Are there particular genres certain composers should have just avoided?

[San Antone]

Pedants' Corner:

I shouldn't fear a Hummeloscopy, sanantonio. The suffix 'oscopy' means to look at, with a scope (the clue is in the word! ) A Schoenbergoscopy would be a Schoenberg retrospective (using a retrospectoscope, presumably). What a nice thought that the smart money went there!

-ectomy, is what I believe you were looking for.

Hah! Thanks for the correction. 

[Ken B]

Pedants' Corner:

I shouldn't fear a Hummeloscopy, sanantonio. The suffix 'oscopy' means to look at, with a scope - the clue is in the word! A Schoenbergoscopy would be a Schoenberg retrospective (using a retrospectoscope, presumably). What a nice thought that the smart money went there!

-ectomy, is what I believe you were looking for.

Indeed!
And not pedantic, correct!

[Turbot nouveaux]

Indeed!
And not pedantic, correct!

Ah, but one may be correct and pedantic! 

[Ken B]

Ah, but one may be correct and pedantic! 

Optional.

[Monsieur Croche]

Ah, but one may be correct and pedantic! 

Optional.

Thank you for that!

[jochanaan]

I'm sure there are many, and at least a few more, who would be happy to stop the clock just prior December 22, 1894, in order that modern music never were....

Before the Faun?  A bit late to catch that horse; you'd have to go back to 10 June 1865 and stop Tristan und Isolde.  And while one was at it, execute a hit on Liszt. -- And I know many who would just as soon stop the clock at 1750. Miniver Cheevy, anyone?

[Mirror Image]

Before the Faun?  A bit late to catch that horse; you'd have to go back to 10 June 1865 and stop Tristan und Isolde.  And while one was at it, execute a hit on Liszt. -- And I know many who would just as soon stop the clock at 1750. Miniver Cheevy, anyone?

[BasilValentine]

Before the Faun?  A bit late to catch that horse; you'd have to go back to 10 June 1865 and stop Tristan und Isolde.  And while one was at it, execute a hit on Liszt. -- And I know many who would just as soon stop the clock at 1750. Miniver Cheevy, anyone?

Oh come on! To be funny, humor has to have some basis in the plausible. They aren't going to do without Rachmaninoff, Strauss, Sibelius, Ravel, Vaughan-Williams, Prokofiev and many more, even if it means putting up with a few undesirables. Last time I was in Cincinnati the blue-haired ladies were even loving Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. I'm sure they will learn to love Webern very soon.

[Ken B]

Am I the only one struck by the sheer inanity of the claim that in a world where 99.99999% of the music played was written in my lifetime "modern" music is the preserve of the elite few? I seem to be.

[Mahlerian]

Am I the only one struck by the sheer inanity of the claim that in a world where 99.99999% of the music played was written in my lifetime "modern" music is the preserve of the elite few? I seem to be.

Well, I would never make such a claim.  Contemporary classical music is there for anyone who wants it.

I am personally struck by the willfully myopic charges of elitism on a classical music forum, music that has long been considered the preserve of the elite, and which was never "popular" in the sense of mass popularity to begin with.

Boulez will never be as popular as this is right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT2_F-1esPk (#1 song in America, according to the Hot 100)

But it will be more enduring in the long run, just as the modernist music of earlier decades has been.

[jochanaan]

Oh come on! To be funny, humor has to have some basis in the plausible. They aren't going to do without Rachmaninoff, Strauss, Sibelius, Ravel, Vaughan-Williams, Prokofiev and many more, even if it means putting up with a few undesirables. Last time I was in Cincinnati the blue-haired ladies were even loving Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. I'm sure they will learn to love Webern very soon.

It's not the blue-haired ladies who'd prefer to stay in the past, in my experience. Those chicks indeed have great taste and aren't afraid of dissonance. It's the younger folks, often men, who obsess over certain periods and, like the aforementioned Miniver, "miss the mediaeval grace/Of iron clothing."

[EddieRUKiddingVarese]

Matter of taste I think.

Do you like lemon in your tea?

[Monsieur Croche]

Matter of taste I think.

Do you like lemon in your tea?

Do not like tea / Like lemon.
Matter(s) of taste ~ Q.E.D.


Best regards