NationStates Jolt Archive


Faveourite classical composer

Exochina
13-03-2006, 18:00
I was watching the actors list on ch4 (uk) last nite, and i realised that you never see lists of high culture like plays and classical music etc.
So anyway, thats basically why i decided to do this. As i cant really find out anywhere else eg.lists on tv, i wanted to know what composers are popular with the public, ie. you lot.

The poll is just of sum of the more popular composers i thought ppl wud be most likely to vote for, by all means, if a composer you like is not on there, mention him/her in the thread.

I'll start with sum of my faves, and why i like em:

Olivier Messaien: I just love the eccentricity, the playfulness of the music, and particularly i like being able to follow what the music is doing, like in the turangalila symphony, theres almost no development of the musical material, so u always recognise what ur listening to, very pop music-like. I also like recognising the different aspects of his music that are based on bird calls.

Bela Bartok: Again, i like this composer for his eccentricity, his playfullness, his great, folky melodies, his wagnerian sense of romanticism and his expressionistic approach to orchestration and dissonance.

Arvo Part; kindof like a purified form of classical music. The music is generally static and doesnt really go anywhere. It manages to be serene and passionate at the same time.

Claude Debussy; i like the idea of there being something between tonality and atonality, between boring consonance and confusing dissonance. Debussy was the first composer i heard that presented this 'third option' to me. This is the main reason i got into him. Theres also something about his personality that really comes across in his music, something that gives his music a much more brutal, more intense, basically more interesting feel than that of a similarly styled composer such as ravel.

L. V. Beethoven; I mainly like the brooding intensity of his music, the piano sonatas in particular, although he also manages some sublimely sweet music eg. pathetique sonata 2nd Movt.

Frederyk Chopin; Pretty much holds the same appeal as beethoven, but more romantic, more chromatic.

Anyway, thats me pretty much done, who do you guys like?
Dogburg II
13-03-2006, 18:16
Technically Handel was baroque not classical, but I voted for him.

Just hear him bust out an insane harpsichord solo to see why. This guy was the Jimi Hendrix of the pre-1900s.
Exochina
13-03-2006, 18:21
God, you ppl are so patronising, somone brought up the same point on the other thread i accidentally created. this was my reply:
The term classical music isnt strictly incorrect, its just ambiguous. If you say calssical era, u mean the classical era, if you say classical music u mean the genre of music.
This is the way the ppl at my conservatoire talk, so it has nothing to do with dumbing down, merely to avoid confusion, most ppl responding probably wont evern consider what u mentioned, even the ones who understand the difference between clasical era and romantic etc.
Unabashed Greed
13-03-2006, 18:22
I like the named ones, but there are a couple that really need to be mentioned as well, like Prokofiev, and Puccini
Czardas
13-03-2006, 18:28
John Lennon wasn't bad. ;)

I also like Palestrina, J.S. Bach, Penderecki, Stockhausen, Messiaen, Prokofiev, Bartók (hence the username), Kodály, and so on. Basically everyone except the Classics and Romantics. ^_^
Letila
13-03-2006, 18:31
I would have to say Beethoven, overall. Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Wagner sound pretty good from what I've heard of them (which is, unfortunately, not much). Most of the Baroque and Classical eras aren't particularly interest to me, though I like a few things by Bach and Mozart.

I think most (but not all) of the stuff after the Romantic/Impressionist eras is crap. Atonality sounds too disturbed and mechanical. Serialism is even more mechanical and the use of tone rows to generate music is just silly. Minimalism is too much like pop/rock to even deserve the classification as classical/art/serious music IMO.

John Lennon wasn't bad.

He was pop/rock all the way. He couldn't even read music.
Exochina
13-03-2006, 18:32
Do you really enjoy penderecki as a composer or is it more that you admire his overall style?

I like penderecki, but after hearing st lukes passion and the 3rd symphony ive decided i dont think that much of him as a composer and that he only really works in small quantities. After about 20 mins the music kinda loses its impact.
Exochina
13-03-2006, 18:37
Minimalism is too much like pop/rock to even deserve the classification as classical/art/serious music IMO.



He was pop/rock all the way. He couldn't even read music.

Notice that she used the winking emoticon next to the john lennon comment , ie, not serious. Theres no need to be spiteful.:(

Thats a little unfair i think. Even if you think the repetetive style of glass and reich are too simple and poppy u have to admit that composers like Part, Gorecki are refined enough and John adams is complex enough to be music to be held in high esteem if not adored.
Czardas
13-03-2006, 18:37
Do you really enjoy penderecki as a composer or is it more that you admire his overall style?

I like penderecki, but after hearing st lukes passion and the 3rd symphony ive decided i dont think that much of him as a composer and that he only really works in small quantities. After about 20 mins the music kinda loses its impact.
I like the general style, and some of the music. The electronic stuff is highly interesting, although that can't go on for too long. The Neo-Romantic music I've heard tends to drag on.... although it could be just my opinion of the Wagnerian-and-post *spits three times over shoulder* musical style.
Letila
13-03-2006, 18:42
Notice that she used the winking emoticon next to the john lennon comment , ie, not serious. Theres no need to be spiteful.

Sorry. I hate that guy, though. He's such a fraud, a rich man singing about socialism.

Thats a little unfair i think. Even if you think the repetetive style of glass and reich are too simple and poppy u have to admit that composers like Part, Gorecki are refined enough and John adams is complex enough to be music to be held in high esteem if not adored.

Maybe. I'm not especially familiar with minimalism, just the relatively few examples of it I've heard and what I've read about it, but I've got a bad first few impressions of it.
Czardas
13-03-2006, 18:42
Notice that she used the winking emoticon next to it, ie, not serious.

Thats a little unfair i think. Even if you think the repetetive style of glass and reich are too simple and poppy u have to admit that composers like Part, Gorecki are refined enough and Hohn adams is complex enough to be music to be held in high esteem if not adored.
I am equipped with an XY chromosome and all the equipment that comes with it. ^_^

And yes, I was joking. Those who know me ought to realise that I use a heck of a lot of sarcasm in everyday life and I shouldn't be taken too seriously all the time.

Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and say that I'm not really a fan of most minimalist music. Of course, that would be unfair to composers like Adams and some Reich, which is actually interesting and often rhythmic (esp. Adams).
Roguelyness
13-03-2006, 18:44
What, no Schubert? :eek:

The masses, the piano sonatas, the piano impromptus... All damn good :)
Czardas
13-03-2006, 18:49
Schubert wasn't bad.... but a bit too much like Brahms for my tastes.
Exochina
13-03-2006, 18:50
[QUOTE=Czardas]I am equipped with an XY chromosome and all the equipment that comes with it. ^_^QUOTE]

Sorry, its cos u had spamgirl written under ur name.
Dont get how this forum works...
Exochina
13-03-2006, 18:57
Sorry. I hate that guy, though. He's such a fraud, a rich man singing about socialism.


George orwell lived as a tramp for a while and wrote about socialism even though he was middle class. Does that make him a fraud?
Devlyn
13-03-2006, 19:04
Sorry, its cos u had spamgirl written under ur name.
Dont get how this forum works...
It's one of the member titles. There's a list somewhere out there.

(Czardas's puppet btw, I logged in with this nation to post in one of my RPs.)
Saxnot
13-03-2006, 19:12
Elgar, Mozart, Bach, Copland, Haydn, Handel...
Letila
13-03-2006, 19:47
George orwell lived as a tramp for a while and wrote about socialism even though he was middle class. Does that make him a fraud?

I'm not really familiar with his background, though I'm not sure that's the same thing as being a millionaire who benefits directly from capitalism and pretending to be leftist.