The sort of music you dislike

[Sergeant Rock]

Does this still apply if you can't see the performers?

For me it does...I have a vivid imagination 

I wanna hear some french horn solos by their blonde french horn player! In fact, I think the perfect composition is (would be) Brahms' horn trio played by Dinnerstein, Fischer, and Berlin Philharmonic French Horn chick!

I just saw the Vienna Phil...they have a hot blonde horn player too...ponytail half way down her back. Yummy.

Sarge

[Szykneij]

I come to forums like this to learn, and perhaps teach a thing or two. There's nothing to be learned in the type of placid contentment you seem to be advertising here.

I come here to learn, too, and I've ordered this on your recommendation of Berg's Opus 6, so perhaps I will have gained something from this thread after all --



but I'm not looking for placid contentment. I'm just puzzled as to why people choose to discuss things on the basis of what they think is bad instead of good -- especially when it usually leads to insults and nastiness. (And perhaps I've just answered my own question.)

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I just saw the Vienna Phil...they have a hot blonde horn player too...ponytail half way down her back. Yummy.

That must be a trend, at least in Mitteleuropa. The Czech Philharmonic has its own good-looking blonde female hornist too...Petra Čermaková! I saw her in action several times when I was living in Prague.

She lists her hobbies as "dog, cycling, nature":

http://www.cornidelicati.cz/index.php/obsazeni.html

[Sergeant Rock]

That must be a trend, at least in Mitteleuropa. The Czech Philharmonic has its own good-looking blonde female hornist too...Petra Čermaková! I saw her in action several times when I was living in Prague.

She lists her hobbies as "dog, cycling, nature":

http://www.cornidelicati.cz/index.php/obsazeni.html

Yes, very attractive.

I notice the next woman,  Eva Krajhanzlová,  lists one of her hobbies as rodina... Rodents? 

Sarge

[abidoful]

I don't see anything in his late works that would make one bulk when compared to his earlier music, unless by late you mean everything after Verklarte Nacht.

By late i mean his dodecafonic stuff (f.ex. the Piano Concerto and the SQts 3&4, i find them boring and in a way academic, like "dodecafonic Brahms "or something- which undoubtedly was what he was trying to to do here.But then for some reason i find the Orchestral Variations more attractive- and the Jakobsleiter which is great-but that is incomplete, isnt it?)

As for Bergs scoring  i agree about op. 6 being good, but even the Violin Concerto is rather on the dark side- and actually resembles Pfitzner in that respect (all those brass-instruments).


And as for Schumann, I find his Chamber Music definately on the same level with his piano works and songs!

[Renfield]

Berlin Schmilharmonic, I wanna hear some french horn solos by their blonde french horn player!

I have to admit I've also noted her. Strikingly refined, as well as plain 'attractive' (which she certainly is).


Re music I dislike, I dislike anything wholly derivative or (for lack of a better word) half-arsed; anything completely describable as 'an attempt at [...], but', with the 'but' not followed by any intrinsic saving grace.

[abidoful]

With all the great music that exists (at least some of which everyone here must enjoy or they wouldn't bother joining the forum in the first place), why do posters feel the need to start negative threads like this one that invariably end in insults and bitter feelings? There is way too much music that I enjoy for me to be bothered arguing against music that doesn't appeal to me. Posting in a thread that deals with "what is the worst", "what don't you like", "what's the most boring", etc. is sure to offend someone, and rarely results in any meaningful discussion.

In fact, now you are being negative since you did not give us your contribution of the subject There is nothing wrong being critical-thats part of life. My intention was not to put up a fight or something. Being critical is essential since you come across that everyday in your work- what ever you do (f. ex. composing or writing-what works and WHY and what doesnt).

I thought-since we already have many threads like "What is your favorite...", "Your top..." etc etc- we could have one discussing things you find problematic. That could be very interesting!

So here is one more thing which I find problematic; the numbering of works by F. Liszt (his opuses, the "searle-numbers" etc) and especially the listing of works of F. Schubert; I never had a clear picture of the chronology of his works or should we use the opus-numbers and if not, why so? And which works were published during his lifetime, which not? Even the numbering of his symphonies is silly (where is the eight???who made that listing?).

[Sergeant Rock]

6. i dont get R. Schumann (is he a fish or a bird?- a piano-chamber- lied- operatic-- or symphonic composer?)

All of the above--just like Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and hundreds of other composers who composed in multiple genres.

Sarge

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I notice the next woman,  Eva Krajhanzlová,  lists one of her hobbies as rodina... Rodents? 

"Rodina" means family...so you may be right depending on the context 

Interestingly, Petra's entry states that she is the První hráčka na dechový nástroj v historii ČF (first female wind player in the CzPO's history). The CzPO has been a very male-dominated orchestra (though I don't think to the extent of the VPO).

[hornteacher]

I hate all music that is not being performed by a hot chick(s). Thus, I will gladly listen to anything played by Julia Fischer, Nicola Benedetti, or Simone Dinnerstein. Berlin Philharmonic, Berlin Schmilharmonic, I wanna hear some french horn solos by their blonde french horn player! In fact, I think the perfect composition is (would be) Brahms' horn trio played by Dinnerstein, Fischer, and Berlin Philharmonic French Horn chick!

Ah, a man of taste.......

Now put Julia Fischer with Hilary Hahn, Jitka Hosprová, and Alisa Weilerstein and you've got a string quartet to die for.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

From what I understand, BPO French Horn chickie likes Salsa dancing!

[Grazioso]

but I'm not looking for placid contentment. I'm just puzzled as to why people choose to discuss things on the basis of what they think is bad instead of good -- especially when it usually leads to insults and nastiness. (And perhaps I've just answered my own question.)

