Who do you think deserves the title of "Greatest Composer in all History"

[UndertheOcean]

Poll question: Who do you think deserves the title of "Greatest Composer in all History"

If who think some other composer like : Handel or Haydn or Schumann or an obscure one like Meyerbeer deserve the title more just say so ...I will not waste a poll space for an "other" option.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

1. Aaahhhh...BACH.

Sorry.

But it was one of the greatest M*A*S*H* episodes EVER.

:eyes:

[fishwax]

8. I consider that horse-and-buggy thinking

:rofl:

[geardaddy]

23. lol

:thumbsup:

[geardaddy]

27. "I'm partial to the Fugue"

[Steerpike]

2. ha!!!

Kenneth Joseph Alford OR HIS REAL NAME Major Fredrick Joseph Ricketts!!!

Army of the Nile!!!

Colonel Bogey!!!!

The Standard of St. George!!!

I'm the Uber Band Geek...tremble at my beauty and through my power I will inspire FEAR!

[Biker13]

3. Beethoven

Bach is too mathematical for me. Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony (#6) always lightens my mood! I adore it!

[AngryAmish]

4. Lemmy

[pokerfan]

5. Bach

http://listverse.com/2009/12/17/top-15-greatest-composers-of-all-time

[trof]

6. The Brothers Gershwin

They do it for me.

[yellowdogintexas]

41. I can't even begin to imagine George's body of work if he had lived as long as Ira

His 'big works' just blow me away.

[Burma Jones]

7. Reminds me of this old Music Joke

Two tourists are in Vienna visiting Beethoven's tomb, they hear scratching inside and quickly go to the Cemetery Manager who is shocked to hear this scratching from inside Beethoven's tomb. He then pries the tomb open where Beethoven is sitting on his coffin furiously erasing scores. The Master then looks up and says, loudly, "please leave me alone, I'm decomposing."

[bluesbassman]

9. Frank Zappa.

[Kat45]

39. +1

[begin_within]

10. Beethoven easily

It's almost like his works take on lives of their own.

[Flaxbee]

11. I love Bach and Beethoven

Jeez, I can't even remember what I did two hours ago, much less do what Bach could do:

Bach remains the all-time master of the fugue, a form which is so difficult to write that even Mozart and Beethoven, both of whom wrote fugal masterpieces, hated writing them. Bach, however, improvised fugues for 2 hours at a stretch, and then wrote them down from memory afterward.


OH MY GOD - That a mind like this existed just astounds me:

Whereas, most composers did not typically relish complexity, Bach was at home in it. The Sanctus from his b minor Mass is a 6-part chorus, including a 4-voiced fugue. In the annals of fugal composition, no composer as ever attempted what Bach accomplished, and he did so without difficulty: his monumental Art of Fugue, which is a thorough examination of all the methods by which fugues are written. Using one theme, Bach explains in music all the possibilities of contrapuntal composition inherent in a single musical subject: the fugue, the double fugue, the triple fugue, the quadruple fugue, the stretto fugue, the mirror fugue, canonizing the fugues, etc. If you were to turn the scores of the two mirror fugues upside down and play them, they would sound the same.

[cemaphonic]

26. Yeah, and he made them sound good too.

That sort of structural complexity was in vogue during the mid-20th century too (Webern, Boulez, Babbit, etc.) but those guys didn't care about such trivialities like "would people like to listen to this?"

Bach and Machaut are the kings of making really complicated music that is enjoyable to listen to.

[LiberalAndProud]

12. Beethoven's music touches my soul and stirs my emotions.

[XemaSab]

13. John Williams

:D

[old mark]

14. Erik Satie. My favorite, anyway, and I know that speaks volumes to classical music lovers

everywhere.
(We had a pianist playing the Gymnopedies at our wedding reception...she had never heard of them-or him- before, bought her own music, and took her some time to figure it out. She did a fine job.)


mark

[MilesColtrane]

15. Bach

[Deep13]

16. Mozart is the only one on the list who is a genuine genius.

Well, maybe Bach, too.

