Posted on 01/23/2011 1:38:09 PM PST by Pharmboy
HERE goes. This article completes my two-week project to select the top 10 classical music composers in history, not including those still with us.
Left, 1. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). From top left, 2. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), 3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 91). 4. Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828). From middle left, 5. Claude Achille Debussy (1862 1918), 6. Igor Stravinsky (1882 1971), 7. Johannes Brahms (1833 97). From bottom left, 8. Giuseppe Verdi (1813 1901), 9. Richard Wagner (1813 83), 10. Bela Bartok (1881 1945).
I am about to reveal my list, though as those who have been with me on this quest already know, Ive dropped hints... And the winner, the all-time great, is ... Bach!
My top spot goes to Bach, for his matchless combination of masterly musical engineering (as one reader put it) and profound expressivity. Since writing about Bach in the first article of this series I have been thinking more about the perception that he was considered old-fashioned in his day. Haydn was 18 when Bach died, in 1750, and Classicism was stirring. Bach was surely aware of the new trends. Yet he reacted by digging deeper into his way of doing things. In his austerely beautiful Art of Fugue, left incomplete at his death, Bach reduced complex counterpoint to its bare essentials, not even indicating the instrument (or instruments) for which these works were composed.
On his own terms he could be plenty modern. Though Bach never wrote an opera, he demonstrated visceral flair for drama in his sacred choral works...
The obvious candidates for the second and third slots are Mozart and Beethoven. If you were to compare just Mozarts orchestral and instrumental music to Beethovens, that would be a pretty even match....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
He borrowed a LOT from Wagner.
Adagio for Strings is one of the saddest songs ever written or performed. We should just put loud speakers in the mountains of Afghanistan and play it over and over. I bet the Talibam will just jump off the cliffs. I mean come on. I listen to it and weep almost ever time. Ok maybe not but it is quite heart wrenching.
Debussy, ugh, I’ve had enough of his tone poems to last a lifetime. If a Frenchmen has to be included make it Saint Saens.
They all got it from Haydn, and he isn't on the list either.
Ooops, guess I don’t belong on this thread. Sorry.
I agree with you 100%, brilliance knows no musical genre.
You can thank his brother, Ira, for the very cleverly done lyrics. :-)
I love Bach. He is my all time hands down favorite classical composer. Of course I haven’t heard much classical music for years.
Hmm, no Vivaldi or Handel. I like Baroque music a lot.
What tone poems? Are you thinking of Richard Strauss? Debussy is a much more greater composer than SS.
Mozart is witty and beautiful beyond words. Mahler is both sublime and majestic. Stravinsky is so creatively bold and unique he deserves to be on this list. And there are so many incredible composers.
But nobody gets all the various parts of the mind and the soul moving like Bach.
The three most important musical compositions of the 19th century are Beethoven’s Eroica, Wagner’s Tristan and Debussy’s Prelude.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkObnNQCMtM
The human voice has a power of expression no instrument can match. Singing is the gift God gave us, both to praise Him, and as a reason to praise Him.
Agreed. Omitting Handel is unforgivable. As Bach was for instrumental music, Handel was for the voice. His music was/is of such exquisite refinement, invention, and perfection that it is not for nothing that Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart regarded him as the greatest composer of all.
The problem is that a very small % of Handel’s music is still played.
Agnus Die is amazing. Have it on my Ipod and it makes that song 100x better. The voice sets your body and heart into a dark sad place. But it is amazing.
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