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Does music define who I am? Certainly, the music to which I choose to listen would be a fairly accurate definition of me.

Life's experiences have moulded each of us into what we are today. My earliest years were spent on a farm where there was endless solitude and peace, where animals and trees and crops were the focus of our lives, where we were each responsible for our own happiness or misery.

My early life had rigid boundaries imposed by the strict parenting of my mother, but these limitations were blurred by the freedom that the natural environment contributed to my lifestyle and the choices that I was able to make each day, while still adhering to the restrictive code that was imposed by my elders' old-fashioned values.

I was shy and inhibited in my interaction with people. I was adventurous and daring in my relationship with the natural world. I was invigorated and entranced by the wind, the sea, stormy nights and the wonderful innocence of animals.

After reading all of the above, it might be apparent to you that my choice of music would include the conservative, the regimented, the predictable, the magnificent and the sensual.

Classical music combines these elements. I love the frenzy and the passion of Liszt who wrote music for the piano that was so technically difficult that few others could play his compositions. When listening to his music I can visualise his turbulent gypsy appearance, the long strong fingers crashing and caressing the keys and his passionate outpouring of the sensual cadences and spreading chords that he wrote for his beloved church and for his devoted women friends.

The lilting beauty of the Strauss waltzes can carry me into another world. Who could fail to be charmed and uplifted by such joyful, swirling, pulsing melodies? Who would not visualise the violinists' flashing bows and swaying bodies as they obeyed the flying baton of the conductor?

The brooding Chopin, dark and romantic, wrote music that continues to delight and uplift and persuade. Wagner, Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert, Bach, Mozart: they learned their craft from masters, they wrote according to the rules; they used predictable form, style, counterpoint and embellishment - their compositions conformed and were generally orderly and explainable and methodical. And yet today, they can still move mountains, and perhaps, can even part the sea!

An intensely patriotic individual myself, I am passionate about music that has been written to honour the composer's country. Who could fail to be uplifted by Elgar's "Land of Hope and Glory"?

And the more recently written, "I am, you are, we are Australian," with the throbbing didgeridoo accompaniment which honours the indigenous people of that wide land?

Yes, our choice of music does define who we are and who we have become. And when you are fortunate to have the opportunity to listen to someone else's choice of music, you will know that person just a little better!

Learn more about this author, Victoria Moss.
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