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 ...
I will agree with this. Mozart was the only composer who instinctively knew how to write for every instrument he used, including voice. Every singer out there will tell you that their favorite composer is Mozart.
As for the list - it's all so subjective. I'd put Strauss, Bruckner, Puccini, Saint-Saens, and a few others ahead of Stravinsky. And then there were the Venetians - Vivialdi, Montiverdi, Galluppi - all could adapt their composing to the room better than Beethoven and Bach could. But, they had a different purpose. I won't argue Verdi at all or to an extent Schubert, but that's my taste.
Really, if you look at this list, it's more a list of composers who changed the game. Each was the initiator of a specific style. That has to be the only reason Wagner made the list. Talk about long-winded.
You should have listed your top Sweet Sixteen composers.....that way everyone here would be Delius-ly happy, LOL.
Leni
I used to have a CD with the FULL version of Rhapsody in Blue which no one has heard performed since its Aeolian Hall debut in 1924. It is an incredible piece. One of the reasons (or rather one of the excuses) critics offer to explain their reluctance to give Gershwin his due, is because the Rhapsody was orchestrated by someone else. But here I mention that there is a section of this piece that clearly has its roots in Kleismer, which among other things, hints at an assessment made not entirely without prejudice of some kind.
Gershwin was very serious is his desire to write classical music, and he did the orchestrations for his following works, starting with the Concerto in F. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1937, and therefore did not have time to compose a larger body of work. IMO, if he had, the critics would still have Gershwin pegged as a composer of popular music and not much more. On the other hand, I see him as the 20th century heir to Mozart in his technical ability, lovely melodies, and beautifully complex harmonies and counterpoints.
Cheers!
I agree re Gershwin. What about Samuel Barber?
That's ironic because, with the passage of still more time, Bach's music has proven to be (among?) the most timeless of all!
Handel bested by Stravinsky and Bartok? Pshaww!
I would call Gershwin’s style “classical” but I don’t think your average scholar of classical music would peg it that way. More likely what you said, “popular.” His real problem was that he came at the end of the age of classical music. Once the phonograph became in wide use, music was not so much about composing, but more about performing. The performing genius could preserve his masterpiece for posterity. Before that, only the composer could be remembered forever.
Almost forgot about him. But he arguably belongs over a couple on the list. How about a top 20 list?
Debussy is the Father of 20th century music. He has to be on there.
Forgive me, but I find Mahler to be boring. Maybe I didn’t listen to enough of his music to get to the that which wasn’t boring.
Rachmaninov over Wagner and Debussy? You’ve got to be kidding. Wagner is the most influential post-Beethoven composer. Debussy is the Father of 20th century music.
Samuel Barber I could never get into. The last time I tried was light years ago (or so it feels).
What I’d like to know is what made Aaron Copeland more acceptable than Gershwin?
Hmmm. I’ll think about that. Thanks.
I agree! Chopin was on my personal list. Bartok and Stravinsky were NOT!
If you need a Russian, I nominate Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. His orchestrations and melodic structures were glorious. His music was so melodic that Glenn Miller could rework them into a Big Band setting, and they still made musical sense.
Scheherazade knocks my socks off every time I hear it, even though I know every note by heart.
Liszt should be on there too, for the Hungarian Rhapsodies alone!
I love Gershwin.
In the first LINE of “Someone to Watch over me,” he uses up all 3 of the Diminished chords, and each one falls on a lyric that RHYMES!
Too Cool.
Hector Berlioz’s orchestrations were AWESOME! he was on my list.
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