Which country produced the best composers?

[Star Ocean 2]

See, people can't just go along with the topic and have fun. They have to dissect the question and debate every aspect of it. There's a topic on another board about which country has produced the best composers, and everyone's just yelling "noyou can't say one country is better than the other it's stupid every country gets influenced blah blah blah." Come on.

 

[Czech]

Did they mostly go with Germany or Russia?

 

[Kinetic]

Kinetic, you already have an account here.

I actually like "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" quite a bit. Sometimes I'll slick my hair back and sing it in the mirror.

 

[Star Ocean 2]

Russia

 

[J]

Russia? Really?

They value Tchaikovsky/Rachmaninoff/Stravinsky/and let's say Rimsky-Korsakov over Beethoven/Bach/Mozart/Handel?

 

[Star Ocean 2]

It's not a stretch. Probably helps that the Russians are closer to modern times, while Germany hasn't really had much recently. Shostakovich can be right up there with Beethoven, and he even wrote 24 preludes and fugues that are worthy of Bach. Prokofiev and Scriabin also had their own piano masterpieces.

 

[J]

That's the big thing, I guess. Being closer to modern times makes composers like Scriabin and Prokofiev stand out more.

That said, I have a hard time thinking of Shostakovich (and I loved playing Shostakovich, in my classical music career) in the same way I think of Bach.

But my thing with music, and especially classical music, has always been that most things aren't necessarily BETTER than others, just different.

 

[Star Ocean 2]

I'm not saying we should compare Shostakovich to Bach, just specifically that his 24 preludes and fugues were a worthy adaptation of Bach's idiom for modern times. Incidentally, I think Shostakovich and Messiaen are the greatest 20th century composers. If you don't want to say "better," than at least that their music is just as valuable as that of the earlier composers.

 

[Czech]

Russia? Really?

They value Tchaikovsky/Rachmaninoff/Stravinsky/and let's say Rimsky-Korsakov over Beethoven/Bach/Mozart/Handel?

Well, when you put it that way, it doesn't sound very outlandish at all. I know I tend to prefer those Russians over those Germans. I must be bursting with inner tumult. Wagner is my favorite German, even if he was a deplorable man and wrote the music he wrote because he was a deplorable man. "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral" is so epic it makes Jim Steinman look like a limp-dick.

 

[J]

I think my objection is completely related to preferring to play Baroque music, in general, honestly.

 

[Czech]

I'm not one for baroque. I prefer romanticism or avant-garde noodling.

 

[J]

And see, since I've gotten older, I've gravitated more towards romanticism/jazz/improv myself. That's the nature of the beast, though.

We totally derailed this thread.

 

[Czech]

That's okay. How many times have we had these same "which albums do you like?" threads, anyway? Too many remedial threads in this folder as of late. Tell you what. I'm gonna split this one off and then we'll take it to the next level. Then I think I'm gonna bump that electronic music thread that's been dormant since we moved off Forumer.

 

[Mazto]

I'd go with the Big Russians as a whole as well. But I prefer the Romantic era over anything else really. Musically at least orchestrally Czech and I seem very similar, because I love me some Wagner too.

 

[Star Ocean 2]

Since the topic title changed, I'll suggest France.

- France has probably produced the most consistently good music throughout all of the eras, except for maybe the Classical. You got notable Renaissance and Baroque composers, then from the Romantics to Contemporary.

- They've got a good sense of humor, with guys like Debussy, Satie, and Milhaud putting out some good, sometimes subtle, witty stuff.

- I just love their piano music.

 

[Nightwing]

I'd also like to point out that Mozart is also technically Austrian, not German.

 

[Czech]

What has the Netherlands done, come to think of it? The only composer I can think of from the Netherlands off the top of my head is Johan de Meij, he of the Lord of the Rings symphony, and that's from like 20 years ago. Pretty cool, though. I'm sure there's a big one that I'm missing.

France has an impressive record, but I still have to slot them third at best, kind of like how they were third at best behind the USA and USSR.

 

[Star Ocean 2]

Just because I like blabbing even though nobody cares, I'll start listing my top composers for each country

France
Debussy
Messiaen
Koechlin

Germany
Bach
Beethoven
Wagner

Hungary
Liszt
Bartok
Kodaly

 

[Czech]

I liked Saint-Saens because I grew up with a Looney Tunes videotape of Carnival of the Animals, but he's probably not top three. What do you have for England? Handel-Holst-Vaughan Williams?

 

[Sex Machine Gun]

I've always liked Italians.

 

[Star Ocean 2]

Hmm, maybe Saint-Saens could go in the top 3 for best composers who also liked little boys category. But maybe this isn't the thread to bring that up in.

England
Vaughn-Williams
Delius
John Taverner

Italy
Scarlatti
Giacinto Scelsi
Puccini

Russia
Shostakovich
Prokofiev
Scriabin

I've never been a big opera guy, and that's why the Italians mostly have done, but there is other good stuff there. There's also another English John Tavener, spelled a little differently, who is alive, and quite prolific.

 

[Czech]

I'd probably go Shostakovich/Tchaikovsky/Prokofiev for Russia, because I'm a philistine and still a sucker for the classics.

 

[Star Ocean 2]

Spain
Rodrigo
Turina
Albéniz

U.S.A.
Ives
Leo Ornstein
Barber

Austria
Schoenberg
Berg
Mahler

These ones were tougher. There are a lot of people I left out: de Falla, Granados, Copland, Gershwin, Bruckner, Haydn, Schubert, and Mozart, whether he's German or Austrian or whatever, and some of it's because I'm not thoroughly familiar with all the composers, but I've limited it to 3 for some reason, so whatever.

 

[Star Ocean 2]

Czech
Janacek
Dvorak
Martinu

Finland
Sibelius
Rautavaara
Saariaho

Poland
Chopin
Wojciech Kilar
Penderecki

And I really can't think of any countries after those where I could pick 3 favorite composers. Of course there's Norway, Estonia, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, but there aren't many well-known classical composers from those places. Japan hasn't really impressed me with the classical artists I've heard.

 

[Obi Chris Kenobi]

Whichever country didn't give birth to Philip Glass.

 

[J]

I'm going to be in Germany this summer, playing Don Giovanni and, The Magic Flute.

Recommend me some contemporary German/Austrian composers, so I don't just keep Mozart in my ear the whole time.

 

[Star Ocean 2]

Whichever country didn't give birth to Philip Glass.

Aw, come on.

I'm going to be in Germany this summer, playing Don Giovanni and, The Magic Flute.

Recommend me some contemporary German/Austrian composers, so I don't just keep Mozart in my ear the whole time.

Don't know much of contemporaries from that region, but Stockhausen is good, and he only died in 2007. Wolfgang Rihm and Hans-Jürgen von Bose are alive, maybe you can find some good modern performances.

 

[Gary]

Whichever country didn't give birth to Philip Glass.

You...you take that back.

 

[KOAB]

Italy

 

[Czech]

The Italians always felt a little too light for me.

Hey, for people who want some more impressionisme in their musical lives, here's Van Cliburn doing Claude Debussy (as it were). It's split into two parts because of Mediafire limitations, but it's well worth the double-download. Well, I thought it was. I can't speak for the rest of the board. The rest of the board has been discussing an Eminem single at great length. Anyway, "Clair de Lune" should be familiar, "Fireworks" and "Toccata" are lively little breaks from the low-key feel of the set, and my personal favorite is "Gardens in the Rain."

Part 1: hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?hzzdnmfwmtl
Part 2: hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?zmwwjimjggl