Beethoven was brilliant as were most of the others. A genius, however, is a qualitative leap beyond mere high intelligence and competence. The complexity of and volume of Mozart's work is simply astonishing. Before he died at age (IIRC) 33, Mozart composed 41 symphonies alone. I can't even remember how many concertos, quartets, quintets and full-blown opera's he's written. Compare that to my personal favorite, Beethoven, who wrote one opera, nine symphonies and five piano concertos and that was with 20 more years of living than Mozart. Beethoven was great, but he had to earn his greatness. It came naturally to Mozart. He often worked without notes and rarely made rough drafts or corrections.

[cemaphonic]

22. Geez, kinda high standards for genius there.

I know what you mean though. Even though there are other composers I like better, it's hard to argue that Mozart seemed to have a natural talent that has never really been seen before or since. (Although the notion that he didn't rework his original drafts is a bit of a myth)

I just got a laugh at the idea that Bach might - just maybe - qualify as a musical genius.

[Deep13]

33. As you say, a high standard.

Stephen Hawkings--very, very smart.

Einstein--genius.

[MiddleFingerMom]

17. Easy.

.
These two may be the greatest composters in all history.
.

.

[Dr. Strange]

18. Are those the guys from Air Supply?

I think you might be right.

[BlueJazz]

19. I'm partial to Sergei Rachmaninoff.

[BeachBaby]

28. +1.

[Captain Hilts]

20. Tchaikovsky. No contest. The Beatles of classical. nt

[RagAss]

21. Donald Fagan

[geardaddy]

24. I like

oh and...

:popcorn:

[geardaddy]

25. What?

No Tellemann?

[Posteritatis]

29. That's quite the white list. (nt)

[Deep13]

32. Interesting. You note that they are all white, but not that they are all men.

I'm not being critical. I'm just wondering. What made you notice (or at least write) the one but not the other.

[Posteritatis]

34. Subject's are too small to complain about color, gender, location, age, class, etc in one line. nt

[dysfunctional press]

30. either mozart or zappa.

:shrug:

[joeybee12]

31. Beethoven or Mozart on top, then Bach...

...can't decide on who is #1 between those 2, though.

[catzies]

35. I voted for Bach as the greatest, but my heart belongs to Mozart.

:loveya: Wolfie baby.

[nytemare]

36. I voted Mozart, but Debussy is my favorite.

I loves me some Debussy music, but I really couldn't say he is the "greatest".

[foxfeet]

37. What? No Salieri?

His zombie corpse is coming after your ass.

(Mine, too, because I voted for Mozart.)

[cemaphonic]

38. The Mozart-Salieri feud is mostly fiction.

Now Salieri and Beethoven OTOH - they hated each other.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

40. I'm convinced Mozart was an avatar.

A perfect being who came to earth to write music.

Not that he was perfect in his behavior, as in acting like a saint, but the guy who just was not like anyone else when it came to quality AND quantity.

Beethoven is too vertical, not enough melody, too heavy, like Wagner (grr) and R. Strauss (double grrr).


And by the way, because I love operas with the exception of R. Strauss and some Wagner, I will tell you what the best opera ever written is:

DON GIOVANNI.

Behind that you can put Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, and the hits of Puccini (who never wrote anything for mezzos -- booohoo!!!).

I think Schubert was really high up there -- he died at the age of 31 and his Trout Quintet and the String Quintet in C major, his last work, was very deep stuff. I have a recording of it with Rostropovich as the "Fifth Wheel". He wrote over 900 works, symphonies, chamber music, oratorios, masses....I have forgotten what the last Deutsch number is.

[yellowdogintexas]

42. tough choices. for me dead tie between Mozart and Bach

I listen to a classical station all day and I love it all.

As a genre, Baroque is my favorite.

I love Russian composers too.

and Bizet

and DeBussy

and Mendelsohn

and LIZST OMG how could I forget him!

[tango-tee]

43. Wonderful choices!

What does it for me each and every time is Max Bruch's "Violinkonzert in g-moll". It will make your heart melt. I have an ancient tape here that will wear out any moment, I'm afraid.

[Orrex]

44. James Horner

Because his heart will go on and on.

[MrScorpio]

45. I'm a Beethoven man myself

If nothing, but for both the 7th and 9th Symphonies

[mitchum]

46. Bach, but my heart belongs to Beethoven, Mahler, and Richard Rodgers

[elocs]

47. As Ringo said: "I love Beethoven, especially his poems".

Where is the choice for "none of the above"?