It is usually the case that music of the heart, creating as it
does an almost impossible challenge to musical analysts,
confounds academics who are the ones frequently assuming the
position of directing us toward what we should acknowledge as
great. Composers like Tchaikovsky, Debussy and Delius have in
the past -- and maybe still in some quarters -- become sidelined
by intellectual pundits who would be unlikely even to read the
names of Eric Coates, Gershwin, Rudolf Friml or Robert Farnon
(to name but four among many) without first laughing and then
insisting on a return to discussing really serious composers.
Others like Adams and Gorecki, Tavener and Pärt gain an academic
position rather as do some university chancellors now, by
fashionable celebrity rather than an intellectual rigour, once a
hallmark of academia, which they do not possess. Intriguing
academically that Schoenberg had a high opinion of Donizetti,
Delius praised the music of Alban Berg warmly and Britten
venerated Tchaikovsky. But many acade