# Composers transcending their style period



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

As I'm new here I thought I'd introduce myself by posing a question to the community. 

What composers (or pieces) in your experience transcend their style period to the extent that you simply enjoy their music a lot and are never consciously aware of 'the style period' you're listening to (although of course your conscious mind knows in what period they composed).

Now this is probably not an easy question to answer especially for composers that compose in styles that feel natural to you. So I rephrase my question: what composers from style periods you don't like too much in general (or really hate) offer you great music that makes you forget about your general dislike for the period?

So this is not simply about your favorite composer. It's about what struck you outside of your comfort zone as genuinely beautiful or interesting music! 

As I should start this off myself I would mention the Cello Suites by Bach (I really don't like Baroque that much), the String Quartets by Beethoven (don't like the Classics that much too) and Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass (it never bored me!)


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Johann Sebastian Bach is the poster child for this - in general I don't care that much for baroque, but Bach is my favourite composer of all time.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Beethoven. I generally don't care for the music of romantic composers.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Berlioz is one for me - consistently composing interesting stuff in that early romantic period I'm not that interested in (symphonie fantastique, the overtures, nuits d'ete especially). Credit to Brahms and Wagner later on as well - I'm a big Brahms nut especially. I also think Gounod did better with grand opera than anyone else, but that's not saying much (for me, at least)


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## Andolink (Oct 29, 2012)

Brahms is the one that does that for me as I don't generally like the mid to late 19th century Romantic style much at all. However I adore Brahms!


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

There are lots of them and from almost every period bar perhaps Mediaeval, which I have yet to break into as a listener in any meaningful way, but I feel like that's more to do with the fact that these days I only really consider the historical facts of a given piece or composer when I am discussing them with others. I don't really think about it when I'm listening to music unless it is particularly new to me or I am writing an article on a given composer or piece, in fact I seem to have — partly through conscious effort, partly through what appears to be happenstance — removed quite a few extramusical concerns from my standard listening practices over the past year or so, especially for music with which I am familiar. Whether new or well-worn, however, ultimately I've learned that my ear processes it all in the same way, so I guess it just isn't as big a concern for me as it used to be.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Listen to variation 28 of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations. You could swear this was written in the 20th century. An incredible, exhilarating 50 seconds by the incomparable master!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I don't have a style period which I don't like, but there are genres I don't care much for, like opera. But Mozart's big three, Berg's Wozzeck, Scherker's Die Fern Klang, and Debussy's Pelleas (there are probably a few others) make me forget they're operas.


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## Guest (Jan 19, 2016)

Bach for me. I'm not well into baroque but I reckon JS transcended.


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## Autocrat (Nov 14, 2014)

Anton Bruckner's symphonies don't sound to me like they belong to any definitive period. That could be down to my ignorance. Of course, what we call "periods" were always in a state of constant transition so it's arbitrary.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Thanks so far! I completely agree on Brahms. Not all of it but e.g. the second piano concerto, apart from being beautiful, 'swings' like no other piece of music - certainly not of that period. And I like his vocal music too.

Berlioz, Gounod and Bruckner I should listen to, they've always been outside my zone of interest. Shame on me as I was born in Brucknerstreet. 

And I'm already grateful for the tip on the Diabelli Variations by Grandmaster Ludwig. I knew them by name only but I'm enjoying them right now!


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I think Orlando Gibbons, the keyboard music, is a sort of romantic before his time. Maybe Froberger too, in the "death music"


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

Not a big fan of Baroque religious choral type stuff, but the first chorus in BWV 106 is just miraculous to me. It has this melancholy nostalgia mood that I couldn't find in any of the other cantatas, not even after checking literally all of them. 

For another.... Well, I've been extremely burned out on Mozart and the classical era in general for awhile now, including Beethoven and Schubert and etc, and the same goes for most of Haydn, who I've always found strange in that I find him "melodic" without liking most of his melodies, but whenever he does hit with a great melody, like the first movement of the London symphony, he achieves for me something like a perfect blend of Mozart and Beethoven.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Where the heck did Leoš Janáček come from?!


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## Piwikiwi (Apr 1, 2011)

CPE Bach, Scarlatti and Rameau stand out for me


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Too lazy to look back if this has been mentioned, but Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 is a very fine, fond look back at the style of Haydn and it just may be Prokofiev's best symphony-it's pithy and to the point.


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## EarthBoundRules (Sep 25, 2011)

I don't normally enjoy atonal music, but Schoenberg's haunting _Pierrot Lunaire_ is very enjoyable for me. It's scary without being confusing, unlike a lot of other atonal music I've heard.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

EarthBoundRules said:


> I don't normally enjoy atonal music, but Schoenberg's haunting _Pierrot Lunaire_ is very enjoyable for me. It's scary without being confusing, unlike a lot of other atonal music I've heard.


Check out Schoenberg's Piano Concerto op. 42 and Serenade op. 24 if you haven't yet.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Crudblud said:


> There are lots of them and from almost every period bar perhaps Mediaeval, which I have yet to break into as a listener in any meaningful way, but I feel like that's more to do with the fact that these days I only really consider the historical facts of a given piece or composer when I am discussing them with others. I don't really think about it when I'm listening to music unless it is particularly new to me or I am writing an article on a given composer or piece, in fact I seem to have - partly through conscious effort, partly through what appears to be happenstance - removed quite a few extramusical concerns from my standard listening practices over the past year or so, especially for music with which I am familiar. Whether new or well-worn, however, ultimately I've learned that my ear processes it all in the same way, so I guess it just isn't as big a concern for me as it used to be.


I'm impressed by what you write. I think a lot of us want to achieve this and sometimes have difficulty hearing the music 'through the style' or not be bothered by other extramusical concerns. Apart from style barriers I also experience barriers trying to enjoy music that I've heard too often in fragments (e.g. through (mis)use in commercials) to really pay attention. My ears process it all the same way but my brain can get in the way (memories, associations, etc). Unfamiliar music is much easier on the brain in this respect in my opinion.

Not Mediaeval, but from the early Renaissance and surprisingly fresh and attractive to my brain is Anthoine de Bertrand - Les amours de Ronsard, especially "Je ne suis seulement amoureus de Marie" which brings back fine memories to the time I myself wasn't just in love with Mary... I'm not sure it's easy to find though.

By the way: I'm a big Zappa fan myself as you seem to be, especially of his synclavier music (Phase III). A universe of its own


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## Autocrat (Nov 14, 2014)

Blancrocher said:


> Where the heck did Leoš Janáček come from?!


Czechoslovakia.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Listening to lesser composers from the Classical period (Dittersdorf, Dussek, Myslivecek, et al), I'm apt to be very "period conscious," trying to feel how the music "fits in," which I'm not while listening to Mozart or Haydn, except maybe to think momentarily "this transcends the Classical period." To a certain extent that distinction applies to the great and not-so-great composers of any era.


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

One poster explained in another thread that they don't like to follow romantic era music with pieces from previous eras because the orchestration will sound thin by comparison, and I've experienced this too. But the adagio of Bach's violin sonata 1 always sounds more dramatic and expansive than whatever came before it. I have similar feelings for the opening of the 5th cello suite, the chaconne, and a few others, but that adagio in particular sounds as big as Mahler to me, and it comes to mind every time there's a discussion about what this or that baroque/classical era composer would have sounded like in the romantic era.


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## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

I don't know what Satie's style period was but I am quite sure he transcended it.


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