Leslie Kinton wrote some things awhile back that need comment:

>Be that as it may, many composers write music that is sad, minor-keyed
>and expresses darkness etc.  because it is easier to elicit a *powerful*
>emotional response this way, and eliciting this kind of response is what
>composers do.

Taken literally, this is absurd.  Can you imagine someone sitting down
and saying, "Hey, what emotion can I elicit today?".  Composers, most of
them anyway, in the glory days of music anyway, write because they have
something they feel and want to say.  They are not Pavlov's enjoying their
impact (unless they've got some real problems).  So on this issue Leslie
needn't abandon Ayn Rand so quickly.  That authenic artistic compositions
in all media are expressive (rather than manipulative) is certainly not
new with Rand.  Her contribution, I think, is to identify *what* exactly
is being expressed (what she calls an artist's "metaphysical
value-judgments").  And, and in the case of music, to suggest *how* music
-- which is not evidently representational -- produces the metaphysical
emotions it does (or at least one main way).  A reference to her essay on
the subject is given below.

>...  artistic "feelings" are *analogues* to real emotions, and
>consequently are not freighted with the same ethical baggage.  "Tragedy" is
>not a real-life emotion, it is an imitation of a real-life emotion; good,
>happy, benevolent, rational people pay a lot of money to experience it.

To my mind the "consequently" doesn't follow.  Good, happy, benevolent,
rational people will experience sadness in their lives, and loss, and great
(and not-so-great) music can express that.  So music with tragic elements
can have personal meaning to them.  But remember that Rand was not the
first either to say, as Leslie forgets, that we must distinguish esthetic
*judgment* from esthetic *response*.  I can listen to a great work of
music, as I can view a great painting, that is light years from my own
philosophical sensibility -- and I can appreciate its brilliance at
communicating that sense of life.  So my esthetic judgment -- and my
appreciation of the composer's creative genius -- can be:  "Outstanding,
Wonderful" -- while my personal esthetic response can be "Yuchh -- my life
ain't like that, nor is *Life*, regardless of what he thinks".  And, of
course, compositions, like people, can be mixed philosophically, so one can
love personally parts and aspects of compositions.  Again, so far as Rand
is concerned, Leslie, like too many others, distortingly oversimplifies a
clearly subtle position, then attacks the straw woman.  E.g.:

>...  artistic "feelings" are *analogues* to real emotions, and
>consequently are not freighted with the same ethical baggage.  "Tragedy" is
>not a real-life emotion, it is an imitation of a real-life emotion; good,
>happy, benevolent, rational people pay a lot of money to experience it.

Well, I quote:  "For instance, I like operetta music of a certain kind,
but I would take a funeral march in preference to 'The Blue Danube Waltz'
or to the Nelson Eddy-Jeanette MacDonald kind of music." -- Ayn Rand, *The
Romantic Manifest*.  Maybe it's time for a re-read of Rand.  To those who
haven't read her on music, I strongly recommend her piece "Art and
Cognition", in her collection, *The Romantic Manifesto*, for a fascinating
hypothesis about the *way* -- or one of the ways -- music produces emotion,
something I find a fascinating question.

Allan Gotthelf