To the Editor of the Crimson:

There seems to be a vicious attack arising from our fair school against a certain much-abused gentleman by the name of Peter I. Tschaikowsky. Indeed this tirade appears to be quite general throughout the country among the self-styled musical intellectuals. These gentlemen charge that Tschaikowsy's music is over-sentimental, superficial, and entirely without claim to immortality. . . .

Now it is quite true that all of Tschaikowsky's music contains a greater or lesser degree of emotion, which Tschaikowsky, an introvert, could not expend in the usual channels and, therefore, allowed to appear in his music. When this emotion is allowed to overbalance the seance of musical architecture which Tschaikowsky admittedly possessed, as in Marche Slave, the 1812 Overture, and the earlier symphonies, the result is something which approximates trash yet, nevertheless, contains definite musical interest. However, it must be admitted that when, as in the last three symphonies and the two popular concertos, Tschaikowsky succeeds in welding this emotion into a large, completely satisfying vessel of musical expression, the world has been presented with a piece of music which conveys not only intense but also perpetual enjoyment.

Let us not be blinded by a natural fear of that which reveals intimately an insight into our innermost feelings. Let us rather rejoice that we can continually experience through the music of a sincerely inspired man those vital emotions of love, sorrow, and joy. Let us not be swept along with this current to a Tschaikowsky-phobia, which must inevitably vanish and restore the great Russian master to a deserved high place among music's immortals. Andrew Baggaley '45