# dullest big 3



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I was impressed by the variety on the big 3, and happy to hear a lot of deviation from the “acknowledged” big 3. Ok, so who is well respected, but you just find dull, no matter how much you analyse or listen to their works? As the mods would say, please respect others’ dislikes, no matter how much you dislike their dislikes 

For me, Bach is hit or miss, he can be incredibly sharp or dull to my ears, but I would say probably because his ideas have been stolen or reworked by others since.

Chopin has some incredibly nice pieces (ie. Raindrop, Tristesse) but a lot of music is boring to me (nocturnes, waltzes), as with Brahms (eg. only a few bars of his whole 2nd piano concerto would strike my fancy).

Although not that well respected, I am both intrigued and repulsed by Cage’s music.

Of contemproary composers I find Unsuk Chin music opposite of unsucks  at least I find it grating and bewildering.

Like, Eugenonegin post below, some commentary makes for good entertainment.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

1. Brahms: Highly esteemed fellow, but duller than a chisel at the building of the pyramids.
2. Bruckner. Interesting parts, but the whole is a cure for insomnia. Nice fellow, but trapped in organ-land.
3. Schumann. Just seems to be going through the motions a lot of the time. His piano concerto is perhaps the most boring major piano concerto in the repertoire.


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## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Improbus said:


> Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.


Nooooo...he asked for the _dullest_!

Okay, it's your opinion.


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## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

eugeneonagain said:


> Nooooo...he asked for the _dullest_!
> 
> Okay, it's your opinion.


Okay then: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

For me, the wonderment of classical music from the time of Bach through the 18th and 19th centuries is that almost none of it is dull. If there is one composer who IMO had a limited amount of gems compared with the number of works composed and a number of whose works might be called dull, it would be Haydn. All those sonatas and yet, very few stand out.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Dullest?

Bruckner, Liszt and Beethoven.


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## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

hpowders said:


> Dullest?
> 
> Bruckner, Liszt and Beethoven.


Especially Beethoven!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Aside from 4 or 5 works, Berlioz is a snoozefest.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Improbus said:


> Especially Beethoven!


Deaf-initely Beethoven!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Terms of restriction restrain me from answering.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

When the immortals were sleeping, from Bach to Zemlinsky, 
they were _all_ snoozefests.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Haydn. Not bad the first time, but by the 83rd it's getting a bit old. Didn't he take lessons from Vivaldi? :devil:


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Early German Baroque leaves me pretty cold: Schuetz, Scheidt, Schein, Scheidemann, most of Schoenberg...oops. OK, maybe it's names starting with "sch". I kinda like Schmidt though. Schmitt too.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Woodduck said:


> Early German Baroque leaves me pretty cold: Schuetz, Scheidt, Schein, Scheidemann, most of Schoenberg...oops. OK, maybe it's names starting with "sch". I kinda like Schmidt though. Schmitt too.


Maybe you'd like Elender Schuft, mentioned in this famous compliment from Beethoven: "O du Elender Schuft! Was ich scheisse, ist besser als du je gedacht!"

Google translate will handle this if necessary.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Handel, Verdi*, Monteverdi.

* except the Requiem


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Most contempoary music. I don't find it dull any more than I find toothache dull. Just excruciating!


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

Don't know about dull but after repeated attempts I have given up on all of Shostakovich Symphonies, most of Prokofiev Symphonies, and about anything by Stravinsky. 

I may get ostracized, but I'm giving a last try to Symphonies of the sacreds Mahler and Bruckner.


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## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

Oldhoosierdude said:


> Don't know about dull but after repeated attempts I have given up on all of Shostakovich Symphonies, most of Prokofiev Symphonies, and about anything by Stravinsky.
> 
> I may get ostracized, but I'm giving a last try to Symphonies of the sacreds Mahler and Bruckner.


You might just have too good taste.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Schumann
Shostakovich
Elgar


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Schumann
Handel


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

eugeneonagain said:


> Nooooo...he asked for the _dullest_!
> 
> Okay, it's your opinion.


And my opinion is these types of threads are the dullest. I learn nothing about music or interesting composers when this forum is clogged full of useless drivel such as this.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Phil loves classical said:


> . . .so who is well respected, but you just find dull, no matter how much you analyse or listen to their works?


Frank Bridge. I find his music almost as moving as Coldplay's which is to say it meanders around aimlessly and devoid of passion.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Weston said:


> Frank Bridge. I find his music almost as moving as Coldplay's which is to say it meanders around aimlessly and devoid of passion.


Have you heard "The Sea"? Neither aimless nor passionless.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

My alternative dull three:

Elgar (sleep-inducing), Debussy (coma inducing) and Piston (He may have written definitive music theory tomes, but he couldn't compose himself out of a paper bag).

This proudly is the hpowders "B" Group of insufferables.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Britten (loathsome stuff! I cannot believe someone could mangle the English language so hideously)
Richard Strauss (I really should like him, but for me his tunes are instantly unmemorable)
Most French Opera composers pre Debussy (Les grands yawnes)


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

starthrower said:


> And my opinion is these types of threads are the dullest. I learn nothing about music or interesting composers when this forum is clogged full of useless drivel such as this.


Thanks for informing me of your opinion.

