Mozart Vs. Bach

BoB_BoT · 11-10-2003 1:09am #1

Ok thought I'd try to drum up some traffic

So which out of these two famous composers is your favourite and why? Which composition do you like most? Plus if you have any other favourites feel free to mention them

BoB_BoT · 11-10-2003 1:18am

i'll start the ball rolling then, mine would be Mozart. I like most of his pieces, my favourite being Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Nevyn · 11-10-2003 2:46am

which Bach ? there are 3 that are considered note worthy compsers out of that family

alfonso* · 11-10-2003 11:42am

probably refering to johann sebastian

BoB_BoT · 11-10-2003 5:32pm

lol, the good one,

yeap i do think i mean johann, will have to look it up

DadaKopf · 11-10-2003 5:59pm

Mozart always got people's Bachs up.

dod · 11-10-2003 6:09pm

I'd find it difficult to choose between them since we're not really comparing like with like. Bach is probably the most prolific and brilliant representative of the baroque era, Mozart was similarly a wonderful ambassador effectively establishing the Romantic era. So for example, Mozarts Don Giovanni is unparallelled, but similarly Bachs Well Tempered Clavier is without compare in the Mozart repetoire.

Given the choice 'Which of these composers would you like to receive the complete recorded works of', I would choose Mozart because I think his music stands up to repeated replaying and his breadth of music - choral, sacred, secular, keyboard, orchestral, opera etc. gives you a selection of music for any occasion, whereas Bach wouldn't have that breadth and depth of appeal (for me anyway).

beardedchicken · 11-10-2003 10:31pm

as dod quite rightly said, mozart and bach are like apples and pears, so, although i would instinctively say Mozart, that's more to do with the genre of music he typifies, than any relative superiority or otherwise to Bach.

To be honest, i'm not exactly wild about that whole Baroque period anyway, for me, it lacks the drama, and to an extent the passion of later classical periods. I would consider Mozart the best of these, and in fact he ranks as one of my all time favourite composers!

BoB_BoT · 12-10-2003 2:22am

that's more like it

discuss, point out my lack of knowledge on classical music

just keep discussing yeye

I have learned something today and also yesterday and perhaps the day before, 1) there's more than one Bach, 2) You people know stuff.

dod · 12-10-2003 4:59am

The point should be made that without Bach, there could have been no Mozart.

Jam · 12-10-2003 8:57pm

Going by my mp3 directory, I have to go with Bach. I guess I just like that whole calmness of the Baroque period.

Edit: And I've yet to find a Mozart piece that I like as much as Bach's 'Air'.

Éomer of Rohan · 01-11-2003 10:22pm

Tough call but I think it would have to be Mozart, quite simply because I prefer the piano to the organ and I detest Jesu Joy.

WhiteWashMan · 03-11-2003 9:04pm

big fan of baroque music, handel in perticular (although im not a fan of vivaldi), but i like a lot of compositions from both.
being neither a musician, a muse, or an illuminator of peoples life, i just like to listen to the music

pyramid man · 03-11-2003 9:11pm

on my opinion, there is no reason to compare the two of these composers. i think that they are both great and they will always be.

thats my bit.

Éomer of Rohan · 03-11-2003 11:02pm

WhiteWashMan, why do you not like Vivaldi?

The seasons are excellent, especially the first movements of summer, winter and spring - in my opinion.

dod · 04-11-2003 1:48am

Viva Vivaldi - Cecilia Bartoil is proof, were proof needed, that Vivaldi is divine. Without questioning the merits of The Four Seasons, there really is so much more Vivaldi out there to be discovered.

Specky · 06-11-2003 9:16am

As DOD said, there's a lot of Vivaldi out there. Like many composers of the period he was employed as a tutor in a musical academy and if my memory serves me correctly he was, as such, required to compose a new piece each week (can anyone else add to my sketchy memory on the subject? For some reason I have a memory of a girls music school for the bassoon....?! But that seems altogether too bizarre.)

On the Bach/Mozart question, it's a bit like comparing any two composers really or any two artists or any two writers. Personal tastes will differ.

As a musician I always enjoyed playing a lot of Bach's bits and pieces. The masses and requiems have lots of good trumpet parts, much of his work for organ can equally be well adapted to brass ensemble, the two and three part inventions are both challenging and fun. Barique is fun for brass.

