Composers' musical style

[blobberoo]

I wonder if anyone can tell me the musical characteristics of particular composers? Like Beethoven's pieces are very moody and emotional, Haydn's pieces are cheerful, Schoenberg's pieces have a lot of discords because they are atonal, and so on. Are there any characteristics for others like Bach, Handel, Mozart, Chopin, and the other famous composers?

[werq34ac]

It would be wrong to sum up a composers work into a songle word other than amazing, or brilliant.

For instance, not all Beethoven is moody. And not all Haydn is cheerful. And in fact npt all Schoenberg os atonal.

But yes composers do have distinct styles that you come to recognize with experience

[perprocrastinate]

Ravel - subtle
Prokofiev - obnoxious
Alkan - innovative

[cameronbiles]

Gershwin- Awesome

[h_chopin148]

Bach-precise
Mozart-scaley

[cuberdrift]

Liszt- hard
Chopin- difficult
Bach - challenging
Rachmaninoff - tricky

[redbaron]

Bach - complex, interweaving melodic lines, sounds heavy and intellectual
Mozart - lots of scales, crisp, makes fairly limited demands upon the instrument, fond of major keys
Beethoven - frequently tumultuous, sonorous, pushed the pianos of the time to the limit
Mendelssohn - nice melodies, elegant and flowing, not very demanding of the listener
Schumann - very unpianistic, very few memorable melodies, bafflingly popular
Chopin - long, sinuous melodic lines, arpeggiated accompaniment, clever pedalling, beautiful
Brahms - dark, dramatic, thick chords, sonorous, likes the bass register, superb music
Liszt - highly virtuosic, long chromatic runs, trills, exhilarating, harmonically adventurous later on
Debussy - excellent at making the piano imitate other sounds, unusual harmonies, pretty
Ravel - elegant, virtuosic, crisp, vaguely similar to Debussy but sounds more refined
Rachmaninov - massive chords, octaves, extremely difficult, intense, big melodies
Scriabin - Chopinesque to begin with, highly chromatic later, bizarre, very difficult
Saint-Saens - virtuosic, very idiomatic but almost totally lacking memorable melodies
Tchaikovsky - highy melodic, memorable, not always particularly pianistic
Dvorak - highly rhythmic, tuneful, magnificent harmonies but awkward to play


 

[werq34ac]

Bach - complex, interweaving melodic lines, sounds heavy and intellectual
Mozart - lots of scales, crisp, makes fairly limited demands upon the instrument, fond of major keys
Beethoven - frequently tumultuous, sonorous, pushed the pianos of the time to the limit
Mendelssohn - nice melodies, elegant and flowing, not very demanding of the listener
Schumann - very unpianistic, very few memorable melodies, bafflingly popular
Chopin - long, sinuous melodic lines, arpeggiated accompaniment, clever pedalling, beautiful
Brahms - dark, dramatic, thick chords, sonorous, likes the bass register, superb music
Liszt - highly virtuosic, long chromatic runs, trills, exhilarating, harmonically adventurous later on
Debussy - excellent at making the piano imitate other sounds, unusual harmonies, pretty
Ravel - elegant, virtuosic, crisp, vaguely similar to Debussy but sounds more refined
Rachmaninov - massive chords, octaves, extremely difficult, intense, big melodies
Scriabin - Chopinesque to begin with, highly chromatic later, bizarre, very difficult
Saint-Saens - virtuosic, very idiomatic but almost totally lacking memorable melodies
Tchaikovsky - highy melodic, memorable, not always particularly pianistic
Dvorak - highly rhythmic, tuneful, magnificent harmonies but awkward to play


 

Here are some counter-examples
Bach-Air in G, E major partita for violin
Mozart- Requiem
Beethoven- Op. 2/2, Op. 14, 1st symphony?, 1st piano concerto
Mendelssohn- (I'm not so familiar with Mendelssohn..)
Schumann- Fantasie, Piano Concerto, Kinderszenen, Fantasiestucke, don't insult something you don't understand =P
Chopin- Polonaises? They tend to have shorter melodic lines and lack arpeggiated accompaniment.
Liszt- Liebestraume 3, Consolations,
Debussy- I feel like Debussy invokes more than imitates. For instance, Reflets dans l'Eau invokes the sense of water rather than imitating the sound.
Ravel- Tzigane isn't exactly elegant..
Rachmaninoff- extremely difficult should be put on about half of the composers on this list. Lilacs, Vocalise, Op. 39/2
Scriabin- Well, the vast majority of Scriabin is either chopinesque or bizarre and everything in between, so I can't really find a counterexample
Saint-Saens- again not familiar enough..
Tchaikovsky- fair enough.. though again I'm lacking in familiarity
Dvorak- yep, I got nothing.


Anyway, my point is that generalizations are dangerous.

[redbaron]

Anyway, my point is that generalizations are dangerous.

Yes we know. You made that point rather succinctly to begin with. Other people simply wished to elaborate where you chose not to.

As for Schumann, I have made a consistent effort to listen to as much of his music as I can. I am familiar with many of his works, after all I have no desire to dislike somebody who has made such a huge contribution to the repertoire. I don't appreciate being accused of not understanding something that I have made a huge effort to get on with.

And I actually like the Piano Concerto very much...

[thalbergmad]

Schumann - Shite

[j_menz]

Schumann - very unpianistic, very few memorable melodies, bafflingly popular

As for Schumann, I have made a consistent effort to listen to as much of his music as I can. I am familiar with many of his works, after all I have no desire to dislike somebody who has made such a huge contribution to the repertoire. I don't appreciate being accused of not understanding something that I have made a huge effort to get on with.

And I actually like the Piano Concerto very much...

Perhaps you should try playing some of him. Your listening is clearly not doing you much good.

[redbaron]

Perhaps you should try playing some of him. Your listening is clearly not doing you much good.

You're 100% absolutely right of course, how could I possibly have been so blinkered...?

[thalbergmad]

You're 100% absolutely right of course, how could I possibly have been so blinkered...?

We both must be missing something.

No doubt we need to improve our listening and we need to spend all of our time playing a composer we don't like to satisy his "fans".

Thal

[outin]

No doubt we need to improve our listening and we need to spend all of our time playing a composer we don't like to satisy his "fans".

Of course, that's how it goes...I was told the same thing about Beethoven...

[zezhyrule]

Scriabin - Sex

[werq34ac]

I mean, I guess it's up to you to dislike him or not. Who knows, maybe he'll click with you someday and you'll like him.

[nikolasideris]

Scriabin - Sex

heh... sounds about right, if both parties are sickies!

[teran]

Beethoven: Monumnental