Now if you answer all the other posts in the thread in like fashion, your pertinent point may have an effect.

I don't click on threads like this to 'learn about music'. Loads of other threads for that. We all need a moment of light relief.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

hpowders said:


> Debussy (coma inducing)...


A coma is preferable to being awake to suffer listening to Schumann dirges. Surely?


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Palestrina, Bruckner, Boulez.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

starthrower said:


> And my opinion is these types of threads are the dullest. I learn nothing about music or interesting composers when this forum is clogged full of useless drivel such as this.


The only worse ones are those silly games which appear to be proliferating!


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

DavidA said:


> The only worse ones are those silly games which appear to be proliferating!


Yes, they are going to surround you, then spray a poison into your brain. Once properly ingested, you will be a gamer for life.


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## R3PL4Y (Jan 21, 2016)

1. Mozart, I just can't find his music very compelling. Maybe it isn't dissonant enough.
2. Bach, clearly he was a master of composition, but I don't see the emotion in his music.
3. Debussy, just not very interesting to me.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Woodduck said:


> Have you heard "The Sea"? Neither aimless nor passionless.


And this is the very reason this type of seemingly negative thread on the surface can be beneficial. If we don't get a composer or work, it invites suggestions. I don't recall hearing "The Sea," but I'll check it out.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Berlioz " the genius with no talent", per Bizet. 
Verdi, except Falstaff
Bizet, I'll never forgive him for writing Carmen. :lol:

Glass, enough already!


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Arvo Part - too be fair I could have chosen many of the minimalist composers - just not my taste.
Liszt's orchestral music - overblown, pompous and invariably too long but by way of contrast I do like a lot of his piano music.
Glazunov - I keep trying but I lose interest whenever I listen to his symphonies.


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

Chopin, Verdi, and Dvorak.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

R3PL4Y said:


> 1. Mozart, I just can't find his music very compelling. Maybe it isn't dissonant enough.


Ah, but have you tried listening to it backwards?

Scratch that. I've just tried it and it sounds similar. Palindromic even. Marvellous in both directions.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Itullian said:


> Berlioz " the genius with no talent", per Bizet.
> Verdi, except Falstaff
> Bizet, I'll never forgive him for writing Carmen. :lol:
> 
> Glass, enough already!


So the Glass is more than half empty?


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## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

Woodduck said:


> So the Glass is more than half empty?


Overfull, in fact.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

eugeneonagain said:


> Ah, but have you tried listening to it backwards?
> 
> Scratch that. I've just tried it and it sounds similar. Palindromic even. Marvellous in both directions.


True. I-V-I-V-I-V-I-V-I sounds just as good as I-V-I-V-I-V-I-V-I.

Isn't tonality fun?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Thanks to all of you!! 

I am using y'all as contrary indicators and I am enjoying all your choices for lousy composers immensely! :clap:


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)




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## Melvin (Mar 25, 2011)

This thread is dull. Everything is dull.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Tchaikov6 said:


>


Secret Masonic messages!


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

Anonymous - composed such dull rubbish, couldn't even bring himself/herself to claim credit for it.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Kivimees - you have forgotten to take into account the fact that Anonymous was very very prolific indeed, sometimes in these cases quality does suffer.....

There's a lovely statue of him in Budapest, by the way.


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

Robert Pickett said:


> There's a lovely statue of him in Budapest, by the way.


True enough, but this Anonymous was more of a writer than a composer:









No name and not even eager to show his face.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

I think it's time to step forward and admit..I _am_ Anonymous.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

All of these are relative to their huge fame: Handel, (earlier) Brahms, Tchaikovsky.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Steve Reich, Phillip Glass and some renaissance composer.


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## arnerich (Aug 19, 2016)

Wagner (except for act II of die meistersinger), Glazunov and Rameau.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

If they are dull, they are not "big".

It's like the thread <<Great Composers that you don't like>>
If I don't like them, then they are, to me, NOT great composers.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Considering I don't care for almost everything from pre 1910 or so, I find almost all of the 'big 3' composers from then to be dull.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Just listened to some short pieces by Delius. Don't know what anyone else think, but I find his compositions very bland! Wouldn't mind but he was born only twenty miles from where I live. Expect better from a Yorkshireman lol


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Bruckner: Like watching 500 Egyptians slaves drag a block of sandstone from the banks of the Nile to the base of a pyramid under construction. (Except for the scherzi, which are like watching Sysiphus.)

Delius: Pretty does not trump uninteresting.

Brunhilde's aria from Gotterdammerung.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

MarkW said:


> Bruckner: Like watching 500 Egyptians slaves drag a block of sandstone from the banks of the Nile to the base of a pyramid under construction. (Except for the scherzi, which are like watching Sysiphus.)
> 
> Delius: Pretty does not trump uninteresting.
> 
> Brunhilde's aria from Gotterdammerung.


Nice analogy there even if I don't share your view on Bruckner. I find Delius one of the more interesting composers in general.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

KenOC said:


> Haydn. Not bad the first time, but by the 83rd it's getting a bit old. Didn't he take lessons from Vivaldi? :devil:


I am with you on this one Ken, damn fella just didn't know when to stop writing one masterpiece after another


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