There are just a few bad apples on this forum, one of whom you've already met in this thread, who seek opportunities to indulge in personal attacks or put their taste above others and, when denigrating something, can only defend their judgment with "It's obvious; anyone who can't see that is stupid." Please pay them no mind.

I'll answer the thread in a way that's hopefully not nasty: from my perspective, I've found that the longer--and better--that I listen to classical music, the less of it I dislike. Genres and periods that long ago I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot baton, I now love. Admittedly, former enthusiasms have waned as my tastes have shifted, but ultimately I tend to find things to like rather than dislike as I explore music.

What I still dislike: any music that seems to put experimentation for its own sake or--here's my real bugbear--making a gesture or statement about art itself above the traditional building blocks of music. I want catchy rhythms, memorable tunes, logical structures, dramatic build-up and contrast, interesting harmonies, subtle orchestration, etc. I don't want people just trying to be clever or outrageous for the sake of it, in music or any art form; that's decadent, self-indulgent, and insulting.

[Superhorn]

  There's not a great deal of music I really dislike, but the minor composers of the baroque and classical periods wrote tons of formulaic hackwork. Boringly predictable. It just keeps going chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga and is about as interesting as watching grass grow of paint dry . I agree with the statement about Vivaldi not writing 500 concertos but writing the same concerto 500 times.
  Of course, Bach,Handel,Rameau, Gluck, Haydn and Mozart are truly great, but their lesser contemporaries wrote so much ho hum stuff.
   Here and there, there are some better pieces among them, but they're few and far between.
  I love a lot of French music, but don't like the music of Poulenc and other French composers of his ilk; you know the affected,mincingly precious chi-chi and frou-frou kind. I can't stand all that   fey "gallic elegance".
   Virgil Thomson wrote the American equivalent of that kind of music.
   Also annoyingly cutsie-pie. Gertrude Stein's       nonsense libretto for "Four Saints In Three Acts" is very clever, but Thomson's music is so insipid and pretentiously arty. Humor in music is fine, but I can't stand cuteness.
John Cage's "music" is nothing but a pretentious collection of gimmicks.

 

[DavidRoss]

This is the sort of music I dislike - though within every group there are exceptions

1. Romantic piano music. I make some exceptions (like late Brahms), but in general my view of it is the same as Glenn Gould's: it's less about building convincing musical structures and more about getting splashy, virtuosic effects out of the piano. Also, Romantics tend to ignore the fact that the piano is basically a percussion instrument and put too much effort into trying to make it "sing." Give me Baroque, Modern, or (some) Classical keyboard music anytime.

I agree in general.  Although there's a lot of Romantic solo piano music that's very pretty--Chopin, Schubert, and Schumann especially come to mind--it usually fails to hold my attention and I wander off, vaguely aware of it as pleasing sonic wallpaper.  All that changes for me with the arrival of Debussy, however.

2. French impressionism. I have tried to like Ravel and Debussy, but they just put me to sleep. In fact, the tendency of French composers to favor coloristic effects over structural development runs counter to my tastes.

Hmmm....  For me the music of Debussy and Ravel are among the high points of the literature--both their orchestral music and their music for solo piano.  And there's no dearth of structure that I'm aware of, though it's usually more fluid and less formally rigid than that of classical era.

3. A lot of the standard mid-Romantics (Berlioz, Liszt, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Bizet, Smetana, Tchaikovsky, Wagner) just don't do much for me anymore. Maybe it's a matter of burnout: their bombastic style was attractive during my formative listening phase, but nowadays I'd rather listen to other things.

In general I agree, but when I do take the time to listen to Tchaikovsky--and to a lesser extent, to Mendelssohn or Berlioz--I virtually always admire and enjoy their music. 

In general I dislike bombastic music, tedious music, and music that takes itself too damned seriously!  (Obviously I'm not a big Wagner fan.)  I also find very little that's appealing in most of the academic serialism I've heard, or in other self-consciously avant-gardist music of the 20th Century.  If it doesn't sing to my heart and set my corpuscles aquiver, it's not likely to sustain my interest.

[Franco]

I am finding that as I grow older, my dislikes, music and everything else, grow fewer.  Either I am becoming more tolerant or apathetic - but I'm pretty sure it's the former.

I'm even enjoying some Wagner.



But, really, there is very little music that I can't find something good to say about it.  As in most things there is a slim group of things I truly like a lot and a very slim group of things I dislike, and the vast majority of stuff remains on a continuum in between.

[karlhenning]

. . . But, really, there is very little music that I can't find something good to say about it.  As in most things there is a slim group of things I truly like a lot and a very slim group of things I dislike, and the vast majority of stuff remains on a continuum in between.

Hear, hear.

[Scarpia]

In general I dislike bombastic music, tedious music, and music that takes itself too damned seriously!

Not afraid to express an unpopular opinion, I see.  I take the more popular view and prefer tedious, bombastic music that takes itself too seriously.

[DavidRoss]

Not afraid to express an unpopular opinion, I see.  I take the more popular view and prefer tedious, bombastic music that takes itself too seriously.

Another Wagner fan.  Y'all are legion 'round here. 

[DavidRoss]

I am finding that as I grow older, my dislikes, music and everything else, grow fewer.  Either I am becoming more tolerant or apathetic - but I'm pretty sure it's the former.

Probably.  I think we become more tolerant, open, forgiving, and accepting as we mature--except in regard to those few things that we decide really are hateful and destructive.  Per George Santayana: "My old age judges more charitably and thinks better of mankind than my youth ever did."

[Sergeant Rock]

I take the more popular view and prefer tedious, bombastic music that takes itself too seriously.

Me too: Wagner, Mahler, Strauss, early Schönberg, Bruckner, Elgar, Brian's Gothic... Gimme me that old time tedium 

Sarge