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How can I move on from Bach?
I have a slight problem, in that at the moment my musical appreciation seems centred unreasonably firmly around J.S. Bach. I listen to Bach for what has to be at least an hour a day, almost all my compositions sound noticeably Bachian (to the extent that I've been admonished and threatened with detention by my composition tutor unless I eliminate compound melodies and unreasonable counterpoint!).
The problem is, the more I listen the more introverted and obsessed I become. The complexity and seriousness of the interweaving counterpoint is what seems to appeal; later music seems quite frankly dull by comparison, and the vast majority of pieces written after about 1830 sound either structureless or ungratifying. . . almost lightweight by comparison.
I exaggerated in that last paragraph, and this obviously not a worthy assessment of the post-1750 Western Classical tradition. My question is not simply to which composers I should be listening. A long list of composers followed by exclamation marks will be of no use, unless they're people who you think might lure me away from stolid counterpoint and seriousness.
My question is; how does one escape an infatuation with one composer? Doubtless this has happened to many of you before - I'm intrigued how you may have overcome previous obsessions. Does one just have to ban oneself from listening to the composer in question (as I have been advised by my composition tutor. . . grrr!). . . . surely that wouldn't work?!
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