Jocelyn Wang writes to me:

>>With respect, Jocelyn Wang's imperious dismissal of The Critics is
>>sentimental, romantic and plain wrong.
>
>Funny, I have often read critics' sentimental, romantic and plain wrong
>dismissal of certain music (and films, and books).

Two wrongs do not make a right.

>The eunoch analogy is alive and well.

This is to conflate "critic" with "reviewer".

>>Last week I had a similar, wonderful illumination thanks to Eric Fenby's
>>book on Delius's music - as distinct, by the way, from his remarkable
>>memoir "Delius As I Knew Him".
>
>I never said that critics were entirely useless.  I did say that their
>contribution to music amounts to less than that of composers, even minor
>ones.

In the case of critic-Fenby, of course, his contribution also included
those marvellous late additions to the Delius canon, so what he has to
say is effectively the horse's mouth.  His critical books work because
Fenby writes words as vivid in their way as Delius' (and his) music.

Jocelyn's tempered statement still doesn't hold water, except by semantic
extension ad absurdam.  Tovey's "contribution" as a critic, to add yet
another example to the pile, is of considerably more importance to music
than his correct but uninspired original compositions.

>My gripe is not with all critics, just those who think and act as
>though their hyperbole constitutes evidence that they are more important
>than they actually are.

I think this gripe is about reviewers again, not critics.

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"