Jon Gallant replies to my point: >...surely, what Robert Peters means is precisely that music which is >"unrestrained, excessive, flashy" reveals the vanity of its creator in >his lack of self-critical discipline. "Unrestrained, excessive, flashy" >is not the sort of criticism that is likely to be levelled against the >music of, for example, Sibelius. Well, who knows: how about someone inclined to the near-austere aesthetic of Takemitsu or John Cage, or maybe Satie? However this swings, their remark, like yours, is about the music, and one extends that to the composer's personality at some peril, as it means extrapolating from musical traits (seeming excess, lack of restraint, etc.) descriptions of a person (as conceited, indolent, etc). >Conversely, although one cannot tell from his music that Stravinsky was >miserly with money, one can certainly discover disciplined economy of >means. I am not surprised to learn that he was as economical with money >as he was with notes. But what then do we make of the lush Sacre du printemps, or the earlier works? Was he maybe less miserly then, more carefree about money? Maybe he changed? Interesting conjecture, but again it requires looking into the biography, beyond the music, to find out. So: how far can we go to say that the work reflects the artist's personality? In pure music, it would seem, hardly at all. Otherwise, among other things, we could be sure of a certain rigour or orderliness about the lives of Bach and his late-Baroque peers, and something wilder and more chaotic about the lives of Cage and Crumb, or Kelemen and Marco. On the contrary, all kinds of people seem to have inhabited all ages, and most have dragged around their bundles of contradiction. And yet maybe this dismisses too much; it seems silly not to concede at least part of Jon's point. For instance, the sardonic edge to Shostakovich's music probably reflects something that's true about the man: I for one would be very surprised if the biographies say he was inclined to Jerry Lewis-type pratfalls in his day-to-day life. Similarly, it'd be odd indeed, to put it mildly, to learn that Bernard Stevens or Schnittke were a bag of laughs of a Saturday night, that Takemitsu was as shallow as they come, or that Rodrigo had no inkling about simple human joy. My feeling is that pure music is able to reveal only the broadest traits about its makers. Without having read their biographers, I'd guess that they'd probably attest to the tongue in DSCH's musical cheek, to Stevens' seriousness and Schnittke's near-glumness (well, in one part of him), Rodrigo's sunny disposition, etc. That said, one can go too far in applying these traits to these composers, and things can get really wooly when imputing human foibles to the makers of music that doesn't appeal. Bert Bailey