Ok, so who do ya despise?

[curse10]

What comes on the radio and you have to turn it off? What concert will you avoid at all costs?


Me: Copland. He's a hack. It's ugly, pretentious music.

And Wagner. Blech. But then, I usually cannot sit through an opera. Vocal majors always got on my nerves. They think they are god's gift to music. I think one of the reasons I love Brahms so much is that he never wrote an opera. Not a single one.

[MuseRider]

1. Well....

I adore Copland and Wagner and Opera although I do not know Opera well. Vocal majors come in all sorts of flavors. Some were difficult but many others were not.

I guess there is no music I will turn off, I can always learn something from all of it. I seem to learn the most from music that makes me uncomfortable.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. I hate all the atonal composers

When I was in grad school, I ushered for concerts at the Yale School of Music, including the string quartet series, and I developed the theory that there is really only one atonal string quartet in existence. It starts descending tritone and up a seventh in unison, hit a discordant chord. It always ends with the players sawing away frantically and ending on an unlikely note.

Various composers pass the manuscript around and put their names on it as needed. No one can remember how an atonal piece goes anyway, so audiences are none the wiser. :-)

[CBHagman]

79. I think you and I have been at the same concerts.

:-)

Eons ago, I used to subscribe to the Buffalo Philharmonic's modestly priced concert series at the University of Buffalo. One concert was always new music, and I tried to give those tickets away. :-)

[Barad Simith]

3. I'm having a hard time with...

...Debussy's piano works (Preludes, Images). But I'm trying.

Can't like Wagner, other than Ride of the Valkyries.

I can do without Grieg and Handel. And about half of Bach's catalog.

I have to disagree on Copland. Appalachian Spring is one of my all-time favorites.

[curse10]

13. Not a Debussy fan either

although I prefer his piano works to his orchestral ones :-)

[Tracer]

4. Dunno about despise ... but ...

I sure don't "get" early music.

I do graphics for a number of early music groups in Boston and am often given tix to their concerts and on occasion, CDs.

I have one CD that actually gives me the creeps to hear it: "11,000 Virgins" by Hildegard von Bingen, as sung by the Anonymous 4. (Believe me, I don't spend much time listening to it!)

I've been told that early music is an "acquired taste".

I'll say!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. I like early music, but I don't like Anonymous 4

There's too much of a sameness to their work.

[curse10]

14. I think it is an acquired taste

I had to study medeival and pre-renaissance music in school. I could see its value and how it developed into the other eras, but I don't think I'd listen to it on a regular basis. Our ears just aren't meant to appreciate music like that anymore.

[CBHagman]

30. Speak for your own ears, curse10.

I took a while to enjoy early music but now feel it's not quite as difficult to "get" as people say it is. I think people who listen to folk, bluegrass and music of the Christian church are probably more likely to warm to it. For example, some of the early music ensembles, like the Baltimore Consort or the Waverly Consort, may appeal to the folkies.

I am Catholic and still not a big fan of Gregorian chant (though I enjoy it sometimes), but I'm very fond of Renaissance music, both secular and sacred. Madrigal History Tour by the King's Singers is one of my favorite albums in that department, and I've thoroughly enjoyed the Tallis Scholars in performance.

For something slightly earlier, try the Toronto Consort's The Way of the Pilgrim. The simplicity and straightforwardness of the music appeals to me.

Groups like the His Majestie's Clerkes, the Waverly Consort and the Baltimore Consort also do early American material, which might be accessible to some listeners.

Anyway, it's like Ella Fitzgerald and red wine. I wasn't sure how to take them at first, but now I can't live without them.

[curse10]

31. like I said, an acquired taste

and while in school I read an article about how our brains perceive music. Even different cultures use different parts of their brain. Example: When monitoring brain waves between Asian and western people they discovered that Asians use a different part of their brain when listening to their native music. Westerners' brains would use the part they use to listen to all music. That's why it often sounds "strange" to non-native listeners. Some suspect that our brains have developed as music has developed. There's a chance we used a different part of our brain to listen to music in medeival and pre-medeival times.