However I don't find myself actually listening to much Bach as I find much of it can be overly technical. Some critics have claimed that Bach composed to some sort of mathematical formula. I doubt that but I do find some of his music a little monotonous.

Mozart on the other hand provides a more lyrical and emotionally charged musical experience in my opinion and it is his compositions that I would more often listen to recreationally.

On another point there was indeed more than one Bach. He in fact had 20 children, several of whom went on to have some acclaim as composers, most notably Carl Philip Emanuel Bach. JS himself died blind, the theory being that many years spent copying manuscript by the light of a candle had damaged his eyesight. My own personal theory though, using the 20 children as evidence, was that JS was a sex fiend and went blind due to excessive compulsive masturbation.

If anyone can dis-prove me I'd be most interested to hear their arguments.

Specky · 06-11-2003 9:28am

Oh, and don't forget Bach's very important contributions to musical technology at the time.

"The well tempered clavier" pieces were written as "advertisement" stock for a brand new design of keyboard at the time which became the standard keyboard we use today.

Prior to this, there were in fact 2 black keys where there are just one today.

I can't remember the exact details but in actual fact the tuning of sharps and flats should actually be very slightly different (ie C# should be very slightly lower that Db) but so slightly that you'd hardly notice.

Bach didn't invent this but when someone else did Bach decided it was a damned good idea and wrote a bunch of pieces for the new instrument (obviously you could play older music on the new instruments if you wanted to but older musical notation would show the sharps and flats seperately rather than using them interchangeably as we do today). These pieces were basically advertisement and promotion for the new keyboard layout.

He was also instrumental (tee hee) in the development of the piano, which has the full name "piano-forte", meaning "quiet-loud".

Prior to the piano the clavichord/harpsichord/pipe organ were the keyboard instruments of choice. With these you cannot vary the volume of sound you produce by hitting the keys harder. As a result (and this is very important) if you wanted to emphasise a note you had to embelish it somehow, usually with some sort of little twiddle or trill. This is one of the fundamental stylistic definitions of baroque music. With the development of the piano it became possible to emphasis a note just by hitting the key harder so that the instrument produced a louder sound.

No more need for trills and twiddles, end of baroque.

Important bloke J.S.Bach.

Kopf · 08-11-2003 4:38pm

Originally posted by dod
I'd find it difficult to choose between them since we're not really comparing like with like. Bach is probably the most prolific and brilliant representative of the baroque era, Mozart was similarly a wonderful ambassador effectively establishing the Romantic era. So for example, Mozarts Don Giovanni is unparallelled, but similarly Bachs Well Tempered Clavier is without compare in the Mozart repetoire.

Mozart had nothing to do with the Romantic era. It came well after his time. Haydn and Mozart are remembered for establishing the Classical Style of music. Beethoven and Tchaikovsky were the main establishers of the romantic style of music.

Also, what the hell is this thread trying to achieve? Mozart and JS Bach are polar when compared to eachother - Mozart's melodies being very very simple deliberatly, as a contrast to the Baroque style (of which Bach is the main representative) which was incredibly complex and intricate (Bach's music, in particular, is renowned for this. He took polyphony to the extreme.)

I love most of Mozart's Piano Concertos, I've grown up listening to them, but nowadays I can't stop listening to Bach's Goldberg Variations (played on piano as opposed to harpsichord by Murray Perihia) when stoned.

Éomer of Rohan · 08-11-2003 9:05pm

Don't ask me, Dr Lecter, I didn't start the thread!

quank · 09-11-2003 9:20pm

i just picked Mozart because his music is more to my liking and peaceful for me anywho

embee · 15-11-2003 5:27pm

Mozart was just like the Gareth Gates of his day.
I dont like Mozart at all. Formulaic and bland, imo.
Bach was more of an innovator and paved the way for Mozart and to a lesser extent, Vivaldi.

Also, someone said Mozart was a great ambassador in the Romantic era. Not at all!! He was a classicist to the nth degree.

Beethoven, Tchaikovsky et al were the Romanticists... real drama and passion in their music... .something I personally find lacking in Classical era music.

Mozart Vs. Bach

Bach or Mozart? 16 votes

Comments