My favorite genres of music are Classical and Symphonic Rock. Do I consider myself? Not even close. I like what I like and will give what I don't like a couple of times. There are certain eras I prefer to others: Baroque isn't my cup of tea, I love a lot of the romantic era, and sometimes I think the principal instrument in 20th Century music is fingernails on the chalk board.
That being said, I picked up "Classical Music: The 50th Greatest Composers and Their 1,000 Greatest Works" by Phil Goulding, wondering how much disagreement we'll have. While there are disagreements, I find myself agreeing more.
Goulding started this book as a challenge by his wife At that point, I probably knew more than he did. His approach to ranking the artists was sound, using how many pages of music by the composers as a guide.
He starts off with a few lists about the performers, including his ranking, the composer's century of birth, and their home country. He goes through his list with a short biography of the composer, focused on their compositions. He then provides a starter list (5 items), a top ten (as you'd expect, 10), and a Master's list. There are a couple where Goulding's Master's list is the same as the top ten; others have enough that he recommends a library.
You don't have to open the book to know his top 10: it's on the outside back cover. The top 10 is:
- Johann Sebastian Bach
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Ludwig van Beethoven
- Richard Wagner
- Franz Joseph Haydn
- Johannes Brahms
- Franz Schubert
- Robert Schumann
- George Frideric Handel
- Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky
Actually, I have few arguments. I wouldn't have Schumann on my list: I've tried listening to him on occassion and remain unimpressed compared to the others. Plus, with two of my three favorite composers ranked 11th and 12th - Mendelssohn and Dvorak respectively; Beethoven is my other favorite - Schumann would find him slipping to the teens on my list. Having read the book, I doubt I'd get much argument at that point: Goulding commented that if someone wanted to rearrange the order of the top 3, he'd see nothing wrong with that.
He ranks a pair of my favorites further down - Bruckner at 25 and Rimski-Korsakov at 42. Three others are missing from his list: Correlli, Franz Berwald, and Carl Phillip Emannuel Bach, but overall, I think his ranking is more objective while I won't at all claim my rankings are subjective.
The book is concluded with a section on the orchestra and its instruments and arrangement and a 42 page discography.
If you are interested in learning more about classical music and its composers, I very hightly recommend this book.
No comments:
Post a Comment