Early music is entirely different from the system developed in the baroque era (and is still most often used today). And we are largely guessing as to what it sounds like. We have only a few descriptions from various sources. For all we know we are royally screwing it up :D

[Odin2005]

93. I'm not religious and I LOVE Gregorian Chant.

It's so ethereal!

[FuzzySlippers]

6. Karlheinz Stockhausen and all that electronic crap.

If I were forced to listen to that stuff for more than five minutes, I think I'd open a vein.

[regnaD kciN]

65. Besides, Stockhausen's an al-Qaeda sympathizer...

He described 9/11 as "the world's greatest example of performance art."

:puke:

[Gothic Sponge]

7. I don't despise, but i was never a big fan of Handel.

I also don't care for Copland.

[TrogL]

8. Mozart

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. I know someone else who despises Mozart

In her words, "He's too deedle-y."

I'm okay with Mozart, but I don't think his instrumental music is anything special.

[Fleurs du Mal]

16. Hate to say it

but I agree for the most part. Although I grew up listening to lots of Mozart in the last few years I've really come to dislike many of his works. I have season tickets to the symphony and concerts with his pieces have become so tedious for me that I usually consider or do skip that half of the concert.

A few operas and piano concertos would be some exceptions.

[MuseRider]

23. I had the best nap

at an all Mozart concert. My husband was so happy, he had arrived in San Fran the day before I did and got tickets and purchased me a set of Mozart tapes. I gotta say, I tried to stay awake but I had worked all the night before and hey, it was Mozart. Mozart is OK for one piece at a time but gawd that was a LONG concert.

[non sociopath skin]

10. I don't despise Mahler but I don't understand him either.

So many people claim to find his music moving and inspirational. Sorry, but it leaves me absolutely cold.

The Skin

[MuseRider]

21. I used to feel that way

and quite frankly do not know how someone who does not play the music can tolerate it. For me it is so personal because I play it and I never understood Mahler until I played Mahler. Before that I slept through Mahler. To each his/her own. Having played it I must say that Mahler is amazing.

[fortyfeetunder]

37. Read Mahler's biography, the music makes sense.

That man was a friggin basket case. Mahler symphonies are terribly complex to understand as a performer and as a listener, but he was a complex person. But once I read his biography last summer, I understood where he was coming from in his composing. His music can be hauntingly beautiful..

[Sancho]

88. I used to ignore Mahler, but I went to a few live concerts...

and I really started to like his music. I can hear everything in Mahler's first symphony: Beethoven, Wagner, Tchaikovsky...I would have to say that playing Mahler is pretty tough. To me the best of Mahler is easily better than some of the worst of the "great" Romantics that is played more often.

[leyton]

11. I dislike atonal music, but I abhor anything with a harpsichord.

All too often a piece of music will come on - usually a string ensemble of some sort - and I'll here this kind of shimmering harpsichord in the background and it drives me insane!

[curse10]

15. LoL- I love the harpsichord!

I love the shimmery effect it gives! :-) To each his own.

[tjwmason]

77. I love the harpsichord - but I can see where Sir Thomas Beecham

was coming from when he described its sound as being "like two cats copulating on a tin roof".

[trusty elf]

89. Beecham must never have heard a great harpsichordist

playing on a fine instrument. The best players have a touch like rivers of liquid gold.

[Odin2005]

91. LOL, that's funny, I love the harpsicord.

I love the sharpness of it

[Poiuyt]

12. Gilbert & Sullivan

Everyone's surprised to hear me say that, but I can't stand their music. It sounds silly to me.

[robbedvoter]

17. The words are much better than the music.

[tjwmason]

78. It is silly - and that's the point

I love G.&S. but people who take it too seriously really need to be given a few strong drinks so that they lighten up. It's naff, it's silly, it's trashy, it's glorious.

