290 Michael Spitzer 4. Ecological At the broadest level, we can think of the symphony as a ‘world’. It is a common trope to discuss Schubert’s sonata forms as metaphorical ‘landscapes’. Perhaps we can extend ‘landscape’ to an ecological level. The natural arena of fear is the en-vironment, where we respond to a threatening object in the distance – one which threatens to approach us. Fear thus suggests a trajectory, from distance to proximity. Figure 1 gives Arne Öhman’s ‘threat imminence trajectory’ (in Öhman and Wiens, p. 260).Figure 1 The threat’s gradual advance (the arrow) traverses three stages (Preencounter, Post-encounter, Circa-Strike), each associated with a type of behaviour (Orienting, Freez-ing, Fight-or-Flight). Each behaviour is in turn de ned by a set of psychophysiolo-gical measurements. When the subject orients to the threat, heart-rate goes down and the startle impulse is inhibited. Freezing in the face of the threat involves ‘startle potentiation’. Whether the subject chooses to attack or fee, heart-rate in-creases, and the body is generally primed for action. Orienting is governed by the parasympathetic nervous system, which is associated with refection and digestion. This yields to the sympathetic nervous system with Fight-or-Flight, for strenuous activity.We can metaphorically map from the four stages of Öhman’s ‘threat imminence trajectory’ to the four stages of Schubert’s journey: Introduction – First group – Second group – Development. The introduction sounds ‘threatening’ because its sounds are low, slow, and mysterious – all signi ers of distant danger. With the rst group, there is a fip in subject positions, from a frightening object to a frightened sub-ject (shivering and with activated heart-beats, as we have seen). The second group displays typical ‘freeze’ behaviour: a paradoxical combination of stasis – lyrical