Best Composer of All Time?

[Pangur Bán]

Anyone who follows my posting, knows that I like this type of thread. Anyway, my favorite composer, and hence, the best composer of all time, is Wagner. TBH, Parsifal is the best piece of art ever constructed, and Lohengrin and Die Götterdämmerung are better than any other mortal operas.

I'm also a fan of Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Beethoven.

DISCLAIMER:

To the Greadii, in order to avert your normal complaints about omissions, I have based the poll on Amazon.com's Favorite Composers List. So target all complaints at the shoppers of Amazon, not me.

EDIT: I humbly request that those posting their favorites, post their favorite works/pieces/etc by that author!

 

[napoleon526]

Bach was the mathmetician, Mozart was the poet, and Beethoven was the philosopher.

I also like Franz Hadyn, who seems to be missing from the list.

 

[sysyphus]

Beethoven

 

[xghost]

Motzart all the way baby!

 

[Richard III]

Tough.

I voted Handel just to balance it, but I'd say Beethoven, Handel, Mozart, Bach, Johnson, Lennon-McCartney and Glass are all tied.

 

[Pangur Bán]

C'mmon, 6 votes, and I'm the only one so far to have voted for the superlative Wagner. Everyone here is either ignorant of Wagner or mad

 

[MrPresident]

I'm a big fan of Gershwin.

 

[Suppersalmon]

Holst

 

[xghost]

Originally posted by calgacus
C'mmon, 6 votes, and I'm the only one so far to have voted for the superlative Wagner. Everyone here is either ignorant of Wagner or mad

I'm not only ignorant of whoever this Wagner guy is, but I'm also stark-raving-mad! Mwahahahaha!!!
(Who is this Wagner guy anyhow? He must be good to have gotten your vote... )

 

[cromagnon]

I voted Beethoven, because of the people listed, I think he is the 'best composer ever.' My favorite pieces by him are his piano sonatas, Symphonies 5,6,7,9, and the Ghost and Archduke Trios. Beethoven falls in that murky category between Classical and Romantic periods, and I see him as a bridge between the two.

Rachmaninoff is one of my favorite composers, but I didn't vote for him, because I don't think he's the 'best ever.' Favorite pieces: Piano concerti 2&3, Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini, Preludes Op 23 & 32, and of course, Prelude Op 3 No 2.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

You are not mad. The others simply have inferior tastes.
Wagner. Without a doubt. No just for the music, but for the sheer scope and breadth of his operas. They are true multilevel epics.
Parsifal is one of my real favourites as well, along with Tristan and Isolde; an excellent version of the former from Bayreuth in 1999 recently screened here with one of one's personal favourites, Poul Elming, in the title role.
But nothing really compares to Der Ring Des Nibelungen, in all its components. It is one of the most ambitious and incredible achievements in the history of Western art. One particularly likes Siegfrieds Trauermarsch and Brünnhildes Schlussgesang from Sir Georg Solti's seminal performance in 1959 with the Wiener Philharmonic.

I also like Carl Orff, some Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, some Mahler and Mozart, Rossini, and Elgar.

 

[test_specimen]

I voted for Shostakovic, though I cannot name the piece. I've seen a performance on his life last year in Vienna, where they played a piece for violins, and this got me interested. (called the "Noise of Time" by the Emerson String Quartett. VERY good.)

And Stravinsky. Rite of the Spring, his most famous one. Strange no one else voted for him, he is also very interesting.

Strauss is not included in the vote, Donauwalzer is the piece that reminds me more of home than any other piece of music.

Did not vote for Wagner, because you really have to be in the mood to listen to this heavy music.

 

[IceBlaZe]

I am unfamiliar with Wagner's works for obvious reasons.

"I consider the Jewish race the born enemy of pure humanity and all that is noble in man; there is no doubt that we Germans especially will be destroyed by them." (Richard Wagner)

Wagner was Hitler's prophet, and the musical-philosophical base for Nazism.

 

[IceBlaZe]

Many will say "But he did not do anything", or that "He did not promote extermination". True.

But Wagner's perception and the philosophy expressed through his writing and his music are the base Hitler and his Nazi movement grew on.

Everything starts in Theory.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Refer to previous discussions on the matter. And in a word: Bollocks.

 

[test_specimen]

Originally posted by IceBlaZe
Many will say "But he did not do anything", or that "He did not promote extermination". True.

But Wagner's perception and the philosophy expressed through his writing and his music are the base Hitler and his Nazi movement grew on.

Everything starts in Theory.

That means you oppose all advancements/cultural events that led to some nut killing people? It's not like he invented the gas chambers, you know.

 

[IceBlaZe]

Refer to previous discussions on the matter. And in a word: Bollocks.

Smarter and more profound men than you have researched the area. No offense to you.

Hitler's famous comment:

"Whoever wants to understand National Socialist Germany must know Wagner." Quote in The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich William Shirer

 

[IceBlaZe]

That means you oppose all advancements/cultural events that led to some nut killing people? It's not like he invented the gas chambers, you know.

Nonsense. His music was the product of his IDEOLOGY, and as such is a part of it. That I oppose to hear.

His expressions against the Jews are second to none.
Well, maybe to Hitler's. Read.

Edit: Grammar.

 

[test_specimen]

Then you oppose Leni Riefenstahl's movies, just like Sergej Eisenstein's, Knut Hamsun's and Nietzsche's books because they provided base for this ideology? (Eisenstein off course for Stalin.)

Nazi ideology and Antisemitism can be found in many other things. Shakespeare (think of Shylock) or the Sparta type of government. Spain after the Reconquista (eg. El Escorial). You can't just cast all this away, just because it is explicitly directed against a minority, or because a government that values it highly is directed against a minority.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

As I said in previous discussions on the matter, Wagner's remarks on all subjects need to be read in their context; particularly given his rivalries and aesthetic differences with various Jewish composers.

To tar all his music and work as anti-Semitic without even examining it is the height of willful sillyness.

And all offence taken from your offhand remark; I too have researched the area, and read Wagner's written works, and listened to his works.

By the type of argument advanced, the imperial age of Rome must be seen as distasteful because Mussolini claimed he was its heir. The misuse and appropriation of Wagner by Hitler and his associates is a lot more complex than a simple black and white issue, having a lot to do with issues of mysticism, the creation of a Teutonic mythos, and German nationalism.

Wagner was not a particularly nice man, but he was certainly not 'Hitler's prophet'

Where are the attacks on Nietsche, and the Thule Society?