[robbedvoter]

18. Wagner. Have a problem with opera as well.

[Princess Turandot]

19. Well, as an opera lover lol..

I intensely dislike Benjamin Britten & Prokofiev. I'm not too crazy about Schumann & German Lieder song in general. I also dislike operas which combine recitatives and areas.

[FuzzySlippers]

20. Hmmmmmmm......I wonder which opera is your favorite?

;-)

[Princess Turandot]

22. heehee..you get no prize for guessing the answer to that question!..

my actual middle name is also the name of an infrequently performed opera.

[FuzzySlippers]

25. Norma?

[Princess Turandot]

26. Nope (thank goodness)..

it's a bit odder than that, but sounds better. It is a title of both an opera and a novel.

[Rabrrrrrr]

28. Your middle must be "Nixon In China" then!

[Princess Turandot]

34. HAHAHAHA.....but wrong again..wrong century..

A hint: the author's last name begins with an 'F'

[FuzzySlippers]

40. Flaubert? Is there an opera based on Madame Bovary?

If that's the case your middle name must be Emma.

[Princess Turandot]

42. Okay, I'll put you out of your misery..

the composer's name begins with an 'M'.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

43. Did Fauré have a brother who wrote operas?

Or a sister, even? :-)

[Princess Turandot]

44. SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...

Alexander the Great supposedly burned down Persepolis for a woman with the same name...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

45. Roxana?

But who's the composer?

[FuzzySlippers]

46. Dafoe wrote a novel of that name.

But I scrolled through a long list of opera composers beginning with "M" and couldn't come up with anything.

[Princess Turandot]

47. Last Hint..

my middle name begins with a 'T'.

[FuzzySlippers]

48. I think you're just toying with us, Princess Turandot.

Just because you're a despot doesn't mean you can treat us like dirt.:P

[Princess Turandot]

50. No No..it is only males who are treated as dirt...

or at least beheaded..and you are female, right?..(sorry, boys..Puccini's plot, not mine)

[FuzzySlippers]

52. What about that slave girl Liu?

Didn't you have her tortured to death or something?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

49. I finally thought of consulting Google, and I've got it!

Thaïs!

[Princess Turandot]

51. DING! DING! DING! We have a winner!...

Thaïs it is! (And you even got the ï right!)

[swimboy]

84. Great name!

At first I was afraid for you that your name was Agrippina.

[Misunderestimator]

69. Even Puccini combines recitative and arias...

And Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia" is a masterpiece. I also love Schumman, Schubert, Wolf, Brahms, and a number of other german lieder composers.

The only composer I really can't stand is Philip Glass.

[thebeaglehaslanded]

24. Gershwin

With the exception of "Porgy and Bess" his is overrated elevator music.

[JitterbugPerfume]

27. Rhapsody in Blue

and An American in Paris
is elevator music????????

[Rabrrrrrr]

32. See, I'm the opposite on that one

I think Porgy and Bess is a real stinker (even went to a performance once at Lincoln Center, "just to be sure" I didn't like it, and, lo and behold, my mind didn't change), but I like his other works. He's not great by any means, and is mostly a song writer as opposed to a serious composer, but, as far as "mere" song writers go, he's a damned good one. I'm just not into songs.

[fortyfeetunder]

36. Depends on which side of the pit you're on....

As a one time performer and orchestra geek, An American in Paris was one of my favorites to perform. IN fact most of the Gershwin stuff was fun to play in orchestra.

As a listener, no I would not go out my way to hear a Gershwin concert.

[paulk]

29. I'm not really a classical person

but, I have to agree - I can't stand Aron Copeland. A few years ago the local NPR classical station went through a real Copeland phase - and I literally would get up and change the station. Pretentious, bombastic "Americana" - blech!

John Cage I think is way over rated, along with George Crumb, Stockhausen, whoever did that "Golden Apples of the Sun" horror... even with massive applications of mind altering drugs I couldn't "appreciate" that stuff.

