Best Musical Era?

[quirky]

What is the best musical era for its composers and/or works and why?

[communist]

there is no best musical era, its about your opinion.

[healdie]

all musical eras were best for their composers but I think you mean which is my favourite?

I like to keep an open mind and listen to bits from all periods my Ipod has music from all of the periods I don't listen to one more than another it all depends what mood i'm in

[webern78]

From Bach to Brahms/Wagner. It grows decadent from that point on but much of it still survives all the way up to Shostakovitch/Stravinsky, but that's about it. Why? I don't know. Why isn't Athens producing more people like Aristotle today? Human cultures always seem to reach a peak and then die off. It's just the way those things work.

[webern78]

there is no best musical era, its about your opinion.

Spoken like a true Bolshevik pawn. You make your namesake proud.

[communist]

Spoken like a true Bolshevik pawn. You make your namesake proud.

*** off

[webern78]

Whoa, the little Lebezyatnikov wants to bite now. Cute.

[jabbz]

Uh, why has this turned into a slanging match?

Anyhow, all the musical periods were great. At the moment I'm playing/listening to a mixture of Byrd, Beethoven, Finnissy and Bach. I love it all really.

[allemande]

gregorian chant all the way




























 

[webern78]

Uh, why has this turned into a slanging match?

Anyhow, all the musical periods were great. At the moment I'm playing/listening to a mixture of Byrd, Beethoven, Finnissy and Bach. I love it all really.

But were they all equally great? Is Finnissy as great as Beethoven? Careful what you say now. The thought police is watching.

[pies]

a

[jabbz]

Finnissy is an extremely great composer for his generation. He has managed to push boundaries and develop his style and technique, much like Beethoven did. However, that really is where the similarities end, Beethoven lived and worked in the musical capital of the world, Prof. Finnissy lives in England. That and much like Beethoven, his music has been partly shunned for its complex nature.

Bryd composed with a 'Bach-like' consistency. All of his music is pretty good, not to say amazing, but there are few genuinely bad pieces, much like JS himself, and of course, the music of Bach was completely fundamental to the education and instruction of Beethoven, so Bach paved the way for the first great revolutionist in music I guess. 

[etcetra]

I don't like to categorize something being the best or greatest either.. sometimes those things gives me reasons not to explore further.  People can say that about anything, in film, in art, but there are a lot of great stuff out there right now, and we probably won't really know their true significance until much later on. 

I love jazz, and I love Miles Davis, and Bill Evans, but I don't listen to them much anymore, because there are tons of great musicians out there alive that I am excited about... and its not just jazz, there are music from Latin America, middle east, you name it, I am just glad I am able to witness greatness and great art.   

We can idealize these giants, and they do deserve the credit they get, but at the same time they are so well known because they are marketed that way and we have such tremendous exposure to them.. not to mention that western culture is the dominant culture in the world. 

My biggest concern is for people who listen to Miles Davis and John Coltrane and think jazz is dead, when in reality they don't really know any performing jazz artist alive.. and i am sure it happens in classical music too...

I think the important thing is to understand and appreciate the greats, and the major historical trends so that you can appreciate all of it, including what is happening now.

[thalbergmad]

20th Century and contemporary is the best.

It's just so new!!

I love all atonal music.

Thal

[communist]

Whoa, the little Lebezyatnikov wants to bite now. Cute.

wow your one really cool guy

[mousekowski]

How about changing the question to; What was the best ten year span in history for piano music? It certainly wasn't the last ten years!

[jabbz]

The History of Photography in sound was finished within the last ten years, but that's about the only landmark piece of piano music I can think of really.

[retrouvailles]

How about changing the question to; What was the best ten year span in history for piano music? It certainly wasn't the last ten years!

Why would you say that? There have been some great compositions in the last 10 years. I've seen or heard enough world premieres in the last 10 years that would prove you wrong.