Who is, in your opinion, the world's worst reputable composer?

Originally Posted by pliorius

WAGNER!!!

Booooo. Have you listened to the prelude for Parsifal? Oh man. I'm joking of course though. You're free to dislike whoever you want.

Threads like this seem counterproductive to me for the most part. Every composer/musician that has ever existed will have someone out there who absolutely hates them even if every other person in the world thinks their name should replace the word god in the dictionary.

I guess this kind of activity could be good to remind people how little criticism really matters though. Honestly, I'm just going to check out the composers that you people hate and possibly find some new stuff that I love.

Originally Posted by sakvaka

Someone may disagree with me, but I think Béla Bartók is far too overrated and I don't like him at all.

EDIT: And when talking of single pieces, I dislike Beethoven's Grosse Fugue. I heard it in a concert last year and it went on and went on, there seemed to be no end! If Beethoven has an useless piece, it must be the Grosse Fugue.

I concur with what you say about Beethoven's Fugue. It's strange to me that he even seemed to like fugue. It just doesn't fit his style in my eyes or sound nearly as good as the fugues written in the baroque era. That's just how I personally see Beethoven though. He's a lot of hits and misses for me.

Originally Posted by sakvaka

Someone may disagree with me, but I think Béla Bartók is far too overrated and I don't like him at all.

EDIT: And when talking of single pieces, I dislike Beethoven's Grosse Fugue. I heard it in a concert last year and it went on and went on, there seemed to be no end! If Beethoven has an useless piece, it must be the Grosse Fugue.

Being someone who has had heard roughly half his total compositional output, I'm sketpical as to how much you've really heard to make a statement like that. Mind sharing what you've actually heard from him?

Note: This is not an attack. I just am really curious to know what sort of basis someone could have to not like him at all.

Originally Posted by Nirvana69

Being someone who has had heard roughly half his total compositional output, I'm sketpical as to how much you've really heard to make a statement like that. Mind sharing what you've actually heard from him?

Note: This is not an attack. I just am really curious to know what sort of basis someone could have to not like him at all.

You are right, I've only heared few of his pieces and played also some (perhaps not his best ones), but I think I already know his style. If someone can recommend me a good Bartók's piece, I'm curious to hear it.

Originally Posted by sakvaka

You are right, I've only heared few of his pieces and played also some (perhaps not his best ones), but I think I already know his style. If someone can recommend me a good Bartók's piece, I'm curious to hear it.

YouTube - Bartok: Romanian Dances
YouTube - Bartok: Piano Sonata (Part 1) <-- I particularly like this one.
YouTube - Bartok - Piano Concerto No. 3 (Part 1)

Originally Posted by sakvaka

You are right, I've only heared few of his pieces and played also some (perhaps not his best ones), but I think I already know his style. If someone can recommend me a good Bartók's piece, I'm curious to hear it.

Bartok is a lot like Stravinsky in the sense that his music is really diverse.

The second violin concerto, mandarin suite, concerto for orchestra, violin sonatas, viola concerto, and 3rd piano concerto are all AMAZING... and different from each other.

And his music for celesta and strings...

I'd get any non-tibor serly edition for the viola concerto btw.. :-p

My favourite Bartok pieces are the Sonata for two pianos and percussion, Bluebeard's castle, concerto for orchestra, viola concerto, and his string quartets (can't decide which most). The three piano concertos too of course (I think I like the first one best). Maybe the Sonata for two pianos and percussion is my personal favourite.

For me Bartok is certainly amongst my favourite composers. And really high up there.

Oh, and Beethoven's Grosse Fuge is simply marvellous. I don't find the version for two pianos very interesting though, but I adore the string quartet.

John Cage, he was definitely one of the most important musical philosophers, but if I have to listen to someone argue that chance music is just as difficult to compose as traditional composing, I may scream.

I, on the other hand, am tempted to scream whenever somebody judges art by how hard it was to create.

Nonsensical generalisations also tend to have a similar effect on me. (The only thing all aleatoric music has in common is that it contains elements of chance. Apart from that it can by vastly different, both in sound and in how it was created. Saying that all of it is "hard" or "easy" to compose is like saying "all music is in 4/4 time").

Well about 99.98% of music is in 4/4. At least according to the record companies.