 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: salzo
Date: 2010-12-10 14:27
I was having a music conversation with someone this week, and they asked me the question, "Who was the greatest composer?"
Personally, I have a very difficult time with that question- the answer can always be different depending on what kind of mood I am in.
But lets say someone held a gun to your head, and threatened to blow your brains out unless you picked just one composer.
Or lets say you get stranded on some uncharted island, and can only have the scores, recordings, of only one composer-who would it be?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: JJAlbrecht
Date: 2010-12-10 16:58
Mozart. No doubt about it!
Jeff
“Everyone discovers their own way of destroying themselves, and some people choose the clarinet.” Kalman Opperman, 1919-2010
"A drummer is a musician's best friend."
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2010-12-10 17:57
Wow! What an imagination! I guess I'd be killed. because I have no idea. Place me next to Beethovens grave.
There is a story about Beethoven's grave being robbed. He was erasing all of his music. The grave hunters asked what he was doing. His response was he was de-composing.
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
Post Edited (2010-12-10 17:58)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-12-10 17:58
I'd go for Bach.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: concertmaster3
Date: 2010-12-10 18:05
Shostakovitch
Ron Ford
Woodwind Specialist
Performer/Teacher/Arranger
http://www.RonFordMusic.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: clarnibass
Date: 2010-12-10 18:06
>> lets say someone held a gun to your head, and threatened to blow your brains out unless you picked just one composer. <<
Since no answer would hurt anyone, no problem lying and giving a name
>> lets say you get stranded on some uncharted island, and can only have the scores, recordings, of only one composer-who would it be? <<
Definitely not someone I consider to be the best composer.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Dori
Date: 2010-12-10 18:09
I feel like we are in the bridge scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: What is your name? What is your quest? What is your favorite composer? Bach, or Holst --- Oh no, that's two Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: chris moffatt
Date: 2010-12-10 19:37
Two questions get you two answers:
"But lets say someone held a gun to your head, and threatened to blow your brains out unless you picked just one composer."
Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart:
"Or lets say you get stranded on some uncharted island, and can only have the scores, recordings, of only one composer-who would it be?"
Claude Debussey
If a power supply goes with those recordings I'll need a keyboard too!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Alseg
Date: 2010-12-10 20:07
Anton Webern or Matthias Bammert???
j/k
Former creator of CUSTOM CLARINET TUNING BARRELS by DR. ALLAN SEGAL
-Where the Sound Matters Most(tm)-
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2010-12-10 20:50
The greatest composer of all time is Mozart hands down. If I was on an island and had to choose who to listen to all the time I would choose Mahler or Shostakovich. There's a difference with who I think is the greatest and who I'd prefer to listen to. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: PrincessJ
Date: 2010-12-10 21:14
Ludwig van Beethoven. I listened to him for years hours and hours on end, and I could never get tired of it.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2010-12-10 21:31
My answer is very similar to Ed Palanker's.
Greatest composer: Mozart
Tie for a very close second: J. S. Bach and Beethoven
Who I'd listen to if stranded on an island: Weber (as clarinet players, how can we forget him?), Mahler, Hovhaness, Gershwin, and Milhaud
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: suavkue
Date: 2010-12-10 21:46
Ravel (and yes, I realize he didn't write much for clarinet other than that Daphnis excerpt).
-----
My current equipment:
Ridenour Lyrique 576BC, Rico Reserve 4, Ridenour Hand Finished Mouthpiece, Luyben Ligature
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: ariel3
Date: 2010-12-11 00:56
No doubt about it. If I were allowed only one composer for the rest of my life it would be Mozart - and I would be quite content.
An interesting thought - what would Mozart have composed had he lived in our time ?
Gene
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: ned
Date: 2010-12-11 01:01
''But lets say someone held a gun to your head, and threatened to blow your brains out unless you picked just one composer.''
It's highly unlikely to happen in Australia, but you'd say the first name you thought of..........
To answer your question though, I'd say Duke Ellington.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Barry Vincent
Date: 2010-12-11 02:30
As Anton Dvorak said once, Mozart IS music.
But damn , I'm gonna be different , Sibelius.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: ddavani
Date: 2010-12-11 03:12
Puccini, who wrote some of the best operas (and music and general) of all time, as well as one of the greatest clarinet excerpts of all time, the Tosca solo. That's my opinion. I would spend my life listening to Puccini, but I'm glad I have variety!
-Dave Davani
http://allclarinet.blogspot.com/
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: ddavani
Date: 2010-12-11 03:14
Puccini, who wrote some of the best operas (and music and general) of all time, as well as one of the greatest clarinet excerpts of all time, the Tosca solo. That's my opinion. I would spend my life listening to Puccini, but I'm glad I have variety! ![[rotate]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smiley25.gif)
-Dave Davani
http://allclarinet.blogspot.com/
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Bassie
Date: 2010-12-11 08:08
This happened to a famous modern conductor (?) but I can't remember who (anyone, please?). Asked who the greatest composer was, he hesitated, and eventually said, 'That's a tough one'. The interviewer prompted him: what about Mozart or Beethoven?
