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From: janney@unm-cvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: composers popular in their day
Message-ID: <924@unm-cvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 4-Jun-84 02:35:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: unm-cvax.924
Posted: Mon Jun  4 02:35:41 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 6-Jun-84 04:22:59 EDT
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Organization: Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque
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<- kills bugs dead for months

> 	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.

	Handel and Vivaldi were indeed quite popular in their time.

	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".*

	Liszt and Chopin were best known as virtuoso pianists.  I don't
know about Tschaikovsky.  Mendelssohn was independently wealthy.

> 	Up until somewhere around the time of Mozart, I believe, composers
> depended on a patron to provide their living, and therefore had to be
> appreciated by at least some of their contemporaries, or they'd have
> starved. The idea that Great Art will not be appreciated until long after
> the creator is dust seems a modern idea, and not supported by the evidence.

	Beethoven was the first composer to deliberately write
for later ages.  Before that, music was written to be performed for a few
years and then thrown away: this is why Vivaldi wrote so many concertos
and why Haydn wrote so many symphonies, most of which are no longer
extent.  Beethoven was also the first composer to make a reasonable
living without depending on a particular patron; he accomplished this in
part by shrewd business practices.

*Grout, A History of Western Music, revised edition, page 525

Jim Janney
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