Walter Meyer wrote: >Is there any reason to believe that the person would start by preferring >the earlier composer and work him or herself up to the later ones? I believe there is. Not so much preferring, as finding easier to digest. A baby finds a puree of pre-enzymed (semi-digested) material easier to absorb than rognons flambes. The majority of human ears, since Greek times, have found certain intervals easier to digest than others. (They tend to fall in line with natural harmonics, but let's not get too deeply into that one!) Just look at early Mozart vs. late Mozart - early = easily digestible, late = surprising (sorry for being simplistic). I am not saying one prefers Webern to Satie; just that Satie will fall easy on most ears, Webern will not - purely based around human acoustic responses. It's like going to a performance by the Suweto String Quartet. It is immediately enjoyable; but then you move on to the Emerson, the Chilingirian, or so many of the other greats you see why you found your first tastes a little unsophisticated, even if still enjoyable. Whatever we do, we tend to get more sophisticated, complex, in our appreciation patters, without necessarily snubbing the simpler versions. It is rare for a primate to "de-sophisticate" (e.g. moving from tone row to early Baroque). It is just that we then appreciate the "simpler" styles with more elaborate ears. I should add that easier does not always mean earlier. Whereas I, and a few others, have found the choice of Wozzek to be a little contentious, it does not mean that we find Hildegard von Bingen necessarily a lot easier. For somebody really coming new to classical music, I would not necessarily suggest going back to a musical vocabulary completely strange to our time. For example, Stravinsky Firebird should be accessible to anybody who has listened to any kind of music on the radio for the last 20 years; but Agon might be a different matter! I would still contend that some of the choices on the initial list (all of which are worth listening to) are not the first ones to buy; borrow, beg, steal yes; buy later! Christopher