'Oh, I thought you meant APART FROM Mozart and Beethoven.'
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: salzo
Date: 2010-12-11 11:50
"Shostakovich or Berg."
"What is your favorite composer? Bach, or Holst --- Oh no, that's two Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
"Anton Webern or Matthias Bammert???"
"I would choose Mahler or Shostakovich. There's a difference with who I think is the greatest and who I'd prefer to listen to. ESP"
"Bach or Mozart "
Shotgun goes "BOOOOO-YA"
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Liquorice
Date: 2010-12-11 13:36
I once had my bach up against a wall in a situation like this, and I struggled to handel the question. First I tried to go into haydn, but that didn't work so I asked if the guy with the gun could not give me a minuet to think about it. Then I tried to stall him further by saying "Shoo man, I'ves a whole liszt of favourite composers because I've really been bizet spending a lot of time chopin for CDs, and it's hard to choose when you put me in a Cage like this. I mean, it's really straussing me out!"
By which point, the guy with the gun is giving me a cold Glass-like stare, and saying he wants no pärt in these silly games. He turnages towards me, points the gun straight at my face and I blurt out "ok, ok ... MOZART!!!!"
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: William
Date: 2010-12-11 14:30
Hyden. He wrote so much stuff that I could take all of his scores and make a life raft to get off the island.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: skygardener
Date: 2010-12-11 16:17
I think the correct answer would be to ask the guy holding the gun what he thinks and then agree with him.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: BobD
Date: 2010-12-11 16:28
Reminds me of the old Jack Benny skit: The robber holds a gun to Jack's head and says, "Your money or your life". Jack hesitates and the robber queries him again. Jack fnally says, "I'm thinking, I'm thinking".
Ans:
1. It would depend on the nationality of the gunman
2. Would choose by performer not composer and it would be Al Jolson
Wasn't Hyden an ice skater?
Bob Draznik
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-12-11 19:07
If we know this guy is coming after us with his life-or-death question, then it seems to me the best expedient is to make sure his gun is the wrong half of a Judas Pair and then refuse to answer the question. Ka-BLOWIE! And then we leave the leftovers to the buzzards and walk smugly off into the sunset while listening to whatever we damn well please at the moment....
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: EEBaum
Date: 2010-12-11 20:30
Man, people here are so full of indecision and overthinking. The gunman insists that you name one and only one greatest composer. If you do, you are alive. If you supply anything other than that information, you are dead. The gunman is impervious to gun malfunction, disarmament, martial arts skills. You are unable to dodge the bullet.
"Close second" is what this question intends to do away with. Suck it up and pick one, only one, and don't tell us who your favorite bastard cousin is.
If it helps, imagine that you awake in a blank room consisting of a bomb on a 30 second timer, a pen, a sheet of paper, and instructions that you must write the name of the greatest composer on that paper before time expries. The lack of a composer, or anything other than the name of one composer, will result in detonation.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2010-12-11 20:32
Now imagine Monk (Adrian, not Thelonious) in that situation...
--
Ben
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Tony M
Date: 2010-12-11 21:01
Thanks, Ned. I've just been scrolling through replies and waiting for someone to say Ellington. Now I don't have to post.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: ned
Date: 2010-12-11 23:16
''If it helps, imagine that you awake in a blank room consisting of a bomb on a 30 second timer, a pen, a sheet of paper, and instructions that you must write the name of the greatest composer on that paper before time expries. The lack of a composer, or anything other than the name of one composer, will result in detonation.''
Seems like a typical B grade Hollywood scenario, but the big problem will be to fill out the rest of the one hour and fifty nine and a half minutes.................
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Tony M
Date: 2010-12-12 01:43
Damn, you're right.
Oh, I see what you're getting me to do.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: sfalexi
Date: 2010-12-12 02:10
Brahms. I haven't heard much of his stuff, but suffice it to say I have loved all the stuff of his I have heard. Something about the interplay between instruments, the passing of the melodies and great music. Doesn't seem to try too hard, it all just fits.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: ddavani
Date: 2010-12-14 03:55
I'm glad to see a true lack of variety here, which means that the unanimous composers really must be the best (I would disagree with them but that's just my opinion). I forgot to say that another possible best for me is Verdi who happens to be another excellent opera composer.
-Dave Davani
http://allclarinet.blogspot.com/
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: ned
Date: 2010-12-14 10:04
''I'm glad to see a true lack of variety here,..............''
