How Musically Cosmopolitan Are You?

[Florestan]

Inspired by a recent debate in Haydn´s Haus, here are two questions.

1. How many of your favorite composers are not Austrian / German? (there is no limit to the list, make it your top 5, 10, 15, 50 or how many you like)

2. If you were forced to listen for a whole month only to non-Austrian / non-German composers, could you resist without effort?

My answers.

1. In my top 15, there are Vivaldi, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. All the other eleven are Austrian / German, Dvorak included.

This is heavily skewed and sometimes I feel that I really neglect other regions.

2. This is my project starting as of yesterday night: not to listen to any Austrian / German music for a whole month. My-library-wise, I am perfectly able to do it. I wonder if I can resist though. Anyone interested check the WAYLT thread. 

Afterthought 1: OTOH, my top 10 opera composers list features only one Austrian (Mozart) and one German (von Weber). Italians, Frenchmen and Russians are overwhelmingly represented.

Afterthought 2: When it comes to Baroque and Classical, listening to music composed by an Italian is no guarantee that it was not composed in the German-speaking parts of the Holy Roman Empire, and influenced by the music thereof. 

Your turn, gentlemen. How cosmopolitan are you, or can you be, music-wise?

[Mirror Image]

Well...my 'Top 5' are Sibelius, Nielsen, RVW, Bartok, and Ravel, so I suppose I'm pretty cosmopolitan (whatever this truly means in musical terms).

[Florestan]

Well...my 'Top 5' are Sibelius, Nielsen, RVW, Bartok, and Ravel

As of now. What about in two weeks time? 

Anyway, my congrats for not listing one single natively German-speaking guy. 

[North Star]

Bach
Beethoven
Brahms
Chopin
Janáček
Mozart
Prokofiev
Ravel
Sibelius
Stravinsky

So 4 out of the top 10 are Austrian and German composers. Among the favourites just below, Rakhmaninov, Berlioz, Elgar, Britten, Vaughan Williams, Bartók, Monteverdi, Fauré, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Vivaldi, Zelenka, Dvorak, Villa-Lobos, Pärt, Martinů, and Nielsen are also of other nationalities, Haydn, Berg, Schubert and Schumann are not: 7 out of 31 are German or Austrian.

If I was forced to listen to not listen to any music by German or Austrian composers, I think I would do just fine for a few weeks, but I would miss Bach.

[Florestan]

So 4 out of the top 10 are Austrian and German composers. Among the favourites just below, Rakhmaninov, Berlioz, Elgar, Britten, Vaughan Williams, Bartók, Monteverdi, Fauré, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Vivaldi, Zelenka, Dvorak, and Nielsen are also of other nationalities, Haydn, Berg, Schubert and Schumann are not: 7 out of 28 are German or Austrian.

If I was forced to listen to not listen to any music by German or Austrian composers, I think I would do just fine for a few weeks, but I would miss Bach.

Nice.

I will miss first and foremost Schubert.

[ritter]

This was my list in the "Your top 10 favourite composers" thread:

Claudio Monteverdi
Johann Sebastian Bach
Wolgang Amadeus Mozart
Ludwig van Beethoven
Richard Wagner
Gustav Mahler
Claude Debussy
Igor Stravinsky
Alban Berg
Pierre Boulez

So, two Frenchmen, one Italian, one Russian-Frenchman-American, out of a total of ten...do I qualify as cosmpolitan? Well, at least I'm a fracophile 

If my list were extended to include runner-ups (which was done, in Spanish, a long time ago here), I also have, out of seven names mentioned, one Romanian, yet another Frenchman, and one Spaniard.

But, definitely yes! I can survive for a month on a musical diet that does not include any germanic components...but after that month, I'd probably stuff myself with some Wagner for a couple of days 

Cheers,

[some guy]

I don't listen to music according to geography.

So I'm probably as cosmopolitan as it's possible to be, simply because I don't pay that much attention to where people are from.

I like a lot of Austrian/German composers: Bruckner, Mahler, Lachenmann, Neumann, Schick, Brümmer and so forth.

But I like a lot of English composers, too: Jeck, Salazar, Hodgkinson, Cutler, Harrison.

And US: Ives, Cage, Mumma, Tudor, Nelson, Theriault, Amacher, Shields.

And France: Bokanowski, Groult, Gibello, Andre, eRikm, Dhomont, Noetinger, Marchetti

And Canada: Tetreault, Normandeau, Calon, Truax

And Italy: Maderna, Marchetti, Petrassi, Sano

And Lithuania: Kutavicius
And Rumania: Avram and Dumitrescu
And Argentina: Justel
And Chile: Otondo
And Spain: Gerhard, Marco
And Denmark: Steen-Andersen

And so forth.

Plus there are numerous people who started out in one place and ended up somewhere else: Varese, Ferrari, Ferreyra, Karkowski, Kasem, Mandolini, and so on.

I have lived myself in Paris and Darmstadt and Barcelona, no surprises there.

