Musical Genres

Dec 3 14:13 UTC 1996

What's your favorite musical genre?  Which types of classical music
do you dislike, and why?

response 2 of 49:

Dec 3 18:55 UTC 1996

I like a lot of types of music, even assuming I'm supposed to stick to
classical.  My strongest preference is for the baroque era, as a whole.  In
a way it's hard to say why, beyond things like "I just like it", but a few
factors that might be involved include: a general preference for the texture
of chamber music (individual instruments vs. orchestral sections in much later
music); enjoyment of polyphony; and, well, I just *like* it - the
then-standard ideas of how melody & harmony should work just feel *right* to
my ears.

In general, I dislike most of the "classical" music of the 20th century.  My
analysis is that much of it was undergirded by two impulses, both of them
wrong (not to say usually disastrous): first, a horror of being caught doing
The Same Old Thing, and second a theoretical/academic/intellectual approach
to music that took the view that what it *sounds* like is secondary.

In saying this I recognize that there's a dilemma here.  On the one hand,
things that are sufficiently new (to you) may sound bad (to you) just because
you lack the experience to detect what's going on, so that greater exposure
is necessary.  OTOH, this isn't *always* the case, but greater exposure may
nonetheless inure you to the ugliness of what you're hearing, making it easy
to see this as a case of the first sort.

<dave wonders how he managed to be the first one responding, anyway, & how
he's going to get out of this>

response 4 of 49:

Dec 6 23:44 UTC 1996

Well I guess I'll buck the trend and say I like a lot of 20th century
classical starting with Bartok and going into electronic "new music."
What I like about a lot of this music is the fearless experimentation in
finding new timbres and new ways of putting sound together.  Also some "new
music" Steve Reich comes to mind is much more listenable than say the seralism
of Webern.  If we don't support new composers inovation will come to a
standstill and new ways of doing music will come to a halt.  What if there had
been no support for Bach or Mozart?  It is true that I lot of new music is
uninspired but that is true in any era Salearie (sp? Mozarts's contemporary)
ring any bells?

response 6 of 49:

Dec 7 07:36 UTC 1996

re # 5 It depends on whether we are talking about about a 12 tone tuning
system or not.  Within a 12 tone system and allowing only for themes of
say a listenable length of say 5 minutes plus development then it is
a pretty finite system.  If you allow for microtones then it seems to
me it would be infinite.

response 8 of 49:

Dec 7 18:29 UTC 1996

Well...the plots of books *are* used over and over and over again...Musical
themes are repeated less often, especially "recognizeable" themes. It
is often noted when one composer slips in a snippet from the work of another.
I think that this might be a force leading to "modern" music - not a real
evolution in musical creativity, but an attempt to write music without using
a previous theme. 

response 10 of 49:

Dec 7 22:25 UTC 1996

I don't think that there is any "type" of classical music that
I dislike. There are individual works of all types that I
dislike, and individual works of all types that I like a lot.
I don't think I have a favorite genre. Don't get into opera
too much, except for Mozart opera.

As I'm a keyboard player, the music I like tends to equate to
a large extent to the music I like to play, at least in the
piano and harpsichord realms. Some special "likes":

  o Classical era: Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn (descending order
    of preference). I would not put Beethoven as squarely in
    the classical era as Steve does, although his roots are
    there -- he is really a transition figure from the
    Classical era to the Romantic. (And Schubert is more in
    the Romantic era, I think, than the classical.)

  o Baroque: Especially J.S. Bach, but also Francois Couperin
    and his uncle Louis, and of course Scarlatti.

  o Renaissance: The English virginalists -- especially the
    exquisite William Byrd, but also John Bull and Giles
    Farnaby.

  o Romantic: Well, I'm not that much into it, but I've a liking
    for Mendelsohn and Schumann.

  o 20th Century: Stravinsky, Bartok. Can't get into the atonal
    stuff.

