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/