Composition today

Pardon me for saying, and I KNOW it's grounds for a flame war, but, maybe Penderecki's "uninteresting" neo-romantic later works are of less interest because he's just not that great a composer?

If he were, he should be capable of producing music that is interesting regardless of what harmonic language he is using. No?

I heard it too, in a concert with Brahms' 4th. I thought it was pretty good (but then, I haven't listened to much Penderecki). But I agree, his early stuff is much more well known.

HA!

A few weeks ago, in Barbican, right?

With the BBC choir? Right?

Ρε συ! Στην ίδια συναυλία ήμασταν ρε γαμώτο!

i'd go with lutoslawski over penderecki - having in mind they both being most famous polish avantgardists.
though i think gorecki is the most famous (popular) polish composer after chopin.
like his string quartets.
to continue wiht the polish - how about kilar?

Originally Posted by QcCowboy

Pardon me for saying, and I KNOW it's grounds for a flame war, but, maybe Penderecki's "uninteresting" neo-romantic later works are of less interest because he's just not that great a composer?

If he were, he should be capable of producing music that is interesting regardless of what harmonic language he is using. No?

All I can say is that I like lots of his early (and even some of his later) work. I don't really mind whether he's a "great" composer (that's a different topic), I care about the individual pieces. I'd definitely wouldn't dismiss a piece I appreciate because of other pieces of the same composer that I don't appreciate, regardless of the conclusions I may draw about the composer.

And if I want to judge a composer by one of his pieces, I'd personally rather pick the one I find best, than the worst. I don't think Beethoven and all the others would be very famous if we judged them by their weakest pieces...

I don't think Beethoven and all the others would be very famous if we judged them by their weakest pieces...

I personally support the idea of judging by the average.

On average, Beethoven would be in the middle as while his good pieces are extraordinary, it bad pieces (and there are many), are quite poor. In terms of composers that are pretty even throughout Mozart, Bach, and R.Strauss would adequately fit. Of course bad composers can be pretty even also, but I am not counting them.

Oxi reeeeeee! Ti les tora Nai, ekei to eida... po... Otan katevaineis Barbican, lege mou giati meno akrivos dipla Ki an einai kamia alli megali synavlia na kanonisoume na pame mazi haha, kaloi eimaste..

Translation: We're idiots! We were in the same concert. I live next to Barabican so let me know next time so we can go together...

My reply:

Yes I am a huge idiot. I get out once a month, if so and don't notify people I want to see. What a jerk I am...

Gardener: I don't judge a composer really (cause it's kinda like a personal attack in forums), but can judge individual works of art. Now, if I can find out a lot about a composer and have 99% of his works being ugly for me, then I'm human enough to make a judgement... It's human nature I suppose...

Other than that... composition today is great! Because We are alive and we can make it better!!!!!!!!!!111