Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Styles

We had some fun recently listing instantly recognized classical symphonic works.

New game ... regarding instantly recognized STYLES of the Great Masters ... which THREE tops YOUR INSTANT RECOGNITION?

Bach
Beethoven
Debussy
Delius
Dvorak
Elgar
Gershwin
Grieg
Handel
Haydn
Mendelssohn
Mozart
Prokofieff
Rachmaninoff
Schubert
Schumann
Sibelius
Stravinsky
Vivaldi
Wagner

This week, I recognized Rachmaninoff and Gershwin as the composers of some pieces that I'd never heard before (a Rachmaninoff etude and a Gershwin song).

No Brahms? No Chopin? No Mahler?

Mozart tops the list - a bar or two in and I know it's Mozart even for pieces I've never heard before, Bach second, and it's a toss up between Vivaldi and Debussy for third.

Bach
Liszt
Grieg

I'm curious about your mention of Mozart. (I was going to mention him, too.) Are you recognizing Mozart's style, or the classical era style? In other words, if you heard a piece by a late 18th century composer who was NOT Mozart or Haydn, would you also say without a doubt that it's Mozart? Or do you think you'd realize it's 18th century but not Mozart?

19th century is a different story, because there are TONS of well-known, canonized 19th century composers (especially for pianists). We're much more familiar with various 19th century composers, so it's relatively easy for us to distinguish between Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and early Liszt, even though they were all born around the same year. On the other hand, I bet it'd be hard for a lot of people to distinguish between Mozart, Haydn, and any handful of other composers who worked at the same time. To be sure, there were various styles at the end of the 18th century, and someone who is familiar with 10 different composers from that time will be able to recognize the differences, but not someone who only knows Mozart and Haydn.

Fair enough questions.

I'm familiar enough with the sound of Mozart and Haydn, so when a mysterious composition comes up on the radio I can say 'I don't know who wrote this, but it's definitely not Mozart or Haydn!'

Throw on an unfamiliar Haydn symphony and I can usually nail the composer during the first movement. Throw on an unfamiliar piano concerto from the era and Mozart is always eliminated right off because I've never heard a pre-Beethoven classical piano concerto which comes remotely close to what Mozart accomplished. Most of them are just plain dull.

btb, you should have put Richard Strauss on that list. Few composers betray their musical fingerprints so quickly as Strauss. Literally within the first two bars one can identify the composer. He may not be the greatest composer of his era, but his sound is utterly unique.

In a sense, the same applies to Sibelius. And since Sibelius wrote a great amount of music which is seldom played, one has all sorts of opportunities to name-the-composer on the radio. Try it: familiarize yourself with the symphonies, and the rest of his music pretty much identifies itself.

Elgar, of course, has a very unique sound, but since I know all of his major compositions, there's no guessing game. But it is interesting how many second-tier post-Elgar composers consciously or unconsciously recreate his sound, some of them seemingly trying to re-write the Master's music!

Whacko chaps!! ... jolly good show and all that rot ... OK ... add the names of
Brahms, Chopin and Mahler and Richard Strauss.

Top marks to all those coves who don't see Mozart blurring into Haydn at times .

Here's my list
1.Clementi
2.Scarlatti
3.Liszt

Mozart ... he has what I like to call a little bag of tricks that you learn to recognize. I do have trouble blindly differentiating between Mozart and Haydn quartets though.

Vivaldi ... it all sounds similar

Strauss with the thick orchestration and heavy brass

Only 3?? Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Stravinsky

In no particular order:
Debussy
Scarlatti
Chopin

Only in piano music, though. There are instances in Mozart's quartet writing that are reminiscent of Haydn, and both Haydn and Mozart adopted older style characteristics in their sacred writing.

My bottom three would probably be Delius, Elgar, and Sibelius. The rest I would probably get a majority of the time.

No Richard Strauss, Mahler, Bruckner, Shostakovich on the list - shame on you! (Glad you included Elgar though.)

The ones I would puzzle over are Mendelssohn (apart from a couple of symphonies) and sometimes distinguishing Haydn/Mozart. Schumann I usually get, but not always - depending on the work in question (I'm mainly talking about orchestral music, etc.) Most of the others are quite distinctive, especially in orchestral music.

Mozart
Bach
Beethoven
(I would like to add more...)

There is something about Mozart for me that sets his music apart from other classical era composers. It's something to do with his use of rhythm and harmonic progressions that jump out to me as Mozart.

But I can always pick the era (thank you to all the aural skills tests in high school!!) So with other pieces I'll recognise it's 19th Century - but not necessarily the composer. Other classical composers I will take a guess at - and sometimes I'm right - other times I'm surprised by who the composer is. Haydn I usually pick - but not always. And it's not instant recognition in the way it is with Mozart.

Bach
Chopin
Wagner

Unfortunately, Chopin is not on the list (I am not sure why?), that's why I left him out....