Great moments in counterpoint

[Josquin des Prez]

His piano layout is highly skilled and the music is wildly exciting but (I find) only in small doses: probably because , to me at least, he seems to cover the same bases time and time again. Polyphony isn't the focus of attention so much as gaps that have to be constantly filled - I do long for some holes in the texture.

I think he is a bit like Scarlatti in certain respects. They both cover the same bases over and over and all though they never sound stale, miraculously enough, it does tend to make their music grating over extended periods of time. I do think the density of his music has a lot to do with counterpoint, the problem is that the cumulative effects of the various rhythms of his individual voices tend to create a cacophonous effect which is in net contract with the supple elegance of Bach, who's music is also quite dense and relentless.

[Chaszz]

IMO the greatest, most creative and poetic use of counterpoint you can find in Ein Heldenleben by R. Strauss.
You could mention any page of the score, so here's an example:

http://www.bernardynet.de/heldenleben.png

Yes, very very nice. Of course he learned it at Wagner's knee, and Wagner learned it at Bach's knee, as we can tell from Die Meistersinger.

-> sounds like this:

http://www.bernardynet.de/heldenleben.mp3

Yes, very very nice. Of course he learned it at Wagner's knee, and Wagner learned it at Bach's knee, as we can tell from Die Meistersinger.