Who is your favourite musician? Popular, traditional or classical?

@astrosandorbits Math music.

@helenS much more than math music.

@astrosandorbits Here's a very strange judgement on Bach by Richard Wagner:
"The language of Bach stands to the language of Mozart, and finally to that of Beethoven, in the same relation as did the Egyptian Sphinx to Grecian sculpture; and, in the same way as the Sphinx with its human face seems to strive to quit its animal body, so does the noble human figure of Bach seem to strive to quit its ancient periwig."

@helenS My favourite composer is Rachmaninov. One cannot live in nostalgia but one can live with it. Wagner has his genius side but is often oppressively intensive and nihilistic - Tristan and Isolde can only find happiness in death. Tchaikovsky compared his experience of Parsifal as like being at a Mass that would seemingly never end.

@alan20 Yes it's the intensity of his music which kills me. I can't help it, and my Jewish friends may forgive me.

@helenS I've a female first cousin who feels just the same, so I understand.

@helenS what interests me about this quote is that there is a natural order to Bach's music. Contrapunctal music by Bach (most all of his works) flowed together mathematically, yes. If we take his keyboard works such as Well Tempered Clavier where he placed a prelude and fugue under each key of well temperament, we can see how his fugues follow a mathematical formula. In essence there is an exposition, development of subject, and then the final return to the subject. The part where math begins to matter less comes in the middle of the fugue as well as the whole of the preludes. Bach had free reigns to do however he pleased with them. The preludes in particular had no criterion to follow or rules to adhere to. He tugged at the supernatural; he placed a longing deep inside of his works yearning for the supernatural. To relate it back to the quote, composers after Bach (most especially those of the romantic period on of which the sky was the limit) owe a lot to Bach. I believe some composers have said they owe everything to Bach. Bach laid down the blueprint of western harmony and equal temperament. Without Bach, we might be able to make the assertion that there would be no Mozart, Chopin, Debussy, Beethoven, etc.

@astrosandorbits Your last assertion is problematic because JSBach was virtually unknown during the 2nd half of the 18th century. Mozart didn't know of JSB's work, and when he eventually encountered Bach's music, it resulted in a deep creative crisis for poor Wolfgang. Simply because Mozart realized immediately that for the first time he had met a musical genius equal to his own.

I like your insight into musical structure btw 🌷

@helenS ah from what i remember didnt well temperament in western harmony become the standard after well tempered clavier? This is why i included Mozart. After Bach most every western composer used equal temperament.

And thank you! Music is my passion in life so i could talk about it everyday. Talking to someone that can spin the cogs in my head with music is fresh :)

@astrosandorbits PDQ Bach as an alternative.

@astrosandorbits My favorite JSB tune is probably "Prelude & Fugue in E Flat", BWV552. I love Walcha's rendition.

@astrosandorbits
That may be a perfect example of a "post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy. 😏

@helenS maybe so maybe not. What is fact, however, is that Bach propelled it into being the standard. Equal temperament is just one of many reasons. Another? Lol no other composers used harmonic structuring like extensions (i.e., using ninths). Of course in Bach's time they didnt label these things like we do today (i.e., 5 of the 5 is an old way to label). Another is chromaticism. Art of fugue to be exact.

@astrosandorbits Fully agree with you on that. Harmonic structures of the early classical period are rather shallow in comparison.
(The first real chromatic work is Wagner's Tristan, by the way.)

@helenS this is odd. Distinguish for me chromaticism and a chromatic work.

@astrosandorbits I can't. Same thing, to me.