Poll: Best Composer of the 20th Century is?

[Isla]

jonnyGURU

Ahhh, it all makes sense now! I had OLE ELO, and now just have a greatest hits cd. I love most rock that has that particular flavor... Kansas, ELO, etc. If it has strings and or a real piano, my ears get happy.

Ever try to play a Queen piece? I was working on Bohemian Rhapsody and finally gave up after the first 15 measures or so. Too darn confusing. Much hair pulling. May as well try playing Rachmaninov!

It's not classical, but I must say I dearly love the George Winston Trio for bringing me all the music of Charlie Brown. Now that, I can handle! Or should I say, 'handel'...

Chess, I e-mailed you with my secret location.

 

[chess9]

Isla:

By the way, that is a great quote from Anais Nin. Almost poetry, or, is it poetry?

 

[jonnyGURU]

You should lose the "Greatest Hits" and get an album like "Eldorado: A Symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra" from 1974.

Very awesome stuff. The Eldorado Overture starts off with a mystic crying of violins. We are then met by a few chords from a harp while the haunting voice of Peter Ford-Robertson does some spoken word. Bring in a flute, end spoken word, and everything gets whipped up into a big frenzy of strings and horns. We are then softly laid down into the sultry "Can't get it out of my Head".

Whew!

Another "experimental" sounding piece they did that actually still gets air play today is "Fire on High" (from 1975's "Face the Music&quot. Erie strings and paino in an ehoey hall. Makes you feel like you're in a haunted house! Some back masking ("The music is reversible, but time is not! TURN BACK!&quot. There's some choral arrangement, weird ass sound effects and footsteps. Makes you wonder what they were thinking. In typical ELO overture fasion, things get whipped up into a frenzy of strings, but on this piece we're immediately dropped into the classic "rock symphony" fusion that has made ELO popular. A keyboard and drum comes in. You think the "Top 40" hit is about to come into play. Just then Mik Kiminski's violin starts to gently play while Jeff Lynne plays some chords on his guitar. All of the sudden, everything drops out from under us and an acoustic guitar solo comes front and center. Whoa! Where did that come from? Back to strings and choral arrangement and we're all back on for another ride. Gotta love this stuff.

It's been so long since I've heard tracks like these for the first time, since I've been listening to ELO since the beginning, but I can only imagine what it must be like to hear such varying states of musical genre and emotion in the same composition.

But like the waterfall, it pulls you in, takes you down. It's a sad affair.

 

[Isla]

jonnyG....

I'm out the door now to find that cd. Seriously! I was going shopping anyway.

Can't Get It Out Of My Head is my absolute favorite ELO song.... and what you are describing sounds like it will send me flying~!

I was a very little girl in the early 70's, but big brothers and sisters influenced my tastes mightily. Fire On High is a wonderful and strange masterpeice.

Thanks~!

Chess...

Yes, Anais had a way with words... It's just a bit from one of her diaries, I think. I haven't read them all yet, but I am working on it! An intersting life indeed.

BTW, Chess... Great Thread!!!!! We need more threads like this for the um, more sophisticated (read: older) crowd here!

 

[Eeks]

Stravinksy - riots in Paris? yes please!

 

[bigvince]

here are my thoughts

i don't think any body mentioned my top two fav composers

1. Maurice Ravel (Prelude to Le toumbe de couprine my fav piece)

2. George Gershwin (rhapsody in blue...need i say any more?)


for those that don't know i LOVE classical music and am a classicly trained floutist, clarinetist, and saxophonist (woodwinds)

 

[Isla]

bigvince

Great choices.

I know you rock! I still need to download your music! I want to hear.

 

[bigvince]

ISLA,


Thank you!!!!


thats right i rock!


but seriously i have to find the cd to rip it but will post with a link to them soon.

 

[chess9]

BigVince:

We've mentioned Ravel. I completely forgot Gershwin. Good choice! "Rhapsody in Blue" is one of prettiest pieces of music ever composed.

Johnny: I have one of those records of ELO from about 1974, but it's up in the attic over my garage. I'd pull it down, but I don't own a record player anymore. I couldn't find my ELO cd, but I'm pretty sure I have one. I have a gazillion cds though.

Isla: You'll find we have a very smart group of folks here, even though they get kinda' rowdy, bawdy, and obnoxious at time. I've never been obnoxious of course.

 

[RaDragon]

Claude Debussy -- Claire de Lune

 

[BigSmooth]

What about Norway's pride and joy, Edvard Grieg? He died in '07, so that qualifies him for the 20th century, right?

Edit: I guess that would qualify Dvorak, Verdi and Rimsky-Korsakov as well.

 

[chess9]

BigSmooth:

All three really finished the vast majority of their work in the 19th Century. Thus, I didn't consider them. Perhaps we need a 19th Century poll? A real poll!

 

[BigSmooth]

I was just kidding chess9, I know those four are pretty much 19th-century composers (although some of the other names that have been mentioned also composed in the 19th century).

A 19th-century poll would be even harder to narrow down, though. Those four plus Wagner, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Bizet, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, even Beethoven, perhaps? Too many to list!

 

[Pennstate]

dvorak, shostokovich

 

[chess9]

PennState:
Dvorak, as I noted above was 19th Century. His complete discography is 19th Century except two minor pieces which are never played.

Shostakovich is a great one, but didn't make my top 10.

I was actually thinking of you when I started this mess! I was wondering who you thought was the best, since you are so musically inclined. I'm surprised at Shostakovich. Why?

 

[Pennstate]

Ok, a more detailed reply.

First, Dvorak should be considered a 20th century composer because of his immense influence on composers after him. He was the first one that combined the new chaotic ideas with the old school hierarchy of musical structure; and showed that they are compatible. He was the pioneer of 20th century music.

Second, Shostokovich was, in my opinion, the last great composer that still have a holistic grasp of his music. I get a feeling that later composers started to compose individual movements rather than composing movements that compliment each other. Take his 5th symphony, that was a master piece.

Perhaps there were other great composers that are more popular. Namely, Gershwin, Copland, Samuel Barber, Glass, and Debussy. But I see these composers as niche composers. There were good at what they were writing, but they are not as versatile as Brahms, Mahler, or Dvorak. Also, the sheer volume of music that a composer writes also dramatically decreased.

I think the world has become too busy and too distractive to produce great composers.

Well, that's it for now

 

[mahpoh]

anyone knows Astor Piazzolla? he's really great even though he's not absolutely classical.

Bela Bartok is the best and the greatest composer of the 20th century... and then we have mahler, shostakovich, wagner and prokofiev as the great composers of the century.