Most influential Individual in Music

Henry Plainview wrote: I have no idea what this post is supposed to mean, but this new emoticon, used both seriously and sarcastically, is starting to really anger me.

It's not as bad as the headbanging one.

The T wrote: Equality 7-2521 wrote: presdoug wrote: Equality 7-2521 wrote: presdoug wrote: 20th Century- Herbert von Karajan I doubt it. It is impossible to downplay,or ignore, Karajan's astounding credentials         Even after 20 years since his death, he is still enormously important. For a very long time-years, even decades, about one of every four classical records bought was a Karajan recording The important positions in the music world and awards he recieved are too numerous even to mention.               HVK was a forward looking visionary, and very  interested in  technology as applied to music, being the first in  areas of technology  connected with music. There are a  whole plethora of  music  "firsts" connected with  Karajan.  Not even the  Beatles themselves  could rival all of this. I would wager to say that Schoenberg was more influential from the past century. I would probably say Miles Davis or one of a few other jazz greats takes the 20th century title. I agree with Shields partially here. Of course HVK, as much as I love him, is not as influential as those who revolutionized music from within. HVK was an outstanding director first at the Wiener Staatsoper and then at his glorious stint with the Berliner Philarmoniker but he was, after all, just a director. Even Leonard Bernstein would have a greater impact since he was also a composer and he was a pioneer of many composers (like Mahler, following the steps of Bruno Walter).  I disagree with Miles Davis of course. Maybe it's just me but the real revolutions of the 20th century started in academic music and "trickled down" ... Please... Arnold Schoenberg and serialism and atonal music; Bartok; even awkward experimenters like Cage, Stockhausen or the minimalists. But of course, in the 20th century, few have the revolutionary stature of the destroyer of rhythm, not a personal favorite but how could I deny it, Igor Stravinsky.  Now if this question (I haven't read it yet) is of all times, we better start with Hildegard von Bingen and contemporaries, and end in our father, the greatest of them all, Johann Sebastian Bach. And whoever disagrees with me can meet me outside....

Karajan was more than just a conductor-he did revolutionize music from within, in more ways than just using a baton. For example, HVK founded the first school to study the effects of music listening on the human body and mind. As i have mentioned before, he was the first in many areas of linking new technology with music, for example, he was one of the very first individuals, conductor or otherwise, to catch on to what digital music was, and promote it in any way he could.
             As for Bernstein, yes he was important, but i  would not hold up his compositions as record of this-they are rarely played, and have not made much of an impact, at all. Lenny did not pioneer Mahler, people like Bruno Walter and Oskar Fried did. And there were other, more important conductors in the US that were doing alot more "pioneering", again, before Bernstein, people like Koussevitzky, Mitropoulos, and Adler


Edited by presdoug - February 15 2011 at 11:47

hobocamp wrote: harmonium.ro wrote: ^ Those were hardly Bach's <s>contemporaries</s> equals

Contemporaries?? Brahms and Bach?

Hobocamp, next you will say Guilliaume de Machaut and Philip Glass lived in adjacent houses and played card together...

By the way, there is this wrong idea that Bach as not fully respected before Mendelssohn started performing continuously (and with cuts and edits) the St Matthew Passion. Bach was respected in his lifetime, he was quite successful, that's why princes and Margraves liked him and kept him in comission. He was not super famous after he died but he never was this unknown genius who romantically got discovered centuries later. That's a false notion that any proper music historian will discreedit. Of course, people love these kind of things.. (like all the false myths around Mozart too)

^Well said.

hobocamp wrote: Henry Plainview wrote: You can't know the influence of someone until it's been a long time since they died. Ladies and gentlemen I give you "absurd."

It would be nice if you argued against me instead of smirking. How is it possible to know what someone's influence will be on the entire history of music before you've experienced a lot more of it? 

And T, I should have said not really respected. I know he was never obscure, but as far as I know he wasn't regarded as a luminary until much later. 

thellama73 wrote: Negoba wrote: Here's a few ideas: The inventor of the pianoforte.   The inventor of the electric guitar.       These two instruments have dominated Western music in their own eras. Obviously their precursors were also very important but each had some specific qualities that allowed entire new sounds to evolve.     You mean Bartolomeo Cristofori and Les Paul? In terms of classical composers, I would argue that Beethoven has been more influential than Bach, but as for modern popular music I have to go with Elvis. I also think that Brian Eno has been tremendously influential on modern music and that he is often underestimated in this regard.

Chicken-breeding Mozart or Bach-loving-chickens... that's the question... 

Henry Plainview wrote: Epignosis wrote: Joke from one of my kids' DVDs: Q: Why did Mozart get rid of all his chickens? A: Because they kept going "bach, bach, bach." Have you guys seen this ad? They actually play it on TV and Hulu. It's weird.

That.

Is.

OSSUM.

Brahms could do with being a bit fatter however.

Henry Plainview wrote: Epignosis wrote: Joke from one of my kids' DVDs: Q: Why did Mozart get rid of all his chickens? A: Because they kept going "bach, bach, bach." Have you guys seen this ad? They actually play it on TV and Hulu. It's weird.

Hahaha, the power of the arts! That ad makes me happy, although Brahms was a jerk to my favorite composer, Liszt, and I find his music boring.