Excuse Me???

[dulcinea]

I have been reading several 10 GREATEST COMPOSERS lists, all of which omit Handel and Haydn.
Considering how their 2009 Bicentennials have revealed how TRULY GREAT the Two Hs are, such an omission is an EMPORUNG=OUTRAGE.

[some guy]

Ten greatest lists leave out a lot more people than just Haydn and Handel.

(Aren't all "greatest" lists an Empörung?)

[hangos]

I have been reading several 10 GREATEST COMPOSERS lists, all of which omit Handel and Haydn.
Considering how their 2009 Bicentennials have revealed how TRULY GREAT the Two Hs are, such an omission is an EMPORUNG=OUTRAGE.

While we are in German mode ;
as Otto Klemperer said to Siegfried Wagner "Entsetzen Sie sich!"

Martin

[absinthe]

You could have fooled me. Radio 3's "This week's composer" is Handle and the airwaves are riddled with the stuff, culminating in the messiah on Friday 23rd.

He was once featured on a set of commemorative stamps "British Composers". I mean, what?

As Berg once said to him, "Ist das der Divan, auf dem Ihre Musik geblutet hat?"

[jbuck919]

As Berg once said to [Handel],

I think the problem some people have with Haydn and Handel is that they're just lacking some, I don't know, oomph factor, you know, a Don Giovanni or a Tristan und Isolde thrown in there. Lost in their sizing up is the consideration that there are not ten composers greater than either of those two.

[Chalkperson]

Polls + Lists = Yawns

[some guy]

Indeed.

Plus, a top ten list is really a top seven list, isn't it?

I mean, be fair, every top ten list will have the same three at or near the top. (Hmmm. Time for my nap.)

[THEHORN]

Don't get your panties in a bunch (not that you probably wear them anyway). These top ten lists are ridiculous .
How can you make an arbitrary list of ten composers and say that the others are not as great ?

[THEHORN]

Oops ! I didn't realize that you were female, so my face is red ! No ribaldry intended !
I should have noticed that the thread was started by Dulcinea !

[living_stradivarius]

You're excused

[John F]

As Berg once said to [Handel],

I think the problem some people have with Haydn and Handel is that they're just lacking some, I don't know, oomph factor, you know, a Don Giovanni or a Tristan und Isolde thrown in there. Lost in their sizing up is the consideration that there are not ten composers greater than either of those two.

Or maybe it's just that there's only room in popular awareness for one great composer per generation: Bach not Handel, Mozart not Haydn, Beethoven not Schubert, Wagner or Brahms but not both and definitely not Verdi. We're a little more broad-minded here.

[rogch]

I wouldn't say Händel is one of the top 10 composers ever. He is definitely a great composer, but i wouldn't put him in my top 10. Haydn could end up in my top 10 list. These lists will always be disputed of course. I don't think they are hopeless or meaningless to make, but it is difficult.

[slofstra]

Not only Handel or Haydn! There are at least 20 or so composers that should be in anyone's top 10 list.

[absinthe]

At least some of Handle's fame was down to King Geo I hiring him for a few gigs.

I heard told that his original name was George Handle, handle being one of those slave names, like Gunn, frinstance, that the hunter would call when wanting his gun. So with Handle, he was called whenever the King wanted someone to crank his music machine. Handle had it changed to Handel when unable to accept the title of music slave because by then he was subsidised by the taxpayers.

I don't know it it's true but I think he did have a composing machine that eventually found its way to Rossini....

[dulcinea]

How about this:
instead of a list of 10, how about a game of musical alphabets?
I'll start with the 10 Bs:
JS Bach
Bartok
Beethoven
Berlioz
Biber
Boccherini
Brahms
Britten
Bruckner
Byrd;
the 5 Ms:
Mahler
Mendelssohn
Milhaud
Monteverdi
Mozart
(Messiaen?);
and the 4 Vs:
Vaughan-Williams
Verdi
Victoria
Vivaldi
(Varese?)
Your turn.

[jbuck919]

How about this:
instead of a list of 10, how about a game of musical alphabets?
I'll start with the 10 Bs:
JS Bach
Bartok
Beethoven
Berlioz
Biber
Boccherini
Brahms
Britten
Bruckner
Byrd;
the 5 Ms:
Mahler
Mendelssohn
Milhaud
Monteverdi
Mozart
(Messiaen?);
and the 4 Vs:
Vaughan-Williams
Verdi
Victoria
Vivaldi
(Varese?)
Your turn.

What?
Xenax, please.
Yawn
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Werner]

As most of you know, I don't believe in numerical rankings of this sort, so i won't play in this game.

My only purpose in this post is to remind Absinthe that G. F.'s original handle was GEORG FRIEDERICH HÄDNDEL, as you undoubtedly already knew.

[some guy]

Typo alert