Walter Meyer writes:

>I think the phrase, "to die for," applied to music is hyperbole which
>diminishes by its excess, something like the praise of Lear's two older
>daughters.

If restraint is preferable, then not only do I find it a more suspect
reaction than excess, but I also find it detrimental to the future
popularity of CM.  While CM *does* need a particular environment in which
to communicate, hasn't it been held hostage by "denatured academics and
effete upper-class conoisseurs," long enough? (Can't remember where I got
that line.)

Derek Barker recounts a cartoon featuring two medievally-dressed women:

>"So he's like. 'to be or not to be,' and i'm like, 'get a life.'"

It's clear the women don't understand what moves them, but it is also clear
that they are moved.

If the enjoyment of music is an irrational pursuit, and something the
intellectual mind cannot wrap itself around anyway, isn't gushing a more
sincere and tangible proof that one has been lifted aloft by the wings
of irrationality, as opposed to the "restrained" concert-goer, who, by
typically calling a work a "pertinent, profound experience," is tacitly
giving approval, rather than thanks?

Does the above caption actually reveal the frustration of the ivory
tower/class scaling cartoonist--who labors life long to be spoken to by
greatness, only to constantly witness the innate understanding of greatness
by provincial nothings?

John Smyth