I counted about twenty five anyway Dave, how many would be required to satisfy your need for variety?
I think that instead of just naming a whole bunch of blokes and sheilas, your favourites could well have been classified into classical, jazz, rock, pop, tin pan alley, light classical, world music..................the list is practically endless.
The original question was rather open ended, was it not? To be fair one should name favourite composers from multiple genres - here's mine - starting with classical.
Gustav Holst.
Duke Ellington.
Split Enz (Tim Finn).
don't have any 'pop' favourites.
Stephen Foster
don't have any 'light classical' favourites
Dollar Brand
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Tony Beck
Date: 2010-12-14 20:34
We seem to have split here. Who is the greatest composer, and who would you take to the desert island. Different answers.
On the uncharted island, Karl Maria Von Weber, but I might try to sneak in some Bedrich Smetana too.
Greatest composer, Bach. (William, if your boat of Haydn manuscripts leaks, you can plug the holes with Bach!)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2010-12-14 21:58
Anyone holding a gun to your head and asking that question can't be depended upon to react sanely even if you give him what he wants. My strategy has always been to shout a quotation from Shakespeare or Whitman (whichever occurs to me first)---"Behold! The sea itself! And on its limitless heaving breast the ships!" or "There are more things in heaven and on earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy, Horatio!" or something like that. I try to avoid darker passages from Lear and MacBeth, or aggressive passages from Drum Taps.
Then I casually take his gun and walk him, calmly, to the nearest police station, all the while talking about the most recent baseball transactions.
It works every time, and as a result I've avoided making any pronouncement on the matter.
******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: ned
Date: 2010-12-15 02:09
''Then I casually take his gun and walk him, calmly, to the nearest police station, all the while talking about the most recent baseball transactions.
It works every time,''
I take it you get mugged regularly Eric?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: justme
Date: 2010-12-15 02:37
"My strategy has always been to shout a quotation from Shakespeare or Whitman (whichever occurs to me first)---"Behold! The sea itself! And on its limitless heaving breast the ships!"
If you did that here in Texas, you'd be shot for sure!
![[happy]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smiley12.gif)
Justme
"A critic is like a eunuch: he knows exactly how it ought to be done."
CLARINET, n.
An instrument of torture operated by a person with cotton in his ears. There are two instruments that are worse than a clarinet -- two clarinets
Post Edited (2010-12-15 02:38)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: saxlite
Date: 2010-12-15 06:25
Spike Jones. Kept me amused most of my adult life......
Jerry
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2010-12-15 13:50
I'm glad you brought up this valid historio-socio variant on my performance practice.
In fact, the last time this happened to me in Texas I was in a dark alley just beyond the last friendly streetlights of the Fort Worth Stockyards.
It was 1986: I was wearing gray, the mugger had a paisley bandana over his mouth.
Knowing, beforehand, that both Whitman and Shakespeare would be culturally dangerous in my immediate surroundings, I turned to an old standard that is used by the more experienced studio musicians of that region, when they find themselves under such similarly trying existential circumstances.
In short, I began singing Hank Williams Sr's "There's a Tear in my Beer."
It put him into something like a trance.
By the time I got to "I'm gonna keep drinkin' until I'm petrified" he was blubbering so hard I didn't have the heart to turn him in, but dropped him off at a councilling center.
Texas may have its share of gun weilding thugs roaming the alleyways in search of vitims of heirarchical questions concerning composers of the western classical tradition, but they are soft hearted underneath, and despite their aversion to our greater poets, have tolerable taste in bandanas.
The bottom line: think, people. Know your terrain and walk with confidence.
******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2010-12-15 14:27
For me the epitome of the "western classical tradition" in music is "Blue Shadows on the Trail" but perhaps that belongs more to the "traditional classic western." Anyway, if I'm correct about "Blue Shadows..." (not to be confused with Blue Shades, BTW), in Texas, the correct answer would have to be Eliot Daniel and Johnny Lange, who wrote the song together. But, since giving two names will get me shot, I'm dead no matter what I say (those Texans apparently like to shoot people and they're tricky). Therefore, I guess the best thing is to avoid the situation in the first place so I'll just stay away from Texas (and Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming...).
Best regards,
jnk
Post Edited (2010-12-15 14:33)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2010-12-15 14:49
MarlboroughMan wrote:
> In fact, the last time this happened to me in Texas I was in a
> dark alley just beyond the last friendly streetlights of the
> Fort Worth Stockyards.
...
>
> In short, I began singing Hank Williams Sr's "There's a Tear in
> my Beer."
>
If you were in Austin a few bars of "Texas Flood" along with air guitar would probably let you get away.
SRV fan ...
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: salzo
Date: 2010-12-16 11:45
"Playing clarinet will take you down some dark allies. Better to be prepared for all situations"
Man, you got that right.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
