I supppose this diatribe is evidence of my ego, but I was alarmed, while briefly reading through one of SAW's lectures yesterday during a work break, to note that he referes to Beethoven as a composer from the Middle Ages!! He also refers to a better general standard of music as having been in existence in the past. That would be like saying that all those alive at the time of Shakespeare or Cervantes read & admired their works. Great art has always been the "preserve" of cultured minds only; there was plenty of cheap, bawdy tavern & street music through all the ages, just as there is cheap popular music today; the same with inferior literature. And not all of even Beethoven's works are of the same high standard; in fact I would say that the final string quartets are in fact far more developed than most of his Symphonies, which at moments tend to bombast. I would have thought JS Bach a more "pure" channel of sheer music?When I studied Buddhism in Thailand (many years back) I was taught that ALL music appealed to the emotions on some level, from the sublime to the cheap, & for a long time I withdrew from even the music I deeply love, such as Schubert's "Winterreise" & Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata. Since becoming interested in Gnostisicm I have been open to music once again, & find that all sorts of emotions have been stirred up.There is a posting by a music student (sorry, I don't have his name now) concerned about performing 12-tone pieces, which I thoroughly understand; yet there is musical merit in (for example) the songs of Hanns Eisler, despite their sparse, uncompromising colour. I think that one should perhaps consider the intention of the composer/artist, & what is being expressed - reflecting a dark truth is not to say that the listener should adopt a dark psychic stance, but to allow for a greater understanding of the darkness. Or am I wrong?NamasteNoelle