When learning to appreciate a particular classical work, does the average music lover need to do a bookish investigation into the historical, social and inter-personal conditions surrounding the composer during the creation of the work?
Can this effort yield a deepened understanding of the psyche of the composer and his works, or is it simply impossible because we can never know these celebrities on a first-person basis? Especially if the composer(s) in question are renowned for their reticient/secretive/impregnable personalities? (See Elgar and Brahms)
RE: Composers of a reticient nature whose musical works reflect their guarded personalities and which thus do not yield their inner message readily. Are these works flawed then? Surely the greatness in a classical work is measured by the immediacy with which the composer can communicate his intentions to the listener (see Beethoven and Tchaikovsky)
So who amongst the starry firmament of classical greats do you, not get?
SS
[line]Me? I don't really get Schubert, Berlioz, Charpentier, Meyerbeer, Wolf, Elgar, lots of Bach, and Debussy (his opera Pelleas et Melisande)
and I totally don't get Chopin:td:
Can this effort yield a deepened understanding of the psyche of the composer and his works, or is it simply impossible because we can never know these celebrities on a first-person basis? Especially if the composer(s) in question are renowned for their reticient/secretive/impregnable personalities? (See Elgar and Brahms)
RE: Composers of a reticient nature whose musical works reflect their guarded personalities and which thus do not yield their inner message readily. Are these works flawed then? Surely the greatness in a classical work is measured by the immediacy with which the composer can communicate his intentions to the listener (see Beethoven and Tchaikovsky)
So who amongst the starry firmament of classical greats do you, not get?
SS
[line]Me? I don't really get Schubert, Berlioz, Charpentier, Meyerbeer, Wolf, Elgar, lots of Bach, and Debussy (his opera Pelleas et Melisande)
and I totally don't get Chopin:td: