Ron Chaplin asks: >>I wonder if you could explain to me what tension-release is in music? And John Smyth responds: >Sing the "A" without the "men." > >For Mahler, sing the "A," go grocery shopping, then sing the "men." > >For Bruckner, sing "A A A A A A A A," then "men." > >For Copland and Tchaikovsky, sing "Ah....."men." > >For early Schoenberg, sing "A...." > >For later Schoenberg, sing "A, C, B, F, C#, D#," then "F#, Eb, etc." John missed a critically important example. For Boulez, connect a Mack truck leaf spring to the National Grid, excite it with electric spaghetti and add a singing horse from the Camargue while gazing at a hologram of the Rosetta Stone. Tim Mahon [log in to unmask]