"Despite the obvious efforts of scholars in those areas to empower the listener in the musical process of communication, certain assumptions still lurk behind mentions of reception, because they have existed in musicological discourse from Plato's times. For example, by and large, we unconsciously presume that listening to music is a passive phenomenon over which the listener barely has any control. When confronted with the question, 'What kind of control can you, as radio listeners and recording consumers, exert over the music you listen to?' my Art of Listening students would answer, 'None. It just happens. You have to let it happen because of freedom of expression.' Is really experiencing music just letting it happen?   ¶ 12/23/2002 06:18:00 AM