Jeff Dunn wrote: >I'm not much of a Mozart fan, but there is no question that he sells >more CDs than any other composer. Does that mean he's the greatest? >If you could take another theoretical measure of greatness (or >significance--and of course there are many), the "amount" of pleasure >produced by his music--the sums of the intensities of pleasure produced >by all those ever hearing his music, I think that would also put him on >top of the classical composers. This is because while his music is at >best enjoyable to me, others weep to it. Any of a number of weighty academic tomes dealing with "Aesthetics" would be a far better investment than any of Lebrechts levities & trolling frolics for anyone who is seriously interested in understanding "greatness" in the arts, or, on this list at least, music in particular. Aristotle's "Poetics" could make a good starting point for those with the imagination to adapt its purpose specifically to music. Geoffrey Gaskell http://www.geoffreygaskell.co.nz/