Affection and Aggression : Which 3 Composers Would You Like to Hug/Throttle?

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

It wasn't until after I'd finished my latest avatar - begun in jest - that I realized that yeah, I really would like to give Igor a hug.  I like his music that much.  Brahms would have been my first choice but after all I've read of him he seems well, intimidating, bearish, and inapproachable.  So, I'm scratching him off the hug list.  I don't think he'll care.  Sibelius would be my second choice - prob. buy him a beer first.  He'd like that.  Lenny would be my third choice.  Classical music owes him a hug or two - how many classical listeners did he convert in his lifetime? Too many to count but without them our ranks would be smaller than they are.  And how many bad days at work did he help me get through, while humming this line:  "What a day, what a day, for an auto-da-fé..."?

So, which three composers would you hug?  Which three would you like to throttle? (I'm too old for the latter activity in which I fear I would be bested in any case.  But also, I really don't have strong negative reactions about music; I did once upon a time and found it unproductive.  There's always something interesting or potentially so, I find, even if it lacks immediate appeal.  No throttling on my watch, but have at it if you're so inclined.


     

[North Star]

Lili Boulanger, obviously
Franz Schubert would have deserved it too, along with a penicillin prescription. 

[Ken B]

Cosima Wagner, hottie who wrote The Ring.
Nannerl Mozart, hottie who The Magic Flute.
Anna Magdelena Bach, hottie who wrote the St John and St Matthew Passions.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Lili Boulanger, obviously
Franz Schubert would have deserved it too, along with a penicillin prescription. 

Two well-deserved hugs those!  Incidentally, Lili died of the same disease that afflicts my daughter. 

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Cosima Wagner, hottie who wrote The Ring.
Nannerl Mozart, hottie who The Magic Flute.
Anna Magdelena Bach, hottie who wrote the St John and St Matthew Passions.

Good choices all, Ken, glad to see you're solidly behind women's rights!   

[Jay F]

I'd hug Gustav. I wouldn't throttle anyone.

And I love the 8th, too.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

I'd hug Gustav. I wouldn't throttle anyone.

Gustav's eminently huggable, imho.  Yes, just say no to throttling, verbal or actual...  Anti-Mahlerites? hmmmmm...

[Mirror Image]

I'm not really into hugging anyone, unless it's a gorgeous woman, so a firm handshake will do just fine. I'd shake RVW's, Strauss', and Schnittke's hands.

[Ken B]

I'm not really into hugging anyone, unless it's a gorgeous woman, so a firm handshake will do just fine. I'd shake RVW's, Strauss', and Schnittke's hands.

Yeah. I don't like hugging my friend I have known for 52 years. Besides, why would Igor or Gistave want to hugged by any of us?

[Jay F]

Yeah. I don't like hugging my friend I have known for 52 years. Besides, why would Igor or Gustav want to hugged by any of us?

And imagine how old their clothes are by now.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Yeah. I don't like hugging my friend I have known for 52 years. Besides, why would Igor or Gistave want to hugged by any of us?

I've a British friend who says Americans are hug-crazy and that he doesn't want to be touched - he already is touched I told him, to our mutual laughter.  More seriously, it loses meaning if overdone.  I don't think I'm 'hug-crazy' but am not above that display of affection should circumstances warrant.

[amw]

I don't know why people object to hugs. Nothing wrong with 'em.

Schubert definitely needs a hug. I think Vaughan Williams would also be pretty huggable actually, I imagine he gave massive yet surprisingly comfortable bear hugs on occasions that called for them. Tchaikovsky's probably my third choice, or possibly Myaskovsky, he always looks so downcast. (I'm not sure I would be quite so enthusiastic to hug Bernstein, he could reportedly be somewhat... grabby.)

Can't think of anyone I would throttle offhand. Even an insufferable personality like Wagner would be interesting to have a dinner conversation with (so long as he remained unaware of my Jewish background of course).

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Can't think of anyone I would throttle offhand. Even an insufferable personality like Wagner would be interesting to have a dinner conversation with (so long as he remained unaware of my Jewish background of course).

