# Youngest composer?



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Who was the youngest composer to write an acknowledged masterpiece?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I know Saint-Saëns wrote his first piece of music age 3...


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

Mendelssohn I think is usually accorded that honour. The string symphonies, and octet I think were written stupidly young... Midsummer Night's dream overture was I think 17?

Mozart had to wait till 20 for Piano Concerto 9 which according to Rosen was his first masterpiece.

Schubert had written some songs masterpieces before that age.

But I'm fairly sure it's usually considered to be Mendelssohn.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

I agree with Mendelssohn's Octet for the crown here.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I suppose it might depend on how we ourselves decide what a masterpiece is but my vote would probably go to Erich Korngold and his remarkably assured Piano Trio op. 1 - composed when he was 12/13.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Ramako said:


> Mozart had to wait till 20 for Piano Concerto 9 which according to Rosen was his first masterpiece.


I think for sure that the #9 was Mozart's first piano concerto masterpiece. But some claim the Exsultate, jubilate K. 165 as his first masterpiece in any form, written when he was 17. Still older the Felix though!


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

André Mathieu?
http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/itywltmt/922-andr-mathieu-pianist-composer.html


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

Ramako said:


> Mozart had to wait till 20 for Piano Concerto 9 which according to Rosen was his first masterpiece.


He said it was the first unequivocal masterpiece of the classical era. Mozart's first masterpieces were the Exsultate Jubilate, String quintet #1, violin concerto #5, and symphonies #25 and 29...all composed in his teens.

Oh, and how could I forget his opera Lucio Silla, composed at 16. The overture and music from the catacombs scene alone are works of genius.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

KenOC said:


> Who was the youngest composer to write an acknowledged masterpiece?


Interpreting the question differently...I am the composer most recent to be born who has written a masterpiece acknowledged by a small group of intellectuals. :lol:


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I have written many unrecognisable masterpieces.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Crudblud said:


> I have written many unrecognisable masterpieces.


Really? Well I haven't heard them.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Really? Well I haven't heard them.


They are unrecognisable.


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

Gretchen am Spinnrade. Schubert. *16.*

For Reference:






At the age of 16, Schubert *created* the German Lied as we know it with this masterpiece.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Mozart wrote music for songs and so did Beethoven. How did Schubert invent it? I'm not disputing it, by the way, I just wonder what's the difference... :tiphat:


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Kieran said:


> Mozart wrote music for songs and so did Beethoven. How did Schubert invent it? I'm not disputing it, by the way, I just wonder what's the difference... :tiphat:


According to Charles Rosen in The Romantic Generation, the big difference is the increased prominence of the piano part, from simple accompaniment to (more or less) equal partner.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Really? Well I haven't heard them.


You have but you didn't recognise them.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Mahlerian said:


> According to Charles Rosen in The Romantic Generation, the big difference is the increased prominence of the piano part, from simple accompaniment to (more or less) equal partner.


Thanks for that! So this is a technical distinction between composing music for a song, and a Lied: the prominence of the piano part. It puts me in mind of the violin sonata, and how the violin went from mere gentle accompaniment to a more equal footing with the piano.

Cheers! :tiphat:


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Interpreting the question differently...I am the composer most recent to be born who has written a masterpiece acknowledged by a small group of intellectuals. :lol:


How small was this group?


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

The question was about masterpieces and certainly the Spanisn composer Arriaga's Symphony in D is one such.
He was eighteen when he wrote it and he died just short of his twentieth birthday--what a tragedy because it is obvious that he was a genius.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Glazunov wrote his 1st symphony at the age of 16, and it premiered when was 17. It caused a huge sensation and a quasi-scandal, since a large number of people didn't believe it, thinking Rimsky-Korsakov was bribed to write a symphony for the young rich boy. But no, it was, and is, quite a real masterpiece:






Listening to this now, it still blows my mind at how much Glazunov kept the same about himself throughout his life. 53 years later with the saxophone concerto, he still possessed qualities he exhibits in his first symphony, that is, his moodscaping, technical mastery of his ideas, and overall character, which is quite optimistic and noble. He never lost his optimism, in 53 years. That's amazing.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

moody said:


> The question was about masterpieces and certainly the Spanisn composer Arriaga's Symphony in D is one such.
> He was eighteen when he wrote it and he died just short of his twentieth birthday--what a tragedy because it is obvious that he was a genius.


Yes, mentioned him earlier. I'd place his string quartets even above his symphony.

He also wrote an opera, of which at least the overture survives (and it's pretty good), with a great title: The Happy Slaves.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Oooh, also don't forget this work:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_in_C_%28Bizet%29

Bizet wrote this when he was 17, and it's definitely known and loved today by many. One of my local radio stations plays this all the time:


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Bizet wrote this when he was 17, and it's definitely known and loved today by many.


Good catch. It wasn't performed until 1935!


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

moody said:


> How small was this group?


Well...I know _I'm_ in it...


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

I read somewhere that Wolfie kicked a savagely brilliant rhythm (now unfortunately lost) in the womb...


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## Antihero (Feb 6, 2013)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Scriabin


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## TudorMihai (Feb 20, 2013)

elgars ghost said:


> I suppose it might depend on how we ourselves decide what a masterpiece is but my vote would probably go to Erich Korngold and his remarkably assured Piano Trio op. 1 - composed when he was 12/13.


Indeed, Korngold was an amazing musical prodigy (some consider him to be the last prodigy). At the age of eleven he wrote a ballet, at the age of fourteen he wrote his first orchestral piece and by the age of thirteen he already wrote two piano sonatas. At that time he was considered to be the most gifted musical prodigy since Mozart.

There is also another name but not so widely known, Gian Carlo Menotti (1911 - 2007) who wrote his first opera (with his own libretto), _The Death of Pierrot_, at the age of eleven.


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

If I'm not mistaken, Dmitri Shostakovich penned his first symphony at the tender young age of 19.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

samurai said:


> If I'm not mistaken, Dmitri Shostakovich penned his first symphony at the tender young age of 19.


19 is quite right. Some feel this is the greatest 1st Symphony ever written.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

In modern times there are Jay Greenberg and Alexander Prior. Their music may not be considered as masterpieces, but then you probably have to wait some long years for that title to be acquired.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Well...I know _I'm_ in it...


Well that makes two of you then.


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