Does music have a plot? -- Beginnings are everything -- Repetition -- Comma, semicolon, period: the meaning of cadence -- Compared-to-what listening -- Forwards-backwards listening -- The challenge of memory -- Form is a verb -- From dancing to listening: minuets and scherzos -- Sonata form: a story in three acts -- Passacaglia, chaconne, and fugue: out of one, many -- How could this come from that?: the art of theme and variations -- The individual versus the community: the concerto -- Finished versus complete.