Peter Goldstein: >I was wondering what people on this list saw as the philosophical essence >of various composers, and why they felt that certain composers did or did >not appeal to them. A composer may appeal (or not) to me depending on the relatively immediate physical or emotional impact that his music may have on my liver. The "philosophical essence" of a composer, if such thing exists, is a generalization that one often makes after hearing much of his music during a certain period of time. Actually, I see this concept as reductive. One may apply it on a single work, on a single movement, or even on a particular passage, but hardly on the entire work of an artist. Moreover, in general terms, I don't see the sense of applying those concepts to music. What's the sense of saying "Beethoven's music tends to emphasize individual struggle and triumph"?. The meaning of this assertion "tends" to zero. Pablo Massa [log in to unmask]