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

Even if that were true for every music ever made anywhere on this planet (most of which never made it on a record), those remaining .02% are still thousands of pieces.

It was a satirical jab at the record company music producing machine that is pop music.

Karlheinz Stockhausen. I hope he's enjoying his afterlife on the star Sirius!

Originally Posted by Mark

Beethoven - utterly incompetant.

Excuse me? I think it is acceptable to not favor the works of Beethoven, but utterly incompetent? Have you never heard his third or ninth symphonies, or the inexplicably transcendental, introspective op. 132 quartets?

Originally Posted by ELS

Excuse me? I think it is acceptable to not favor the works of Beethoven, but utterly incompetent? Have you never heard his third or ninth symphonies, or the inexplicably transcendental, introspective op. 132 quartets?

No no, he's right utterly incontinent, couldn't stray more than a couple hundred feet from a rest room...

Originally Posted by HusaPalooza

Mendolssohn and Mozart and Haydn and Brahms all F@#$ING SUCK


THEY SUCK

God, Dan Gilbert and FPSchubert are so much better than them

I hardly see a valid point or substantiating claim in this, and as to the "better" composers, they learned from the advances of the priors.

I thought it made sense and was funny.

Originally Posted by JoshMc

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

YES! His piano sonata is one of my all-time favorite pieces. Though, it's not recomended for those who don't like a fair amout of dissonance.

If you want to go in a different direction Sakvaka, there's his For Children suite (which is completely and utterly tonal) or Mikrokosmos (a series of 153 very short etudes,some of which are quite great).

Then there's his Out of Doors suite which I find to be one of his most under-rated pieces but again, expect heavy dissonance.

EDIT: Like Corbin said, Bartok is incredibly diverse. Don't think you've figured out his style after just a few pieces.

Originally Posted by Engineered Composer

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 like that, musical philosopher. I tend to think of him as a performance artist. He definitely created art but it seems like his biggest achievement was really getting people to think about music in different ways. Couldn't listen to 'em myself, but definitely respect the guy.

Originally Posted by ELS

Karlheinz Stockhausen. I hope he's enjoying his afterlife on the star Sirius!

I look at him the same way as I look at John Cage. Same with people like Xenakis. Their music seems so scientific and philosophical that it's hard for me to enjoy them purely on what I get from the sound. If I'm going to listen to a piece from any of these guys I have to first read about the piece then listen to it while keeping in mind what I read. That's not to say that we're not better for having them though.

Originally Posted by Nirvana69

YES! His piano sonata is one of my all-time favorite pieces. Though, it's not recomended for those who don't like a fair amout of dissonance.

That was the first Bartok piece I ever heard and really won me over. The part I love is that it's so dissonant yet still feels very melodious to me. Usually dissonance feels like it's thrown in so haphazardly but when I listen to that piece it seems completely natural. I'd venture to say that it could be enjoyed by even those who don't like dissonance in their music.

I don't really understand the question...

to be reputable is a positive term, it means that someone is honorable, in good repute....



anyway, I guess you mean which composer has the worst reputation/is the worst, in our opinion?

I'd say cage. 4'33 or whatever it was kinda put me over the edge with him into my "no" category. The fact that it was arranged for full orchestra makes me giggle.