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The Greatest [Top Ten Composers of all time revealed!]
NY Times Blog ^ | January 21, 2011 | ANTHONY TOMMASINI

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, I’ve 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 Mozart’s orchestral and instrumental music to Beethoven’s, that would be a pretty even match....

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: bach; beethoven; mozart
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To: paulycy

He borrowed a LOT from Wagner.


101 posted on 01/23/2011 5:52:42 PM PST by Gapplega
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To: Lauren BaRecall

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.


102 posted on 01/23/2011 5:53:00 PM PST by crazydad
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To: Borges

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.


103 posted on 01/23/2011 5:55:16 PM PST by Gapplega
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To: Gapplega
He borrowed a LOT from Wagner.

They all got it from Haydn, and he isn't on the list either.

104 posted on 01/23/2011 5:56:40 PM PST by paulycy (Liberals suck all the joy out of America. Make them stop.)
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To: crazydad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkSJzMrbPGU


105 posted on 01/23/2011 5:56:47 PM PST by kalee (The offences we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we engrave in marble. J Huett 1658)
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To: paulycy

Ooops, guess I don’t belong on this thread. Sorry.


106 posted on 01/23/2011 6:00:50 PM PST by EnquiringMind
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To: Pharmboy

I agree with you 100%, brilliance knows no musical genre.


107 posted on 01/23/2011 6:09:04 PM PST by softwarecreator (You say you want a revolution, well, you know ... we'd all love to see the plan.)
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To: left that other site

You can thank his brother, Ira, for the very cleverly done lyrics. :-)


108 posted on 01/23/2011 6:11:20 PM PST by Lauren BaRecall (Eric Cantor is my current congressional heartthrob.[v. Hoyer, re House Schedule, CSpan 1/20/11])
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To: paulycy

I love Bach. He is my all time hands down favorite classical composer. Of course I haven’t heard much classical music for years.


109 posted on 01/23/2011 6:12:43 PM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: Pharmboy; All
Sorry guys, gotta bring this into at least the latter quarter of the 20th century.


Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

110 posted on 01/23/2011 6:13:05 PM PST by The Comedian ("Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" - B. Goldwater)
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To: paulycy

Hmm, no Vivaldi or Handel. I like Baroque music a lot.


111 posted on 01/23/2011 6:15:37 PM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: Gapplega

What tone poems? Are you thinking of Richard Strauss? Debussy is a much more greater composer than SS.


112 posted on 01/23/2011 6:16:19 PM PST by Borges
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To: little jeremiah

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.


113 posted on 01/23/2011 6:16:48 PM PST by paulycy (Liberals suck all the joy out of America. Make them stop.)
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To: Brilliant
As I was thinking it over, I wondered "How about Scott Joplin and Treemonisha?" And so, I came across the wiki version, which you may find as interesting as I did:

Treemonisha

114 posted on 01/23/2011 6:18:25 PM PST by Lauren BaRecall (Eric Cantor is my current congressional heartthrob.[v. Hoyer, re House Schedule, CSpan 1/20/11])
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To: Third Person

The three most important musical compositions of the 19th century are Beethoven’s Eroica, Wagner’s Tristan and Debussy’s Prelude.


115 posted on 01/23/2011 6:18:41 PM PST by Borges
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To: crazydad
Adagio for Strings... Barber arranged it for chorus as well - his Agnes Dei.

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.

116 posted on 01/23/2011 6:21:56 PM PST by InternetTuffGuy
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To: little jeremiah

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.


117 posted on 01/23/2011 6:26:22 PM PST by InternetTuffGuy
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To: InternetTuffGuy

The problem is that a very small % of Handel’s music is still played.


118 posted on 01/23/2011 6:30:57 PM PST by Borges
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To: left that other site
I agree. IMO, he's boring...never gets to the punch line. Like muzak for The Great Prairie (which deserves vastly better - like Elmer Bernstein did for The West).
119 posted on 01/23/2011 6:39:12 PM PST by Lauren BaRecall (Eric Cantor is my current congressional heartthrob.[v. Hoyer, re House Schedule, CSpan 1/20/11])
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To: InternetTuffGuy

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.


120 posted on 01/23/2011 6:40:35 PM PST by crazydad
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