Jocelyn Wang:

>Great music is great music, regardless of when it was written.

Absolutely.

>Whenever critics adopt such a self-inflated role, I cannot help but think
>of the eunuch analogy.  All the critics combined have not contributed to
>music as much as even a single, semi-talented composer.

This is Romantic cant and shows an ignorance of critics.  I can think of
at least one great contribution by a critic:  Shaw's beating the drum for
Mozart as a great composer.  At the time Shaw wrote, people had really
forgotten the emotional conventions of the classical style.  Mozart was
generally considered a "petite maitre" of, in Shaw's phrase, "tuneful
little ditties." Mainly through his writings on the operas, Shaw taught
at least English speakers how to listen to Mozart.  I submit he performed
a service for which we should all be grateful.

Steve Schwartz