Your No. 1 Composer

[Elgarian]

We're veering terribly off-topic (because I'm not anyone's No. 1 Composer, I'm not), but I was actually called a cuddly teddy bear, by one musical friend to another.  They meant it as a compliment.

(I think.)

But surely you must have expected something of the sort, Karl, after composing your concerto for two floppy ears, a pair of button eyes, and a furry tummy?

[Karl Henning]

It may seem obvious now . . . .

[Conor71]

Even though I have'nt listened to him a whole lot in the last few months I chose Bach - I have spent more time listening to him and have a greater collection of his works than any other Composer in my library.
I admire the skill and humanity in Bach's writing and the sheer amount of excellent works he composed as well - I dont think I have heard a Bach work that I thought wasnt of a high standard.
Bach's Well tempered Clavier and Brandenburg Concertos are amongst my favourite classical works and I have played them many times - Bach's works reward repeated listening and never grow stale, the guy was a genius! .

[some guy]

Music seems to make people feel they have a connection to the actual composer themselves sometimes.

Actually, sitting in a bar sipping Guinness is much better for this.

I do wonder if they actually met their idol whether they would actually like him as much though. 

For me, in every case, I like them more after I've met them. Lovely, lovely people all of them. (So far.)

I quit my day job several years ago, sold my house, took the money and ran. To Europe, to Canada, to other places in the US. To festivals and concerts where I have met dozens of people whose CDs have populated my shelves for years. People who very graciously press (free) CDs on me. Who invite me into their homes. Who make every effort to meet up with me whenever I travel. Charming, intelligent, articulate, gracious, and often very humble people. (Including Mr. Karl Henning, just by the way.)

The very distance increases the mystery and enhances our ability to put ourselves into that space and claim it for ourselves.  Music has enough ambiguity and shifting moods to shape itself to our own desires and needs.

Well, if that's the kind of thing you like. Give me intimacy and camaraderie any day!!

In short, in my experience, the real people are really great as real people. Much to be preferred over their mysterious and chimerical apparitions in my head! Plus, there's that drinking Guinness in bars. Did I mention drinking Guinness in bars already??

[Luke]

Yes, I think that's inescapably part of the special power of art. It permits the making of a unique kind of indirect connection between listener and composer that bypasses some of the problems associated with 'ordinary' human interactions.

How do you do that? Exactly! Beautifully put, that word 'bypasses'...this is a different kind of connection entirely, and one to be treasured.

I'd quibble about the use of the word 'idol' though. I'm under no illusions about Elgar the man, or about the limitations of his music (and it wouldn't surprise me if Luke said the same about Janacek). Loving and admiring aren't at all the same as idolising.

Totally. In fact, in my case, I'd go further. I actually seem to 'go for' the flawed and the human in music. As a man, Janacek had many highly dubious qualities. And as a composer he is flawed too - and so is Tippett, so is Brian, so is Satie...delciciously flawed, utterly human. Chopin spins a poetic web in which each tiny fluctuating nuance is indicated with neurotic detail, as if the music on the page is a seismograph of something deeper. This is precisely why he is a genius, IMO, this tense hypersensitivity. And through Ravel and Brahms wrap up their bruisable interiors in a perfect technical exterior, what is underneath is always bubbling away and bursting through, and is all too probably exactly why these composers mean so much to me.

[madaboutmahler]

Daniel is now your best buddy : )

Good choice, Greg!

Some really beautiful, interesting posts here that I have really enjoyed reading!

[mc ukrneal]

Totally. In fact, in my case, I'd go further. I actually seem to 'go for' the flawed and the human in music. As a man, Janacek had many highly dubious qualities. And as a composer he is flawed too - and so is Tippett, so is Brian, so is Satie...delciciously flawed, utterly human. Chopin spins a poetic web in which each tiny fluctuating nuance is indicated with neurotic detail, as if the music on the page is a seismograph of something deeper. This is precisely why he is a genius, IMO, this tense hypersensitivity. And through Ravel and Brahms wrap up their bruisable interiors in a perfect technical exterior, what is underneath is always bubbling away and bursting through, and is all too probably exactly why these composers mean so much to me.

Moments before reading your post, I came across this quote on Janacek, "...Moments like these are what we love in Janacek: the way he presents the ordinary world, burbling on in its habitual way, as the site of sudden, barely containable emotions breaking free."  Deja vue...

[starrynight]

Well, if that's the kind of thing you like. Give me intimacy and camaraderie any day!!

I never said that's what I like, just that that's what people do.  I think it is good sometimes to try and keep some distance from the music at times, certainly to judge it better.  Idolising is probably a bit of a dead end and could get in the way of understanding the music better. 

Also in some ways the work doesn't fully represent the person anyway, so you don't know a person just by listening to the music or by reading about their life (which will be biased accounts anyway).  As for living composers who you may know, well that is great but most people aren't really in that position and so it isn't that relevant to them. 

[ibanezmonster]

Good choice, Greg!

Oh yeah, it's been a no-brainer choice for me the last 6 or so years.

And I'm feeling like I know what Luke means from personal experience, since Mahler is starting to feel similar to me as how he explained Janacek is to him. I don't go on any "Mahler binges" any more, in the same way he doesn't go on "Janacek binges," and I wonder if it's because we both know their music so thoroughly well that there isn't much left for discovery, yet we can still say they are without a doubt, our favorites.

Another analogy between a listener and favorite composer might be similar to a couple that has been married for many years (pretty easy to see what I mean here, I'd imagine)...

