Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

[Moonfish]

Celibidache conducting?

[Moonfish]

The Last Temptation of Delius

[Ken B]

The Last Temptation of Delius

This is the only time temptation and Delius have been used in the same sentence.

[Moonfish]

This is the only time temptation and Delius have been used in the same sentence.

Hey! Your post must be the second time!!!! 

[Mirror Image]

Ouch...I've been slaving away all day at work and I have come to my home away from home to read this?!?!? I love it! Carry on!

To steal a Karl phrase:

*munches popcorn*

[Madiel]

Ans:  B. More generally - I believe he will be seen as revelatory of our age, the human expression of the digital age in which we're immersed. 

That's pretty much what Radiohead is for.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

That's pretty much what Radiohead is for.

I make periodic attempts to grasp current pop culture and honestly wish I could understand - even just a smidgen of understanding - why this band is so popular.  I don't get it, nor Coldplay, or many others...If anyone can explain these, it would be so much appreciated.

[Jo498]

I think most of the popculture is too closely linked to a fleeting "zeitgeist" of a few years, or sometimes a particular subculture. Not to an "age" like a decade or three. I never really was interested in pop culture, but in my twenties I "listened along" with some friends and acquaintances. The music of the early/mid-90s, like Nirwana, often linked to the ominous "Generation X" now seems very distant, and of course, it's been about 20 years or more. But the wistful/depressive grunge style can hardly be said to have been relevant for the general mood around the turn of the millenium. It had expired a few years before.
Musically, I never found any of it interesting.

[Madiel]

I make periodic attempts to grasp current pop culture and honestly wish I could understand - even just a smidgen of understanding - why this band is so popular.  I don't get it, nor Coldplay, or many others...If anyone can explain these, it would be so much appreciated.

Ugh. The very fact that you linked together Radiohead and Coldplay is proof enough of your incomprehension.

But I'm certainly not going to get into a big discussion about pop music on this thread, in fact not on the forum in general because I've already seen what kind of reaction would occur. The sole reason for referencing Radiohead is that your claims for Glass, about expressing the digital age and so on, are eerily reminiscent of the kind of remarks that music journalists tended to make in relation to Radiohead, particularly around the time of their most heavily acclaimed albums in 1997 and 2000.

[Jo498]

But don't you think Cobain's achievement was tied rather closely to a certain zeitgeist or youth culture 20-25 years ago? Does anyone younger than 30 listen to this stuff (maybe they do not even know it)? How many 40somethings of 2015 still listen to Nirwana etc. frequently?

We probably have to wait another 3-5 years or so, as the 1980s have already had their revival, the 1990s are due next.

[Madiel]

But don't you think Cobain's achievement was tied rather closely to a certain zeitgeist or youth culture 20-25 years ago? Does anyone younger than 30 listen to this stuff (maybe they do not even know it)? How many 40somethings of 2015 still listen to Nirwana etc. frequently?

We probably have to wait another 3-5 years or so, as the 1980s have already had their revival, the 1990s are due next.

If you're talking to me, I'm going to make two related comments.

The first is that the pace of artistic and musical change has accelerated in exactly the same way as the pace of all societal change has accelerated.

The second is that I don't think you're showing a lot of awareness of the pace of musical change in previous eras when 'classical' music was actually the music of the day. Stuff went in and out of fashion pretty rapidly. Composers that we now admire were either considered old-fashioned by the end of their career or started off unpopular. Think about, for example, how much change there was in Beethoven's music in the space of 20 years or less, and how much change there was in the reactions to his music.

Nirvana is hardly a good example. They ended for a very obvious reason, and are no longer creating any new music. The connection to a specific time is because they were only creating at a specific time - in exactly the same way that there are a scattering of classical composers who are now minor figures because they died very young while showing 'potential'. Who the heck knows where Nirvana would have gone if Cobain wasn't dead? Dave Grohl spun off a second career as the lead of Foo Fighters instead. Meanwhile I'm going to Tori Amos concerts, 22/3 years after she started, and sometimes encountering fans who weren't even born when she started. I'm also listening to the music of Joni Mitchell, much of which was written before my own birth. And Nirvana's chief "rivals" at the time, Pearl Jam, are still around.

You simply cannot assess the long-range reaction to music within that kind of timeframe. You need longer, and you also need to recognise these assessments are almost always subject to change. J.S. Bach was largely ignored for a couple of generations by anyone except fellow-composers.

[Florestan]

Reminds me of a Flying Dutchman I saw in Mannheim. Near the end, where the Dutchman's ship is supposed to disappear (it had appeared in quite spectacular fashion), the mechanism jammed shortly after the transformation began and half the ship stayed firmly onstage. Through the loud climactic orchestral passage we could quite clearly hear the curses of a stagehand as he whacked something metallic with a hammer to get it going 

A true Gesamtkunstwerk, if ever there was one! 

TD


Joh. Sebast. Bach
Haydn
Mozart
Beethoven
Schubert
Schumann
Chopin
Brahms
Tchaikovsky
Rachmaninoff

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Ugh. The very fact that you linked together Radiohead and Coldplay is proof enough of your incomprehension.

But I'm certainly not going to get into a big discussion about pop music on this thread, in fact not on the forum in general because I've already seen what kind of reaction would occur. The sole reason for referencing Radiohead is that your claims for Glass, about expressing the digital age and so on, are eerily reminiscent of the kind of remarks that music journalists tended to make in relation to Radiohead, particularly around the time of their most heavily acclaimed albums in 1997 and 2000.

Hey! Thanks for your insights!

[NJ Joe]

JS Bach
Mozart
Beethoven
Brahms
Debussy
Sibelius
Ravel
Bartok
Stravinsky

Choosing a 10th is too difficult right now.

Okay, until further notice I'm going with Vaughan Williams for my 10th.

[vandermolen]

Okay, until further notice I'm going with Vaughan Williams for my 10th.

An excellent choice. 

[Christo]

An excellent choice. 

Some of us need even less than ten options to choose him. 

[sheri1983]

Beethoven
Mozart
J. S.Bach
Handel
Schubert
Wagner
Brahms
Telemann
Chopin
Haydn

I'm into the Baroque period to my bones I just love it! and also the Romanticism.

[Mirror Image]

Beethoven
Mozart
J. S.Bach
Handel
Schubert
Wagner
Brahms
Telemann
Chopin
Haydn

I'm into the Baroque period to my bones I just love it! and also the Romanticism.

Just out of curiosity, no love for 20th Century composers?

[Brian]

Just out of curiosity, no love for 20th Century composers?

There's certainly no requirement. The baroque is pretty freaking awesome. 

By the way, welcome to GMG, sheri1983!

[Jaakko Keskinen]

The baroque is pretty freaking awesome. 

It took me a long time to learn to love baroque. One day I even mentioned to my friend, half-jokingly: "All the baroque music sounds the same."