Noboru Inoue wrote:

>Bob Draper, quoting Anton Bruckner:
>
>>"Brahms music' comes from his head. Wagner's music comes from his
>>balls.  But, my music, my music comes from God"
>
>Kinds of confusion of logic...  This says that Brahms did not need external
>world for his music? Mr. Bruckner, where God is? God resides in your head
>only...  Composer who did not need external world was Bruckner.

I think I had better make clearer the context in which Bruckner said this.
He was affirming his belief as a catholic of his love of God.  It was this
love that was the driving force for him to write music.  He did not mean to
imply that his music was 'God given'.

It depends what one means by the external world in this context.  I do
not want to get into a discussion about theology.  But would one describe
religion as the external world? I think it it is fair to assume that
anything that has an emotional effect on a composer is going to influence
his/her music.  The range is endless war, politics, bereavement, science,
technology and yes God.

(My major source for the information about Bruckner comes from the Ken
Russell film about him.)

Bob Draper
[log in to unmask]