Even the older guys--my favorite nineteenth century composer was from France. My favorite early twentieth century composers were from Czech Republic, Russia, Hungary, France, Denmark, and US.

It's a small world, but it has a lot of places in it. In many of those places there are musicians making music. I don't think I would ever want to stop listening to music from a particular place, even for a few weeks.

[Gurn Blanston]

I could easily do a month, or even 2, with just Russian and Italian. If you will give me Bohemian as a genre of its own (although I know you wouldn't), I could do a month of just Bohemian!

I wish, though, that you would not lump together German and Austrian. At least from the 18th century going backwards, they are very different. After Beethoven, of course, the game is changed.

[Karl Henning]

Beethoven: Game-Changer

[Florestan]

one Romanian

I wonder who he is... 

[Todd]

2. If you were forced to listen for a whole month only to non-Austrian / non-German composers, could you resist without effort?

Piece of cake.  For instance, I could do a full month of Debussy played only by French artists.  I won't do that, but it wouldn't be hard from a composition or artist perspective. 

[Karl Henning]

Aye; nothing at all forced about it 

[Florestan]

I could easily do a month, or even 2, with just Russian and Italian. If you will give me Bohemian as a genre of its own (although I know you wouldn't), I could do a month of just Bohemian!

Italian I can figure it out, but Russian past Bortnianksy and Glinka? You mean Scriabin, Medtner and Stravinsky are right up your alley? 

I wish, though, that you would not lump together German and Austrian. At least from the 18th century going backwards, they are very different.

I thiought more about from the 19thy century forwards when they presided over the canon.

After Beethoven, of course, the game is changed.

Ah yes, the man who dragged music in a swamp out of which it was never lifted again --- as per one guy I overheard on TV a few years ago. 

[Florestan]

Piece of cake.  For instance, I could do a full month of Debussy played only by French artists.  I won't do that

But that´s exactly the trick: do it and then report back! How many days until you spin some Liszt? or Beethoven? 

[vandermolen]

Bruckner and Mahler are two of the very greatest composers and I have been listening to Mahler Symphony 1 and 3 (after hearing it in concert) a lot recently; my favourite composers, however, tend to be British, Russian, American and Scandinavian.

[Gurn Blanston]

Italian I can figure it out, but Russian past Bortnianksy and Glinka? You mean Scriabin, Medtner and Stravinsky are right up your alley? 

I thiought more about from the 19thy century forwards when they presided over the canon.

Ah yes, the man who dragged music in a swamp out of which it was never lifted again --- as per one guy I overheard on TV a few years ago. 

Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Shostakovitch, Borodin, Glazunov, Taneyev, Khatchaturian, Ippolitov-Ivanov, Gliere, Arensky, Myaskovsky ... well, none of the exotics you guys all listen to, but I like them.  And yes, Glinka too!

Well yes, you would. I always go backwards instead.

That is an excellent quote, it has more real meaning than many would give it credit for. Think of it in terms of 'after me, the deluge', so not really Beethoven at all, but the aftermath.

[Todd]

How many days until you spin some Liszt?

Zero.  I listened this morning.  He's non-Germanic last I checked. 

Beethoven may wait until tomorrow.

[Florestan]

Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Shostakovitch, Borodin, Glazunov, Taneyev, Khatchaturian, Ippolitov-Ivanov, Gliere, Arensky, Myaskovsky ... well, none of the exotics you guys all listen to, but I like them.  And yes, Glinka too!

Of course, I was just being provocative!   

Do give a try to Scriabin and Medtner piano sonatas, I don´t see anything to scare you away.

I always go backwards

No need to tell me how reactiionary you are. 

That is an excellent quote, it has more real meaning than many would give it credit for. Think of it in terms of 'after me, the deluge', so not really Beethoven at all, but the aftermath.

You mean, suich a Russian deluge as Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Shostakovitch, Borodin, Glazunov, Taneyev, Khatchaturian, Ippolitov-Ivanov, Gliere, Arensky, Myaskovsky, right? 

[Florestan]

Zero.  I listened this morning.  He's non-Germanic last I checked. 

Huh? Franz Liszt was of predominantly German stock. His, his father´s, his mother´s, his grandmothers´ and his grandfathers` native language was German and he never spoke more than rudimentary Hungarian. That he was born in today´s Hungary makes him no more Hungarian than Bartok´s being born in today´s Romania makes him Romanian.

[Jo498]

I can easily do without Liszt... and also months without Bruckner or Mahler. And I could easily listen to Chopin, Dvorak, Vivaldi, Bartok, Purcell and maybe some Fauré and Janacek for a month.
But overall I am quite provincial and my listening is dominated by German/Austrian composers. My collection is even worse as Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Bach, Handel, Schubert and Brahms are probably the composers I have the most recordings of.
As I am not such an opera buff, bad luck for the Italians, I am afraid. And for whatever reason there is not much French music I really connect with. Some (but not all) Debussy and Ravel, Fauré's chamber music I like a lot but many justifiedly famous pieces leave me cold (and I do not much like the sound of French when sung in the classical style).