ITunes crashes as soon as it loads

Question

I haven't had a response yet to a question about no sound and no screen saver that I posted an hour ago, but I've just noticed another problem.
I clicked iTunes in the dock and it loaded, with images from the iTunes store coming up — and then instantly it crashed and the window came up to report or restart.  I restarted it and it crashed instantly again.  I sent a message and then tried starting it again and clicked on my library to see if it was a store problem and to see if my library was there.  It was, but crashed instantly again.
What's happening?!

Answer 1

So I waited a bit and then tried reloading iTunes again, for like the seventh time, and it loaded this time.  But when I click on a track to play, the speaker icon shows in the tracklist, and the pause symbol appears on the button at the top (as if it is playing and clicking would pause the play) — but the track does not begin to play, and the timer stays at zero and the little indicator doesn't move across the length of the track.  This problem is in combination with the problem I wrote about over an hour ago, where I explained that there is no longer a volume icon in the computer's menu bar and the computer makes no sound.  I noticed this some time after downloading a security update that required a restart that wound up as a "Safe Reboot" or something like that.  I appreciate any helpful responses.  Thanks.