[Rabrrrrrr]

33. Argh!!

:nuke:

Okay, you may dislike Copland - I can live with that. He is a bit bombastic. I like him (but don't put him in my a-list of composers).

But you can't go be nailing on Cage and Crumb. I can't sit idly by while you slander those two - geniuses, IMO. And wrote beautiful music (and Crumb still does). And Cage, especially, really challenged and pushed music - and out whole concept of "what is art" - in new, and essential, and good directions. I've been to concerts of both Cage and Crumb material, and always left feeling elevated, lifted, challenged, and that I was in the presence of some serious and excellent art. Especially seeing "Ancient Voices for Children". I was filled with tears at the end and couldn't speak for about a half hour after the concert, and had to just walk around in an artistic daze of euphoric stunned-ness.

Stockhausen I like, too, but I can totally understand why some don't like him, so I won't nuke you for that one. Though I wish you'd give him more of a try. He's doing some amazing stuff. Not very listenable if all you want is a tune and some harmony; and after a couple pieces, not very listenable even if you don't want a tune and harmony. His Helicopter Quartet is very cool (for helicopters and string quartet).

[Misunderestimator]

70. You got it... Cage and Crumb are the most over-rated hacks in the field.

[Rabrrrrrr]

71. spit spit spit spit spit

WTF?! You also maligned Glass up above.

Sad. So sad.

"hacks"? I can understand if you don't like them - that's fine - but hacks? They are not hacks at all. Especially not Cage. My God, especially not Cage.

Crumbs' "Ancient Voices for Children" - heard that in performance a few years ago, and I actually left the theater in a state of total speechlessness. Made my partner go out for a drink with me and forced her to just sit there with me for half an hour in silence, I was so moved.

[Misunderestimator]

72. Ok, ok, ok... not my preference... I'll give you that Cage and Crumb

have talent... I worked with Crumb on some vocal pieces of his, and they sucked (IMO), so I'm biased. :)

Glass totally sucks though. :P

[Manifestor_of_Light]

86. Glass is one version of "Death by Arpeggio"!!!

Another version being New Agey Wallpaper Music.

[fortyfeetunder]

35. Maurice Ravel

Bolero, Daphnis and Chloe...shall I bore you with details?
(having been on both sides of the orchestra pit, when I know a Ravel piece is being performed, I stay away at all costs...)

[MuseRider]

38. Have you listened to

La Valse? Wow, great piece by Ravel. Also his piano works are nice. Just asking, I find his work interesting.

[fortyfeetunder]

39. Yes, and I can't get into that either.

No I didn't like La Valse either. If I hear 2 bars of his music I know it's him and....

I will make one exception with Ravel is his orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

[MuseRider]

41. That is a wonderful

orchestration.

[demzilla]

57. I agree

Ravel puts me to sleep.

[are_we_united_yet]

80. How about Gaspard de la nuit?

Ondine? Le Gibet? Scarbo?

[baby_mouse]

87. Ahhhh, Le Gibet...

A magnificent piece, but not much like the rest of his stuff, really...

[MrsMatt]

53. Spending 10 years in arts administration

allowed me to develop an appreciation of almost every composer. Even Webern (although my organization caught holy hell for performing one of his symphonies).

I saved my contempt for prima donna singer, players, and conductors.

[radfringe]

54. have to disagree with you on Copeland

I like him...

but the one I can't stand is Chopin -- I'll probably be beaten for saying this -- but I find him tedious...

[ironflange]

55. I don't hate anybody, but. . .

there are a couple I've lost some regard for lately:

Brahms - has no sense of humor (with one exception). His lack of levity means I have to be in a certain mood to enjoy his stuff.

Glass - ran out of new things to do with ostinati and arpeggios about 20 years ago.

[ironflange]

56. Glazunov, I forgot Glazunov

He sucks.

[curse10]

61. he wrote a great elegy for viola

but that's about it

[curse10]

60. Brahms is fabulous!

:P

But maybe that's just because I'm a grump too.

