quirky moments.
This is a subjective area, and also depends on how one defines hysteria.
Bypassing the "clinical" element of the word, I define hysteria as
"emotional excess." I believe that this definition applies very well to
Tchaikovsky whose music, to my ears, often flies into the excessive
category for no reason I can gather other than it reflected his basic
insecurities.
There is nothing in Haydn's output that I sense to be hysterical in theme
or content. After all, it's the "classical" period.
Don Satz
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