Unpopular Opinions

[DavidRoss]

I discovered Mahler during the LP era, which was good, because on an LP you can literally see the good parts in a Mahler symphony on the disc.  This allows you to skip past the endless "chamber music texture" and go straight to the two or three good minutes in each half-hour movement.*

I thought those were the good parts.... 

This comes very close to my taste as well. I go mostly from Bach, The Classical Threesome all the way to Mahler and later. I think I skip a few more decades than you. Well, with the exceptions of Schumann Dvořák, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and a select few.

Ditto (but corrected with emphasis added).

[mahler10th]

Well, I tried and tried, sometimes I liked (seldom), but still atonal and Avant-garde music is complete tosh, utter nonsense, and indeed, mostly not even musical.  There is nothing in it of any value.  It is like Homeopathy saying it's better, goes deeper,  than scientifically proven medical practice.  Pretentious and unattractive...and bollocks..  Harrumph!!!   
Hows that for an unpopular opinion?   0:)

[Karl Henning]

Well, I tried and tried, sometimes I liked (seldom), but still atonal and Avant-garde music is complete tosh, utter nonsense, and indeed, mostly not even musical.  There is nothing in it of any value.  It is like Homeopathy saying it's better, goes deeper,  than scientifically proven medical practice.  Pretentious and unattractive...and bollocks..  Harrumph!!!   
Hows that for an unpopular opinion?   0:)

My next atonal piece, I'm writin' fer you, laddie! : )

[mahler10th]

My next atonal piece, I'm writin' fer you, laddie! : )

Oh dear...

[Karl Henning]

Well, sorry you've a wait! Only the atonal score I'm presently working on is already bespoke! : )

[Concord]

Well, I tried and tried, sometimes I liked (seldom), but still atonal and Avant-garde music is complete tosh, utter nonsense, and indeed, mostly not even musical.  There is nothing in it of any value.  It is like Homeopathy saying it's better, goes deeper,  than scientifically proven medical practice.  Pretentious and unattractive...and bollocks..  Harrumph!!!   
Hows that for an unpopular opinion?   0:)

Not really all that unpopular ...

[Mirror Image]

Well, I tried and tried, sometimes I liked (seldom), but still atonal and Avant-garde music is complete tosh, utter nonsense, and indeed, mostly not even musical.  There is nothing in it of any value.  It is like Homeopathy saying it's better, goes deeper,  than scientifically proven medical practice.  Pretentious and unattractive...and bollocks..  Harrumph!!!   
Hows that for an unpopular opinion?   0:)

The greater part of me agrees with you profusely, John, but the other part disagrees only on the grounds that there are several atonal works that I do love and have come to enjoy just as much as music with more tonality. Alban Berg is certainly my favorite composer from this school of thought, but I do love some Ligeti as well. I even like some of Schoenberg's 12-tone works. I guess it all depends on what you're listening for in music. There's plenty of emotion in this music, but you're right there's a lot of it that just seems to be one giant experiment for it's own sake. A lot of this "music" I simply put in file 13 but there is some of it that I do enjoy and that does touch my heart.

[bigshot]

I've got a good one... I think the best British classical composers are the LIGHT classical ones. I enjoy Farnon and Coates more than Britten and Elgar.

[starrynight]

I've got a good one... I think the best British classical composers are the LIGHT classical ones. I enjoy Farnon and Coates more than Britten and Elgar.

But Elgar did some nice lighter pieces.

[otare]

I don't like the voice of Kirsten Flagstad! I have tried and tried, but I don't see what is so fantastic about her singing.
Being Norwegian, this is a really unpopular opinion!

[Ten thumbs]

Seems like I have an unpopular opinion because I like the music of the Romantic era. I just wish that more people would try and understand it. I like the ideal of every note and every harmony being crucial to the whole.

[DavidRoss]

Seems like I have an unpopular opinion because I like the music of the Romantic era. I just wish that more people would try and understand it. I like the ideal of every note and every harmony being crucial to the whole.

The political correctness of university culture conditioned me to disparage Romantic music in my youth (perhaps because it was so popular despite the efforts of academic composers & critics to cram "music by the numbers" down our throats?). In my maturity (40+ for me, a late-bloomer, indeed, but at least I bloomed!), I realized slowly that much of my favorite music was of the sort often classified as Romantic. That helped open my mind to other composers and music that I'd never really given a fair chance to--most notably Sibelius, long disparaged as a retrograde Romantic but whom I subsequently heard as the paragon of Modernism (in every sense but the very narrow academic orthodoxy equating "Modern" music solely with Schoenberg and his followers).

The gist of this all is that I relearned what I had learned long ago in school, that the things of the world are distinct from the categories and concepts we apply to them, and that  it's a grave handicap to mistake things for their common classifications. This is the most widespread category error on earth, and the reason why Hell is paved with good intentions.

[Madiel]

Ravel and Debussy have virtually nothing in common as composers.

Oh, and Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" is a brilliantly crafted song.  With "Paparazzi" also being exceptionally good.

[DavidW]

I like listening to music on my phone.

[Opus106]

I like listening to music on my phone.

Also, you like Mendelssohn.

[DavidW]

Also, you like Mendelssohn.

You betcha!

[Karl Henning]

You betcha!

Smack 'em, Davey, je-je-jeh!

[CaughtintheGaze]

I like listening to music on my phone.

This is actually the most efficient way for me to listen, as I have a 30 minute walk to school.

[Rinaldo]

I like listening to music on my phone.

As long as you use headphones..

Although the image of teenagers blasting, say, Wagner on the bus from the tiny cellphone speakers is quite endearing.

[Mirror Image]

Here's some unpopular opinions: Mozart wasn't a genius, Bach is a bore, Beethoven is overrated, need I go on or have I done enough damage?