ABSTRACT
Back in the 1960s when I was a youngish lecturer teaching music undergraduates, in a moment of madness (or was it insight?) I entered the lecture theatre armed with a recording of Brahms' third symphony and, without any preamble, proceeded to play the assembled students the opening of the third movement. After a minute or two I turned it off and, after a pause, asked them "How did that make you feel?" Gradually, what emerged after several repeated playings was that, almost without exception, individual students had been profoundly touched by what they had heard. Some became animated, began to talk colorfully of moments when they had experienced those kinds of feelings before, and in what circumstances.
