Ed Zubrow >Not exactly a tone poem, but I wonder what people may think of Strauss' >Burlesque. I really like it, and don't know why it is dismissed as >juvenilia. I have enjoyed its exuberance and rhythms since I was young enough to be impressed at how many tympani it requires! It is perky, upbeat, and unpretentious, all qualities I admire in music as in people. What I tend not to admire is dismissing any work a composer is not ashamed to see performed; and attempts to label any work as a composer's worst accomplishment. If you don't like it, don't listen to it twice, is my advice. Any work--even a "lesser" piece-- takes a lot more work, talent and time to write than to hear. Jim Tobin