battle of the greatest composers (gun to your head)

there is no "other" choice. deal. :D

Best Opera EVER...

(that said, I've seen very few)

david

Using the "forbidden" modes and all. He was the Heavy Metal of his time.

All of the great composers were considered radical in their times (for example see the portrayal of Mozart in 'Amadeus'), yet they are considered calm and moderate a little later - give it 50 years and people will think this way about Messiaen, Boulez, and Xenakis.

If I play Bach organ works whilst I am working, I'm sure that it boosts my speed and accuracy. But to commite a major heresy, I don't like the Toccata in D minor, the Fugue is fantastic and utterly mind-blowing though.

Beethoven it is.

Can't get enough Moonlight Sonata.

Although I like a lot of W. Amadeus and Bach.

my thread can't die THIS quickly!

Bach and Beethoven. I went with Bach.

Born a peasant, mostly self educated, highly prolific and became the most famous composer in Europe in his own lifetime.
What didn't he do?

or help out the one with out any votes.

was the Raindrop etude.

Oh my god...RAIN!!! I'm sick of it. Did I mention that yet?

Bach is more "perfection" than Mozart, but Mozart has perfection and passion... and humor. Plus it fits my voice better than Bach :)

He wrote a whole Mass every week for church on Sunday. With quill and ink.

He used to spell his name with the notes (there is an "H" in the German musical alphabet).

His dates (1685-1750) are almost identical to the Barouque era. The guy exhausted the genre. His counterpoint is amazing. I worked on a couple of his pieces including one of his suites in music school. It can take years to truly master one of his pieces...and once you have...you can bring out different voices in the counterpoint...and it sounds like a brand new piece taking hundreds of hours in the practice room to do the new interpretation justice. And he wrote the equivelent of a Suite a week. The thought of the amount of work he did...it's nearly unfathomable.

And we don't know how many of his pieces we lost. His genius was lost on the world for many decades after his demise. As paper was in short supply back then, people would just take previous used paper and give it a new application. J.S. Bach's works were found (get this...and gasp) years later wrapping fish in the market...wrapping trees to keep them from bleeding. A TRAVESTY! We still have no idea how many we lost. And we discover new works from him all the time.

It wasn't until Mendohlsson (sp?) performed one of his Passions in Leipzeig (I believe the St Matthews...but I could be wrong) that the world rediscoverd J.S. Bach. Mendohlsson was so moved...he walked out of the venue immediately and commissioned a statue be erected in front of the church.

J.S. Bach devoted his life to God. Several of his offspring were successful composers as well (J.C. and C.P.E.).He was blessed with so much talent...I put him on the level of Di Vinci.

Beyond The Four Seasons, his violin concertos give me joy beyond most things on this earth.

it's my favorite genre as well.

You can actually masturbate to his 4th symphony.

John Williams who? He...ahem..."borrows" from Stravinsky all the time.

Listen to The Rite of Spring...oh whats that...hey...THATS THE JAWS THEME!

And that piece is actually a ballet. He pretty much ushered in the modern era. Using dissonance...atonality...and poly-rhythmns. Odd stuff. So unsettling for its time...it caused its first audience to riot! The cops had to be called in.

Debussy. Bartok. Varese. Penderecki.

My personal favorite is Olivier Messiaen.

I have never understood why we don't listen to the music of our own time. Not that Beethoven wasn't a genius, but he wrote for his day, and the aesthetics of his day are not the aesthetics of our day. We live with uncertainty and chaos, we see the most horrible atrocities being committed (by our own forces, no less), and to think that the Ode to Joy has any relevance to the 21st century is a cruel joke.

Give me the Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps any day.

The dean of music at KU was the organist. He was so well established. Dr Moeser. And he would play these Bach Fugues. And when we moved I tried to go to another church. I hated it. Thats when I realized...I didn't enjoy it for the preaching...I enjoyed it for the Music.

For me...when I hear Bach...I think of God. In fact...he's about the only person that can make me think of God. And he's been dead for over 250 years.

You are correct...it doesn't relate. But who cares. It's the closest things we have to actual recorded history. It's a glimpse into the past.

I don't know why Mozart gets the credit. Bach *is* the sound of order and logic. The intelligence in the Ricercar is just staggering.

Bach was practically forgotten by Beethoven's time, and Beethoven devoted a fair amount of attention to saving Bach's music for posterity. Obviously this isn't the only thing we have to thank him for, but it helps.

That said, Beethoven is not my favorite. I find him somewhat overwrought-- he REALLY REALLY REALLY wants you to react exactly the same way he does to certain things, and he just pours his heart out into them, and sometimes his passion outweighs the experience. I feel like he needs the full orchestra all the time, there's too much emotion for a mere piano.

The pathos of the Quator is astonishing, and placing it in the context of the P.o.W. camp makes one realise how close he was to us (as compared with older composers). Also 'Apparition de l'Eglise eternelle' which I want played before my funeral; it's one of those pieces that one HAS to listen to in some depth - almost more meditation than listenning to music.

I also love the mystic minimalists; Paert, Gorecki, and Tavener.

all his operas, piano concerts ..... And of course his Requiem.

... at least learn to spell the bloody names!

It's D-V-O-R-A-K.

Bet you'll invade the bloody Czech Republic now!!!

The Skin :mad:

When I learned basic music theory, most of our examples on counterpoint and harmony, and chord progression was mostly from Bach works. His music is the epitome of the combination of logic and sound, as one person also noted.

(edited to remove my mistake :))

He was a big Nietzsche fan though.

supporter, but even that is only gossip, as far as I know... mainly it was his socializing with Nazi collaborators.

And even the failing of his son PDQ cannot tarnish his name.