Baroque Vs. Classical

[Rhursbourg]

Baroque for Me

[Altergo]

Go Waffles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Eofaerwic]

Hey, techno can be good. I just don't listen to it. In response to the OP, I don't know I don't listen to much of either. I like both, but I'd have to listen some more to decide.

I'm not trying to influence you at all

Nor am I

This said, Romantic shouldn't be dismissed either

[Conserative Morality]

Nor am I

This said, Romantic shouldn't be dismissed either

Never really cared for Romantic, for some reason. It's okay, but it's not something I'd listen to in my spare time.

[Blasphemulopia]

Mozart was god so I must say classical

[Sarkhaan]

Mozart was god so I must say classical

I have to say, Mozart just kinda pisses me off to no end.

He proves just how creative he can be with his requiem and even, I'd say, the 40th...but then produces dull crap for the rest of his career. What gives, Mozart?

[Intangelon]

Mozart was god so I must say classical

I have to say, Mozart just kinda pisses me off to no end.

He proves just how creative he can be with his requiem and even, I'd say, the 40th...but then produces dull crap for the rest of his career. What gives, Mozart?

For the love of God, why?

[Vojvodina-Nihon]

Well, the whole point of writing music is to get people to listen. If a composer can't gain an audience, they're (by the very definition) not as good as the ones who can.

Mahler, for instance, I can't stand either -- but the fact that lots of people listen to him indicates that he's doing something to hold the attention of people who would otherwise not take ninety minutes out of a busy modern schedule to listen to some dead guy's symphony. Someone like Schoenberg, on the other hand, has never gained much of an audience, and therefore one must conclude that his twelve-tone works, at least, are not very good or interesting. Otherwise people would listen to them more -- stands to reason, no?

To clarify, therefore: For me, at least, Bartók or Stravinsky is more successful at capturing and sustaining my interest than Ives or Berg. Therefore they are better in that sense, subjectively.

I'm not going to argue with anyone over their personal taste and their reasons for it. I'll just say that I do not equate quality with popularity. If I did, I would have to say that "Dancing With the Stars" is art, and I'm not going to do that. The twelve-tone technique may not be aesthetically accessible to a great many people, but among musicians, as well as others, it is not just valid but brilliant. I believe that art is valid if it makes its point, even if that point is interesting or exciting only to a few people.

I also do not agree that the point of writing music, or making any art, is to get people to listen to it. I believe getting an audience is Step 2, not Step 1 of being an artist. Step 1 is to find the best way to say whatever it is that is on your mind. THEN you figure out who wants to pay attention to what you have to say and how to bring your work to them. If you do Step 1, then you're an artist, whether you have an audience or not. If you put Step 2 before Step 1, then you're the producers of "Dancing With the Stars."

The word I was looking for wasn't popularity so much... maybe consensus -- that is, consensus among a large segment of the music-listening population that something is great music. For instance, the St. Matthew Passion is considered a masterpiece simply because everyone agrees that it is, whereas nobody is going to try to claim the same thing of "Dancing With the Stars".

Hmmm. I'm not being as clear as I should be. I guess I won't be able to express myself coherently on the subject of music until term begins in the fall and I start having to write papers about it again. Ah well, back to summer vacation. <.<

[Vojvodina-Nihon]

Mozart was god so I must say classical

I have to say, Mozart just kinda pisses me off to no end.

He proves just how creative he can be with his requiem and even, I'd say, the 40th...but then produces dull crap for the rest of his career. What gives, Mozart?

The requiem and the 40th were just at the end of his career, written in the last couple of years of his life. All the "dull crap" he was writing before that was simply leading into pieces like that.

(Lots of Mozart's earlier stuff, if well enough played, is actually not dull by any stretch of the imagination -- but that's a different debate.)

