Robert Peters wrote: >Beethoven would have written different music if he had had a loving wife >and no hearing problems or had lived just fifty years later. Or if prozac had been available! But, for me, I am glad it was not as I doubt his music would have been able to touch me in the same way, or as deeply. >And Liszts music would have been different without his vanity (and I >know that theres also the Liszt who touchingly cared for other composers >and poor people). For me, every musician has some vanity, or something close to that notion...otherwise, why would they think someone would be willing to spend X number of minutes listening to their work, assuming that notion ever conciously crosses their mind. Perhaps it is a fine line between a "healthy" sense of self worth and vanity. Karl