I've just bought a CD of overtures by JPE Hartmann.  It contains a work
called The Golden Horns which uses a speaker.  It's a form I find very
annoying.

There are several works by favourite composers that I've tried and had
to pass on for this reason, eg Vaughan Williams's Oxford Elegy, Bliss's
Morning Heroes, Schumann's Manfred.  I can just cope with the speaker in
Beethoven's Egmont because there's not much of him.  The extreme example
of this form seems to be Richard Strauss's Enoch Arden before which even
seasoned reviewers have admitted having cowered in terminal boredom.
I haven't heard it and have no desire to do so.

Anyone to defend?

Richard Pennycuick
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