[Muravyets]

The word I was looking for wasn't popularity so much... maybe consensus -- that is, consensus among a large segment of the music-listening population that something is great music. For instance, the St. Matthew Passion is considered a masterpiece simply because everyone agrees that it is, whereas nobody is going to try to claim the same thing of "Dancing With the Stars".

Hmmm. I'm not being as clear as I should be. I guess I won't be able to express myself coherently on the subject of music until term begins in the fall and I start having to write papers about it again. Ah well, back to summer vacation. <.<

Popularity / consensus. Potato / potaahhto. Either way, I make the same answer as before. The number of people who say it's good =/= how good it actually is.

It's like my favorite quote about Shakespeare (possibly from Mark Twain): The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he's very good.

[Sarkhaan]

Mozart was god so I must say classical

I have to say, Mozart just kinda pisses me off to no end.

He proves just how creative he can be with his requiem and even, I'd say, the 40th...but then produces dull crap for the rest of his career. What gives, Mozart?

The requiem and the 40th were just at the end of his career, written in the last couple of years of his life. All the "dull crap" he was writing before that was simply leading into pieces like that.

(Lots of Mozart's earlier stuff, if well enough played, is actually not dull by any stretch of the imagination -- but that's a different debate.)

All that dull crap is still dull crap

I'll admit that it's okay. But that's just it...the Requiem is so creative, so different...It's like watching the Matrix franchise in reverse...you're forced to endure all the fan fiction, books, comics, webcomics, Revolutions, and Reloaded, some of which may be decent on their own, just to get to the one shining example of true creativity and ground breaking work.

[Vojvodina-Nihon]

I have to say, Mozart just kinda pisses me off to no end.

He proves just how creative he can be with his requiem and even, I'd say, the 40th...but then produces dull crap for the rest of his career. What gives, Mozart?

The requiem and the 40th were just at the end of his career, written in the last couple of years of his life. All the "dull crap" he was writing before that was simply leading into pieces like that.

(Lots of Mozart's earlier stuff, if well enough played, is actually not dull by any stretch of the imagination -- but that's a different debate.)

All that dull crap is still dull crap ;)

I'll admit that it's okay. But that's just it...the Requiem is so creative, so different...It's like watching the Matrix franchise in reverse...you're forced to endure all the fan fiction, books, comics, webcomics, Revolutions, and Reloaded, some of which may be decent on their own, just to get to the one shining example of true creativity and ground breaking work.

Hint: You don't actually have to listen to all the stuff you don't like. ;)

[Sarkhaan]

Hint: You don't actually have to listen to all the stuff you don't like.

haha...I did for school. And we listened to it chronologically (not all, but significant chunks). I remember sitting there like "oh...that's nice...la la la...oh look, a squirrel", then we hit the 40th and I was like "Huh...that's different..." and then we hit the requiem and I was like "Wait. You mean we could have skipped all that crap and just listened to the one bad ass thing the dude wrote? Seriously? I want my life back"

[Blasphemulopia]

Man you people obviously haven't listened to much Mozart. If he wrote nothing but his piano works he would still the master. How about The Magic Flute, Symphony 29, 38, all of his string quartet pieces, eine kleine nachtmusik (one of the most famous melodies of all time) I have played his music for years as well as other composers and can say that Mozart pieces are by far some of the most challenging works out there to play as written. It's usually deceptive in that his music always looks much easier to play than it actually is. Weather or not you like his music it cannot be denied that his genius is unparalleled.

[Bluth Corporation]

Another memory -- when I was learning blacksmithing so I could demonstrate it at a museum, after we had been hammering away for a while, one of the other students asked "I wonder what kind of music would go best with this work?" And the teacher said, "I can't think of any." And I thought, "Are you fucking kidding me? Hammer + anvil = PERCUSSION. There is no music that DOESN'T go with this work! Hello!" And one time after that, I had the song "Isn't it Romantic" stuck in my head one day, and I spent the whole day hammering to that tune.

Seriously, no one thought "Anvil Chorus"?