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Hello everyone,

I thought this would make an interesting discussion. If you had to pick a composer you just can't get in to, who would it be? Mine would me Erik Satie. I just don't enjoy his music at all. And I've always wondered why those Gymnopedie's and Gnossienne are so popular, I find them really bland.

Who's yours?

Schubert is for me. I only like very few of his work.

Iannis Xenakis.
I had the misfortune to hear one of his pieces live once (while waiting for the Rachmaninoff concerto that was to follow), and had my ears nearly blown off by the noise. Harmony, melody, rhythm.....what??

BTW, I love listening to new/contemporary music: everything from Saariaho to Vine to (even ) Boulez and Stockhausen (in small doses). But there are limits.....

I can't stand Franz Liszt. I also have a hard time with Schumann(though I admit he is a good composer).

Iannis Xenakis, it's so bad that anyone could make it better in Garage Band Trial.
Ive never been to found of Franz Schubert neither, struggling with liking Johannes Brahms a little.

I have always felt the same way about those Satie pieces.

I just haven't been able to get into Brahms, (some pieces are ok, like his lullaby and Hungarian Dance #5). I couldn't put my finger on why until I read a quote (I think from Tchaikowsky) to the effect that Brahms "didn't know how to finish a melody". That's it! To me, a lot of his writing is like trying to have a converstation with someone who keeps changing the subject.

Schumann

I think you have a point there on Brahms. Though I am completely in love with his intermezzos... Schumann has the same type of problem I think and your quote "a lot of his writing is like trying to have a converstation with someone who keeps changing the subject", suits him aswell.

Schumann: I agree for same reasons already stated above.
Mozart: Who unlike Liszt wasn't blessed with a long life to repair his errors.

Hmm, for me it's most composers. I can't get into most composers' music because I find them to either be too understimulating, intellectual, and anthropocentric (baroque and classical era), or too crazy and modern (and I suppose, in many cases, asphyxiatingly intellectual) (like Stockhausen and all those dudes).

For me, the best music is the kind that recognizes humans are only a small part of life, so why make them the only thing music is about? Why does music have to only be about emotion or abstract things? Why can't it be a plant, or a rock, a fish, or a battle? Why not step outside yourself for a bit.....that's what ecstasy is, after all.

Ironically, this is the reason why my piano teacher loathes Tchaikovsky and loves Brahms!

Yeah, never got into Brahms.
Robert Schumann is one of my favorite composers. Don't understand why people don't find his music to impressive.

I find Liszt a little boring, but that is not to say that I hate his guts. What's the point of this thread again?

Try the F minor sonata. It's not that Brahms can't finish a tune, it's that if he does, he goes on for 40 minutes to an hour. He condensed his style late in life and it is an amazing effect, but it can be frustrating at times to continually get one half of a great melody.

I know I'm destined for the fires of heck when I die (and maybe sooner, here) but I'll say it anyway: Bach. I respect the heck out of him, I admire his music, I play a little of it but I don't love it. I own a number of recordings of his music and do listen to it but it's more a clinical study than an act of love.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with that opinion. It just means that you have a fundamental misalignment between your analytical mind, your heart, and your soul. That's all.

-J

John Cage

Ive don't like the music ive heard of John Cage(Or not heard, according to my opinion, worlds most easy piece of music. 4'33 or Something).
I just played some Johann Sebastian Bach, my favorite composer i would dare to say.

Listen to the Rach 3.

+1000000000000000