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mmcirvinyou get all sorts of things, but Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Handel's "Messiah" come up a lot. I'll agree that they're pretty good.
Up into the 1980s, Beethoven was the Einstein or Shakespeare of classical music, the default composer people thought of when you told them to name a composer. The stereotypical classical pianist had a bust of Beethoven on or near his stereotypical piano. Charles Schulz constantly made jokes about him.
This notion of default "greatest" status is interesting. Einstein became a public super-celebrity after the 1919 eclipse expedition that provided (pretty crummy) confirmation of general relativity. Before that, the canonical smart guy, at least to Americans, was probably Thomas Edison. I don't think James Clerk Maxwell ever had public celebrity status. Maxwell never got his due. That guy was freaking brilliant. Einstein thought so too, so there.
Anyway, at some point the top composer name-check spot switched from Beethoven to Mozart. I blame the movie of "Amadeus." Classical stations started playing Mozart all day long. I like the guy's work but you can only take so much of it before it's like eating sugar cubes from the bowl.
But Beethoven probably still has more instant tune-recognizability. He wrote two, count 'em, two themes that everybody with even a vague knowledge of music recognizes, and might even be able to name the piece they are from. Well, maybe three, but the third one is mostly known as a cellular ring tone. Except for that guy who wanted to jam it on Jake Haller's piano.
To do better than that with instrumental music, you have to get into John Williams/Henry Mancini territory. Maybe Sousa.
(addendum: At least Maxwell got the highest mountain range on Venus named after him. It looks a little odd what with all the names taken from historical women and goddesses that cover the rest of the planet. I think it was one of the first surface features named on Venus, so named because it was first seen by means of radar from Earth, and radar guys would naturally venerate Maxwell.)
Up into the 1980s, Beethoven was the Einstein or Shakespeare of classical music, the default composer people thought of when you told them to name a composer. The stereotypical classical pianist had a bust of Beethoven on or near his stereotypical piano. Charles Schulz constantly made jokes about him.
This notion of default "greatest" status is interesting. Einstein became a public super-celebrity after the 1919 eclipse expedition that provided (pretty crummy) confirmation of general relativity. Before that, the canonical smart guy, at least to Americans, was probably Thomas Edison. I don't think James Clerk Maxwell ever had public celebrity status. Maxwell never got his due. That guy was freaking brilliant. Einstein thought so too, so there.
Anyway, at some point the top composer name-check spot switched from Beethoven to Mozart. I blame the movie of "Amadeus." Classical stations started playing Mozart all day long. I like the guy's work but you can only take so much of it before it's like eating sugar cubes from the bowl.
But Beethoven probably still has more instant tune-recognizability. He wrote two, count 'em, two themes that everybody with even a vague knowledge of music recognizes, and might even be able to name the piece they are from. Well, maybe three, but the third one is mostly known as a cellular ring tone. Except for that guy who wanted to jam it on Jake Haller's piano.
To do better than that with instrumental music, you have to get into John Williams/Henry Mancini territory. Maybe Sousa.
(addendum: At least Maxwell got the highest mountain range on Venus named after him. It looks a little odd what with all the names taken from historical women and goddesses that cover the rest of the planet. I think it was one of the first surface features named on Venus, so named because it was first seen by means of radar from Earth, and radar guys would naturally venerate Maxwell.)
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Date: 2003-08-01 12:53 am (UTC)The top classical piece in my collection is currently a Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra recording of the Lezghinka (whatever that is) from Khachaturian's Gayane Suite, which is better known for the Sabre Dance immortalized by plate-spinners on the Ed Sullivan Show, but the Lezghinka rocks harder. Number two is Shostakovich's Dance #1 from Jazz Suite #2, which is really cool though as far as I can tell it contains no actual trace of jazz.
I like Stravinsky too.