Don Satz has told us about his musical pecking order in the last couple of
weeks.  It appears Bach and Mozart are one and two.  Handel's OK but he has
some trouble with Mendelsohnn and the romantics.

This reminds somewhat of my chiropractic.  She expressed a love for Bach
and Mozart, was indifferent to Haydn and hated romantic music.  What she
liked about B & M is the contrupuntal nature of their writing.  What she
hated about the romantics is the emotional content of their writing.

I am of course the complete opposite.  I think that the romantics are
what music is all about and I see Haydn as a sort of proto romantic.  I
like Bach but that's in spite of himself, and as everyone now knows I have
difficulty with most of Mozart's output.  I have come across several others
like me.

Now I make a couple of conjectures.  [ Scientists use a conjecture to
describe an idea put forward which the writer believes to be true on the
evidence at hand.  However the idea has not yet been subject to rigorous
scientific examination.  For example: Gene Schumaker introduced the idea
of asteroid impact to explain dinosaur extinction 20 years ago.  Now after
extensive study most geologists and paleantologists accept it.]

Conjecture 1.
There are two main types of music listener; those who like technical
contraputal writing and those who like a high emotional content.  Of
course, the two aren't always mutually exclusive and there will be shades
of grey in between.

Conjecture 2.
It is very difficult to generate a high emotional voltage by a rigid
adherence to the technicalities of composition particularly counterpoint.
Hence, we find composers like Haydn and Beethoven forced to break the rules
in order to express their feelings.  The romantics also found it necessary
to introduce greater and greater ambiguities as the movement progressed.
Conversely there is the view expressed by some members including myself
that B&M lack emotion in their music.

There you have it.  None of this is meant as a criticism of any
individual's taste or of the work of any particular composer.  It is merely
an attempt to explain some of the views that have been expressed here in
the last couple of months.

Bob Draper
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