  o Classical ragtime: Scott Joplin, Joe Lamb, James Scott,
    various other composers. This is 20th century too (and tail
    end of the 19th) but stands apart from Stravinsky, Bartok,
    and the like. It was popular music in its heyday, but it's
    concert music too, and with its fusing of European romantic
    styles, American folk elements, and Latin American rhythms,
    it constitutes a unique genre. This is the music that I'm
    most involved with as a performer and listener nowadays.

response 12 of 49:

Jun 12 14:21 UTC 1997

("Rachmaninoff")

response 14 of 49:

Sep 24 05:20 UTC 1997

I've noticed that no one has mentioned early music.  I'm a big fan of 
the music of the middle ages and rennisance.  (Of course, that's my 
current area of inquiry in my study of musicology, so I guess I sort of 
have to like it.)  There are things that happen with texture after music 
moves away from plainchant that are absolutely fascinating.  Of course, 
I may like this music more from an analytical point of view that I do 
from a "what I like to listen to" kind of view.  

I'm also a big 20th century fan, for the same reason-- it is more of an 
academic interest that it being what I like to listen to.  I love to 
perform 20th century music because it is doing something different.  I 
love to analyze 20th century music because of the challange it presents. 
Do I like to listen to it?  Not always, but don't tell my advisor that. 
I do, oddly enough, like listening to serialisim (12 tone music; 
Schoenburg, Berg, several other 20th centruy composers.)  I found that 
the key to understanding and enjoying it is to stay up really late 
studding for a music lit exam, listen to a Schoenburg piano trio, and it 
suddenly becomes clear.  (Or there is what my bass teacher said about 
it, "its just like Brahms, but the notes are wrong.")

As far as listening goes, I love Mahler.  I just can't get enough.  The 
first symphony is a favorite of mine.  (As a double bass player, it has 
to be; there's a big bass solo in the thrid mvt.)  I like most of the 
romantic composers, although they do get a little cheesy now and then, 
and I cannot abide Wagner.  Seiblius is a real winner, though.  I also 
like Beethoven's later symphonies, Mozart (especially the operas and 
choral works), and Bach wasn't such a bad guy either.  So I like just 
about everything.

response 16 of 49:

Sep 25 13:56 UTC 1997

heh

response 18 of 49:

Oct 1 03:15 UTC 1997

I have interesting story! Seven years ago my friend and I (then two
orthodox Bach's) went to concert. We heard highlights from Prokofiev's
"Romeo and Juliet". After performing we went to local pub with young
professor of music in some high music school. We spoke about music and I
asked him what he thing about Bach. He replied: "What Bach?". I was
surprised. Then he told me that there is only one classical music - 20th
Russian. Now, I of course think that he is to orthodox but not too much.
Classical music is endless. You have many "fields": German composers,
French impressionists, and Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring". More you
listen 'rite' more you love it. And it's only one Stravinsky's work.
Should I talk about "Petrouchka" or Shostakovich chamber symphony or
post WWII avantgarde composers like Denisov and Schnittke. Well, I
respect other opinion (believe me this is very rare in my country,
Yugoslavia) but this is my current taste.

response 20 of 49:

Oct 2 02:14 UTC 1997

Well, you are too exclusive rcurl. That's right that many russian 
artist worked under state control. In the Stalin era composers had 
duty to write exact numbers of concertos or symphonys per week but 
there were composers who did not work that way. Everybody in the west 
knows who they were. My point is that russian music brought new 
dimension to 'dying' western europian music at the beginning of 20th 
century. I think that every new change is welcome. Because of that 
mixture of classical and other genres of music (even experimental) 
now we have very interesting and dynamical classical musical scene.
 
And by the way, that 'weird' professor did not said that literally 
but he said that very hard. That is his opinion.

response 22 of 49:

Nov 10 02:45 UTC 1997

Is there anyone else who finds the music of Charles Ives kind of fun, 
once in a while?

response 24 of 49:

Nov 14 02:29 UTC 1997

Hurrah, do 'ye have any other favorite disonant composers? <Cricket thanks
the yak gods that he finally managed to breath touch of life into what should
be a rompingly good conferance...