Says a lot for you that you'd have dinner with him just the same.  Igor, too, who was sometimes mistaken as Jewish, let loose with the occasional antisemitic sentiment.  I hope we get past this Schweinerei (Furtwängler's word for Nazis; filth, mess, disgrace) someday.  Soon.  How about now, is now too soon?

[North Star]

Says a lot for you that you'd have dinner with him just the same.  Igor, too, who was sometimes mistaken as Jewish, let loose with the occasional antisemitic sentiment.  I hope we get past this Schweinerei (Furtwängler's word for Nazis; filth, mess, disgrace) someday.  Soon.  How about now, is now too soon?

I'm sure there have been others in history with Jewish blood in them that appreciated Wagner. (Geez, this discussion already reached Godwin's law )
But yes, it's 70 years since those times (and a lot longer since Wagner's time), and people - especially those who didn't personally suffer back then - should move on. Caravaggio, Gesualdo, Britten, Messiaen, and everyone else had their faults too, but artists' legacy is their art, and nothing else.

[springrite]

Can I hug violin babes? Most of them took composition classes and can be technically be classified as composers as well. 

[ibanezmonster]

I've a British friend who says Americans are hug-crazy and that he doesn't want to be touched - he already is touched I told him, to our mutual laughter.  More seriously, it loses meaning if overdone.  I don't think I'm 'hug-crazy' but am not above that display of affection should circumstances warrant.

That's weird; I've always heard Germans are more into that type of physical touching, even towards strangers.

[Marc]

I'm not really into hugging anyone, unless it's a gorgeous woman, so a firm handshake will do just fine. I'd shake RVW's, Strauss', and Schnittke's hands.

I only hug with people who are very dear to me, at special occasions and/or to comfort them, but even among them there are more and less huggable persons, for more and less huggable reasons.

I think I would like to hug both Wolferl and Stanzerl, whilst whispering Stu-Stu-Stu-Stu.

[Jo498]

That's weird; I've always heard Germans are more into that type of physical touching, even towards strangers.

Surely not. At least not traditionally, it may have changed in the last years. Hand-shaking is very common traditionally for a greeting, also with strangers. Hugging and kissing used to be restricted to closest friends and relatives, if at all...
I always thought that this more distant behavior was a "Germanic" thing as opposed to Southern (incl. France) and Eastern Europe.

[North Star]

That's weird; I've always heard Germans are more into that type of physical touching, even towards strangers.

Yeah, right, and we Finns are especially crazy about hugging. 

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

I'm sure there have been others in history with Jewish blood in them that appreciated Wagner. (Geez, this discussion already reached Godwin's law )
But yes, it's 70 years since those times (and a lot longer since Wagner's time), and people - especially those who didn't personally suffer back then - should move on. Caravaggio, Gesualdo, Britten, Messiaen, and everyone else had their faults too, but artists' legacy is their art, and nothing else.

Agree on all points.  Wagner's antisemitism remains capable of igniting tempers, hence my comment and wish.  From a June, 2012 issue of the Daily Beast :

What's Behind Israel's Unofficial Ban on Wagner?

Israelis have mostly made their peace with Germany. But for some in the Jewish state, especially Holocaust survivors, the late German composer Richard Wagner is a different story.  Jonathan Livny was so eager to have the music of the late German composer Richard Wagner played in Israel, he dipped into his own pocket to make it happen. A few months ago, he hired 100 of the country's best musicians, rented a hall at Tel Aviv University, and advertised a concert with ads in the newspaper. Within a week, he says, 600 tickets were sold. Livny is a 64-year-old classical-music buff whose father raised him on the Wagner records he fled Germany with in 1935. He describes the 19th-century musician as one of the most important composers in history. But Wagner was also a raging anti-Semite, and though he died long before the rise of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler made him an icon of the Third Reich, the regime that killed 6 million Jews. Days before the concert was to take place earlier this month, Tel Aviv University informed Livny he could no longer use the venue. A Tel Aviv hotel agreed to host the event instead but backed out as well. "We lost of lot of money on this," he told The Daily Beast. "But I'm not giving up."

And Alex Ross's insightful article here:   http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-case-for-wagner-in-israel