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Now you can vote for each of 20 composers named at least once in the Overrated-Underrated thread, listed in no particular order. This way we can see how many of our fellow YC members have similar opinions on said composers. Please note that I would have liked to list every single composer named in that thread, but that would have been too many questions. The options are very simple: tell us if said composer is, in your view, overrated, underrated, neither, or if you've never heard of him at all. Enjoy the ride!
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It's a simple question, yet it could be a nice debate topic: In your opinion, who are the 5 most underrated and the 5 most overrated composers? You may answer through a plain old list, but this can work better if you'd want to explain why do you consider this or that particular composer as underrated / overrated. Of course this will be controversial - that's exactly the very point of it. For instance, this would be my (short) answer. Top 5 underrated composers: 1) Tchaikovsky: come on, everyone knows at least one tune by him, yet he's not as much of a household name as, for example, Bach. Also, I've read a lot of critics attempting to explain away his popularity as some sort of a fluke, rather than sheer talent and craftmanship. Never mind the Nutcracker or 1812 - he wrote superb operas (The Maid of Orleans) and orchestral works such as the Danish Anthem Overture Op. 15, or the Elegy for Strings. 2) Haydn: he created the sonata form almost from scratch, wrote more symphonies than Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich combined, and yet he's always confused with / overshadowed by Mozart. 3) Frederick Delius: listen to something by him and you'll know why I'm listing him. 4) Mendelssohn: he'd be regarded as a clean-cut top tier composer if not for Wagner using racial bias to berate him. Also, he has a Mozart-like biography but no Oscar-winning biopic. 5) John Williams: everyone is quick to accuse him of ripping off Wagner, Holst or Tchaikovsky - but hey, try to imagine Star Wars, Jaws or Indiana Jones with another music. Also, he has many other worthy pieces. Honorable mentions: Shostakovich, Mahler, Kalinnikov, Berlioz, Sibelius, Rachmaninov, Elgar, Holst, Alban Berg, Karl Orff, Camille Saint-Saëns. Top 5 overrated composers: 1) Richard Strauss: in my view, little more than a Wagner clone writing tone poems rather than operas. And the oh-so-overplayed fanfare from Also Sprach Zarathustra... 2) Anton Bruckner: almost always placed side-by-side with Mahler with no apparent reason other than writing 9 (or 11?) large symphonies. Personally, though, I find most of Bruckner's to be long, stately borefests. 3) Hans Zimmer: Mr. D-minor Rhythmic Pattern. And that's it. 4) Mozart: yes, he's actually regarded as the Chosen One. And yes, I love a lot of his works. Yet I find this assessment to be somewhat exaggerated - Haydn could match him rather easily, not to mention Beethoven. 5) Wagner: granted, his influence is almost unescapable - but I can't recall any other composer actively campaigning to be influential and berating his competitors, except maybe Boulez. No one else can claim to have overrated himself so much. Dishonorable mentions: John Cage (seriously, silence?), Bartok (no match for Stravinsky, despite how hard he tried), Boulez (as stated above, although I do respect him as a conductor), Vivaldi (he wrote the Four Seasons, then rewrote them about 600 more times), most of the 20th century bunch. Done. Let the piefest begin...