[starrynight]

Yes, I think that's inescapably part of the special power of art. It permits the making of a unique kind of indirect connection between listener and composer that bypasses some of the problems associated with 'ordinary' human interactions. I'd quibble about the use of the word 'idol' though. I'm under no illusions about Elgar the man, or about the limitations of his music (and it wouldn't surprise me if Luke said the same about Janacek). Loving and admiring aren't at all the same as idolising.

Of course I'm not speaking about everyone (or specifically about anyone here indeed), but neither can you.    But some people can idolise for sure.

[Ten thumbs]

As I'm allowed a number 2 composer, I'll put here the composer whose music I admire the most, namely Schubert. There is no striving in his music. The whole human condition is there, open to view and no other composer moves me to tears so readily.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Quote from: madaboutmahler on Today at 22:37:51

Some really beautiful, interesting posts here that I have really enjoyed reading!



Seconded!

[Lisztianwagner]

Current Tally:

Beethoven     6
Bach              4
Haydn            3
Brahms          2
Handel           2
Mahler           2
Janacek         1
Stravinsky     1
Bartok           1
Wagner         1
Brian             1
Shost.           1
Mozart          1
Holst             1
R. Strauss     1
J. Williams     1
Elgar             1

It seems that I'm the only one who voted for Wagner till now....

[Sergeant Rock]

It seems that I'm the only one who voted for Wagner till now....

I picked Wagner too but in a way that wasn't accepted by the thread's creator. We Trinitarians are so misunderstood 



Sarge

[Lisztianwagner]

I picked Wagner too but in a way that wasn't accepted by the thread's creator. We Trinitarians are so misunderstood 



Sarge

I understand, it is sometimes so hard to choose among all those great composers!

[Bulldog]

Current Tally:

Beethoven      6
Bach               5
Haydn             3
Brahms           2
Handel            2
Mahler            2
Wagner          2
Janacek          1
Stravinsky      1
Bartok            1
Brian              1
Shost.            1
Mozart           1
Holst              1
R. Strauss      1
J. Williams      1
Elgar              1
Schubert        1

[Bulldog]

I picked Wagner too but in a way that wasn't accepted by the thread's creator. We Trinitarians are so misunderstood 



Sarge

You finally said the magic word.

[Karl Henning]

Oh yeah, it's been a no-brainer choice for me the last 6 or so years.

And I'm feeling like I know what Luke means from personal experience, since Mahler is starting to feel similar to me as how he explained Janacek is to him. I don't go on any "Mahler binges" any more, in the same way he doesn't go on "Janacek binges," ...

Of course, there's nothing really stopping Luke from binge Janácekking!

[Geo Dude]

You finally said the magic word.

[Leo K.]

Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791).

I played in the 2nd violin section in my high school orchestra, circa 1985-89. Our orchestra often played Mozart, but it wasn't until I saw Milo Forman's Amadeus on a rental video cassette that I got obsessed with Mozart's music, and music in general. I didn't see Amadeus in the movie theater but I was lukewarm about the movie. However, playing Mozart in my school orchestra reminded me of a clip I saw on the Siskel and Ebert show and later (perhaps 1986 or so) after the film was released on video, I happened to see it at a grocery store for rent. My stepdad offered to rent it for me if I wanted to see it, so I accepted and took it off the shelf. The VCR tape was in bad shape, and when I played it someone had recorded a commercial over the top of the beginning of the movie. I cringed, but eventually, the movie itself returned and all was well. After the film ended, I realized I had been captivated, drawn in to the whole experience of the film, not just the music, but the 18th century too.

The first Mozart recording I bought was a budget label cassette, containing Symphonies No.36 ('Linz') and No.41 ('Jupiter'). I bought it at a retail store called "Shopko," and was feeling proud and nervous when I walked out into the parking lot and approached my parents, waiting for me by the car. I remember my stepdad asking why I bought it. I wish I still had that cassette because the performances still resonate in my mind. I can still see the yellow label on the black cassette, and the front cover with a portrait of Mozart in the center. I am pretty sure the orchestra was the Salzburg Mozarteum, and this cassette was probably a repackaging of a previous vinyl release. I am still on the hunt to regain this lost treasure of a recording.

I remember one day in orchestra class, when Mrs. Workman had us play Mozart's Violin Concerto No.4 with Charles Li, our star violinist, as soloist. I never heard the work before, but upon hearing the orchestra and Charles attack the solo part, the energy in the room intensified—wow—each bar of Mozart's music reached a new level of imagination, more unexpected at each turn. The 1st violin section played the main themes, but Mozart wrote something fun for the 2nd violins as counterpoint. The orchestra was communicating with each other like a conversation. Whatever was happening in the room, this was the real thing. But the inexperienced orchestra couldn't sustain the action and the piece fell apart, yet a conversion happened inside me.

Every single day, after school, I got on a bus and went downtown to the Rochester Public Library. I checked out Mozart records and listened for hours at a time at home, on my brother's turntable. I recorded the music onto cassettes and returned to the library for more records. It wasn't long before I was checking out Beethoven, Schubert, Tchaikovsky and Charles Ives among others.

I also started to seek and purchase Mozart cassettes at Musicland (at the Apache Mall) using money made from my first job at the Bonanza Steak House. When I wasn't at the library, I was shopping at Musicland, looking for new Mozart. Alfred Einstein's classic book on Mozart, called "Mozart: His Character, His Work" (1945) was my bible, and guide. While reading this old book, I discovered the film Amadeus wasn't accurate regarding the truth of Mozart's life, yet that knowledge didn't stop my obsession with the film. I watched Amadeus to live in that world, the world of the 18th Century. The production design of the film is intoxicating, and inviting. The colors, sounds, music, acting, and editing was a white-heat rush to my brain. Nothing made me happier than listening to Mozart and watching Amadeus.