Well, maybe I risk to out myself as a barbarian with this post, but may that be... Yesterday evening my lover invited me to a massage session (and she is pretty good at it, you know). She used oil and blankets and her pretty hands and music. The music was Beethoven - but Beethoven as Meditation Music. Famous tunes, played on real instruments (not on a synthie), played very very smoothly and absolutely un-Harnoncourt-ly, probably edited (I did'nt check it) and mixed with ocean waves rolling, sea gulls shrieking and larks singing. Horrible? Disgusting? Well, to my surprise I could very well stand the thing, no, much more: I enjoyed the music, it opened and softened my heart and soul and was perfectly suited to the occasion. It was tremendously relaxing and even moving. But today my intellectual and puritan mind tortures me with feelings of guilt ;-): is it right to use classical music as a kind of musical tranquilizer? Is something wrong with me that I acutally LIKED this Beethoven for the teethless? Or is this approach altogether wrong and it was good music arranged well for a special occasion? Is Meditation and New Age Music a product of heaven or of hell? Anyone out there to help my worried brains? (By the way, the massage was fantastic.) Robert Peters [log in to unmask]