Versatility

I am musically illiterate, so my opinions on music hardly deserve the name--they are prejudices. One is that Mozart is the greatest composer ever. Start my Desert Island mix with Symphony #40 and The Marriage of Figaro, and I'll consider it solid.

Yet a couple of times a year I admire Tchaikovsky's versatility. Around Christmas he is the favorite composer of girls between 5 and 7; on Independence Day he is the artillerist's favorite composer. At least, I think he must be the latter; maybe the gunners had rather pass in review to "The Caissons Go Rolling Along" than fire off Long Toms in the 1812 Overture. Of the former I can't doubt, after having seen a lobby or two of dressed up little girls spinning during the intermission of The Nutcracker.