Mats Norrman <[log in to unmask]> writes that in Vaughan Willams there is no ... >preeching of moral problems such in Beethoven or Bax symphonies Beethoven I can understand. But Bax?? I can't think of another composer offhand less concerned with either preaching or morality. Can you give an example of what and where you mean? He's concerned with music, myth, and himself. Yes, there's something like a funeral march in Bax's first symphony, as in Beethoven's third, not to mention Elgar's and VW's second, but this exposes much less of a moral debate than any of the others cited. In fact, it's a musical lament expressing a deep personal sadness existing solely for its own sake. It makes absolutely no "statement" beyond that, unless you're going to sentimentalise it beyond the pale. I don't follow (i.e. don't understand, because it doesn't make any sense to me) your curious derivation of RVW's aesthetic from German models, apart from agreeing with you that he loved J. S. Bach and admired Beethoven. Over and above any motivic coincidences. the most profound revelations to him were his discovery of English folksong and Elizabethan polyphony. It was through these that he wrenched himself free of the influences you outline, though structurally the 4th seems to be making some sort of a comment on Beethoven's 5th. I wouldn't press it further than that. Actually, the BACH motif of that Symphony is much closer in feeling to DSCH than anything German, and I'm not the first to have fooled unsuspecting listeners into thinking that they were listening to Shostakovich rather than RVW in this work! Last, I didn't offer any "interpretation" of the 9th Symphony. Perish the thought! I expressed my feeling about its dark, Cimmerian gloom, that's all. However, it does have its roots in programme music, and certainly chimes in with Hardy's pessimism, which was clearly exercising RVW much during the writing. Christopher Webber, Blackheath, London, UK. http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm "ZARZUELA!"