Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ames-lm.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!floyd!cmcl2!seismo!hao!ames-lm!barry From: barry@ames-lm.UUCP (Kenn Barry) Newsgroups: net.music.classical Subject: Re: Re: composers popular in their day Message-ID: <301@ames-lm.UUCP> Date: Tue, 5-Jun-84 14:58:05 EDT Article-I.D.: ames-lm.301 Posted: Tue Jun 5 14:58:05 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 6-Jun-84 07:34:10 EDT References: <295@ames-lm.UUCP>, <924@unm-cvax.UUCP> Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA Lines: 40 [<+>] >> While I am not an authority on music, I had the impression that >> most of the pre-20th century composers we currently honor were quite >> popular in their own time. Examples include Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Beethoven >> Tschaikovsky, Liszt, Chopin, Mendelssohn... I think I could continue >> in this vein forever. But I'm not sure I could name a single pre-20th >> century composer who was *not* popular in his own time (except for some >> who still aren't popular). > J. S. Bach was not popular in his time. Interestingly > enough, his music was considered stuffy and old-fashioned. His music > did not become widely known until the 19th century when it was > popularised by, I believe, Mendelssohn. Can't agree. It is true that J. S. Bach was a musical conservative, and that in his later life the kind of music he made was indeed considered old-fashioned. Bach lost his popularity in his old age, and was more or less obscure for some decades thereafter. HOWEVER, he was quite popular in his youth, as organist, composer, and improviser extraordinaire. > Beethoven was extremely controversial in his time. He departed > radically from the current musical conventions, and this disturbed > many of his musically knowledgeable contemporaries. There is a story > that Clementi (a pianist and composer of the period) said to Beethoven > (about his op. 59 quartets): "Surely you do not consider these works > to be music?" to which Beethoven replied: "Oh, they are not for you, > but for a later age".* Beethoven was indeed controversial, both musically and politically. But (most of) his compositions were extremely popular with the audiences of his time, which is all I was saying. I stick by my original point. Until the 20th century, great composers who were unpopular in their own time were rarer than hen's teeth. Kenn Barry NASA-Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Electric Avenue: {dual,hao,menlo70,hplabs}!ames-lm!barry