[ironflange]

62. I really DO like Brahms

It's fun to play through his piano stuff, it fits really well under my fingers. It just doesn't work when I need cheering up. Remember, this is the guy who would sit on his porch trying to shoot the neighborhood cats with a bow and arrow.

[MuseRider]

63. BWAHAHAHA

no shit? Brahms? Where did you learn that? I am not questioning you I am just stunned! I love Brahms and this would fit with the kind of sense of humor I think he has. As a musician I often wonder if he is litening from the where ever laughing his ass off at those of us who are trying desperately to fit a moving line where it seems to not want to go. It does belong there, sounds really great there but getting it there is often not easy. I always figured he did that to keep us from getting bored and to entertain himself.

[ironflange]

64. It may not be his porch, but that's how I heard it

http://www.oznvoo.com/lovehate.html

near the bottom

[demzilla]

58. Delius

I try, really I do, but it all sounds the same, and it leaves me with a feeling of, well, having taken a tranquilizer.

[demnan]

59. I dispise that "Born" group

and all such groups who put a procussion track underneath a badly played classic. I hate that Chinese girl group too!

As for the masters old and new, I mostly like them by varying degrees. Some of the very moderns I've heard recently, though, I don't like - and I don't mean atonal music, which I do like.

[ironflange]

67. Are you thinking of "Bond?"

If so, you're right, they really do suck. It's not so bad to watch them with the sound off, though. :evilgrin:

[Endangered Specie]

66. I am not much of a Chopin fan.

[Misunderestimator]

68. Brahms wrote some superbly beautiful vocal music...

Liebeslieder Waltzes... the German Requiem... Zigeunerlieder...

[vajraroshana]

73. don't despise, but do dislike Shostakovich

...ponderous and tedious. Same dislike for Richard Strauss. But it's not that intense of a dislike for either.

[Rabrrrrrr]

74. Whaaaaaat?! Shostakovich ponderous and tedious?

Well, okay, yeah, you're right - but the real beauty of S. is that his music mimics the bleakness of the Russian soul of the period, and so the ponderousness and tediousness is essential.

Also, as I have felt on listening to S. and heard from friends whom I dragged to S. concerts, we can use the words "doom, desolation, despair, hopelessness, agony, death" and so many more.

S. is not a happy composer, though I think he was actually happy in the composing. But he knew what was happening in his country, and he knew he was otherwise fucked unless he could come up with a creative and wondrous solution to their financial woes.

[La Coliniere]

75. There really aren't

any classical music composers that I despise. I simply am more fond of the music of some composers over others. I don't really care much for Bruckner's music, but I wouldn't use "despise" as the verb that articulates my dislike.
I can honestly say that I despise pop music performers whose music reflects the repug/chimp party line like Toby Keith and Brooks and Dunn even though I really enjoy much country music, especially bluegrass.

[tjwmason]

76. Most of the 19th C.

Not so much hate, and I can generally appreciate the music on an intellectual level, but I just don't like it. The 2 major exceptions are Wagner and trashy Victoriana (such as Sullivan - the Te Deum he wrote for the openning of the Crystal Palace makes me want to laugh and cry simultaneously).

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

81. Rossini. Blechh.

[Wapsie B]

82. Percy Grainger

To me he and Mozart are cut from the same cloth with respect to bland inoffensive music. Individual works are passable by themselves. But taken as an entire body of work each piece sounds the same as the last.

[hedgehog]

83. Charles Ives

They should have left his stuff in the attic! Academic composition at its worst! Extra points for the fact that his music is used so often in grammar schools to turn students off from classical music forever.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

85. Dan Snyder

Because he's eliminating the only classical music station left in our nation's capitol. :grr:

I don't despise any composer; though there are some that I have to work at appreciating...like Bruckner, for example.

[mitchtv]

90. Sorry you hate Wagner,

I love his music and arias, but often feel the need to fast foward, as it seems a bit too much, for general listenig.

[Odin2005]

92. GERSHWIN!!!

Yuck! just YUCK!!!