Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Which composers are most "rational" and most "emotional"?

BWV846 -- I guess that, as a general response, I would say listen to more music written in the Romantic era, whether for the modern piano (which was developed in that time) or otherwise. Personally, the composers that I consider especially attuned to the "emotional" component are Liszt, Chopin, Tschaikowsky, Schumann, and Scriabin.

The other general area that comes to mind is modern Opera, which also came to fruition in he Romantic era. I'm not much of an Opera buff, but certainly Puccini comes to mind as a composer heavily weighted to the "emotional" side of the spectrum.

Actually, Joel, Bach's music is "timeless."

As for the "old and boring" part, read this (from Wikipedia)

"After his death, Bach's reputation as a composer at first declined; his work was regarded as old-fashioned compared to the emerging classical style.[59] Initially he was remembered more as a player and teacher.

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, Bach was widely recognised for his keyboard work. Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Robert Schumann, and Felix Mendelssohn were among his most prominent admirers; they began writing in a more contrapuntal style after being exposed to Bach's music.[60] Beethoven described him as the "Urvater der Harmonie", "original father of harmony".[61]

Bach's reputation among the wider public was enhanced in part by Johann Nikolaus Forkel's 1802 biography of Bach.[62] Felix Mendelssohn significantly contributed to the revival of Bach's reputation with his 1829 Berlin performance of the St Matthew Passion.[63] In 1850, the Bach Gesellschaft (Bach Society) was founded to promote the works; in 1899 the Society published a comprehensive edition of the composer's works with little editorial intervention.

During the 20th century, the process of recognising the musical as well as the pedagogic value of some of the works continued, perhaps most notably in the promotion of the Cello Suites by Pablo Casals, the first major performer to record these suites.[64] Another development has been the growth of the "authentic" or "period performance" movement, which attempts to present music as the composer intended it. Examples include the playing of keyboard works on harpsichord rather than modern grand piano and the use of small choirs or single voices instead of the larger forces favoured by 19th- and early 20th-century performers.[65]

Bach's music is frequently bracketed with the literature of William Shakespeare and the teachings of Isaac Newton.[66] In Germany, during the twentieth century, many streets were named and statues were erected in honour of Bach. His music features three times – more than any other composer – on the Voyager Golden Record, a phonograph record containing a broad sample of the images, common sounds, languages, and music of Earth, sent into outer space with the two Voyager probes.[67]"

'twas but a joke.

And that's why we have happy faces to put in our posts.

Haha true.

Perhaps, in part, because so much of it is difficult to play well - much less memorize.



The music of any of the great composers is highly organized.

But (IMHO) when you analyze Bach's contrapuntal music (particularly his fugues) in depth, it is so "rational" that you wonder how he was able to make it so beautiful and compelling at the same time.

For anyone who might wish to dig a little deeper......

http://www.teoria.com/articles/BWV850/index.html

http://learnbach123.wordpress.com/articles/prelude-and-fugue-in-c-major-bwv-846-from-wtc-i/

http://formandanalysis.blogspot.com/2007/10/bach-fugue-no-9-book-ii-e-major.html

Yes, I think until one has played quite a bit the problems of figuring out the fingering and the ornaments, the technical difficulties(especially in the left hand) not found in later music, and memorization all make each Bach piece a task. My guess is that as one plays more and more Bach these difficulties get easier and and easier to overcome.

I've only played some Inventions, one Partita, and maybe 6 Preludes and Fugues. There are many Bach pieces I'd love to learn, but I'm not sure if I have the patience. I have played a lot more Bach transcriptions than real Bach.

I think a fairly large number of even professional pianists have not played that much Bach starting at least from the time they entered a conservatory. Some seem to have a very small number of Bach pieces in their performing repertoire.

O RLY?

You stole my answer!



And those were the two works I had in mind! lol

Agree



Very similar to my own experience. And of the pieces I've learned, I've only performed two P&F's, the B flat Partita and the D major Toccata (BW 912) in recital. Although I do have the patience to learn more and try to keep at least one Bach work in the hopper at all times.



My impression as well.

However, my love for Bach extends well beyond the keyboard works. Some of the most meaningful musical experiences I've had were when I was a member of the chorus in performances of the entire B Minor Mass and two motets (Jesu, Meine Freude and Singet dem Heern). Amazing stuff !!!!!!!

Why it's true for me:

-- While I do indeed believe what I said in my grinning post, i.e. that Bach really is the "most emotional" composer, some other composers' type of 'emotional' is more my kind. Let's see, what's an analogy: Onion has more taste than vanilla, but vanilla is more my kind of taste. How's that.

-- Plus: I don't play Bach that much (and have never played it in public except in arrangement), because I don't feel I can do it well enough. Bach is enough of "my kind of emotional" that I'd play it much more and talk about it much more, if I played it more.

BTW, didn't mean Bach is like onion and the others are like vanilla, just couldn't quickly come up with something better.

I think those stupid faces are silly.

Mark_C wouldn't dare use a smiley!

I have recently learned Bach's Italian Concerto and I never knew how much I could come to love his music. I can't stop playing it.

rada

Other than the Goldberg Variations (of which I've learnt the Aria and some 10 variations so far) and his Keyboard Partitas No.1 and 6, I actually prefer Bach's vocal and other instrumental music to his keyboard ones. Among the former I love are his motets (three of which I sang at school), his St Matthew and St John Passions, and his Christmas Oratorio (which I listened complete right through from a BBC broadcast just two days ago, and marvelled anew at the wonderful music, especially in Part 2), and his Partitas No.2 - with the famous Chaconne - and No.3 for solo violin (some of dances in the latter having been transcribed, with added piquant harmonies, by Rachmaninoff), and his solo Cello Suites.

For me, his most memorable music lies in those. What would a violinist do without Bach?

Vivaldi?

Don't you need at least a harpsichordist to help you get through him?

At first I was tempted to laugh at this, but on second thought, Vivaldi's church music is actually magnificent, so heartfelt... and superbly set.

For those who only know Vivaldi as a composer of endless concertos and stuff, listen to his Gloria (RV 588), or even better the Credo (RV 592).

This was a man who knew his craft, loved his Church, and derived so much spiritual inspiration from it.

IMO, don't worry about the secular music. It's all clean fun, but not where it's at.

Vivaldi's Gloria was the first choral work I learnt to sing when I joined my school choir (along with Haydn's Nelson Mass), but though I still love it, the music doesn't seem to me to plumb the depths of Bach's. It's as if Vivaldi's view of God is not as all-encompassing and spiritual as Bach's (perhaps hardly surprising, as he taught for a long time at a girls' school and wrote a lot of his vocal music for them...).

But what do I, an atheist, know about these things?

Well we do know about the 'girl's school' (hehe), but I never meant to imply that Vivaldi was in any sense greater than Bach. I just felt a need to point out an aspect of Vivaldi which might tend to be overlooked, particularly in a piano forum!

As much as I love love piano music, opera, and chamber music, it is church and organ music which I love the most. Briefly -very briefly!- I considered going into the ministry as an Anglican priest, but nah.