# Your favorite decade of classical music



## R3PL4Y (Jan 21, 2016)

Because favourite century is too easy, I want to see what people think of this.


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## Medtnaculus (May 13, 2015)

1900-1910

or perhaps 1910-1920

There's too many things which are between those two decades. I can't decide.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

Tough decision, but it would have to be 1880-1890 which includes many of my favorite Brahms works, but sadly leaves out the Violin Concerto (1878) and Clarinet Quintet (1891). My favorite Dvorak Symphonies (7 and 8) also included, but the wonderful Cello Concerto from 1894-95 left out.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

So many to choose from. but I'll choose 1940-1950:

Copland, Appalachian Spring

Schuman Symphony No. 6

Prokofiev Symphony No. 5

Bartok Concerto for Orchestra and Piano Concerto No. 3

Shostakovich Symphonies No.'s 7, 8 and 9.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

Probably 1800-1810 because of Beethoven

Symphonies 3-6
Piano concertos 3-5
The violin concerto
Violin sonatas 5 and 9
Piano sonatas Moonlight, Pastoral, Tempest, Waldstein, Appassionata
All the middle period string quartets (Op. 59, 74 and 95)


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

1820-1830. An amazing decade which, in my opinion, featured the birth of musical Romanticism.

This decade encompasses Beethoven's later works, and nearly all of my favorite works by Schubert. The tail end of this time period includes Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1.

This decade also gives me some fine works by underrated composers such as Hummel, Ries, and Kalkbrenner. They are certainly not the reason why I chose this decade, but they offer a welcome bonus!


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

1920-1930


_Amériques_ for large orchestra (1918-1921; revised 1927)
_Offrandes_ for soprano and chamber orchestra (poems by Vicente Huidobro and José Juan Tablada)(1921)
_Hyperprism_ for wind and percussion (1922-1923)
_Octandre_ for seven wind instruments and double bass (1923)
_Intégrales_ for wind and percussion (1924-1925)
_Arcana_ for large orchestra (1925-1927)
_Ionisation_ for 13 percussion players (1929-1931)


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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

Can I say 1905 - 1915?...

That would encapsulate all the greatest piano works of Debussy and Scriabin.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

As long as the music suits me, I don't make choices in decades.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

1890-1899 "The Gay Nineties"

Excellent decade, featuring, among others:

Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker
Puccini - La bohème, Tosca (written)
Mahler - Symphony No. 2, Symphony No. 3
Dvorak - Symphony No. 9, Cello Concerto
Debussy - Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
R. Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra
Rachmaninov - Prelude in C# minor


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Classical music by definition spans over centuries, so picking one decade is severely restrictive. The 18th century is my favorite and I can find cherries in any decade in that period; any decade.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

2017 - 2026 would be my choice. The best is always yet to come.


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## Gouldanian (Nov 19, 2015)

Casebearer said:


> 2017 - 2026 would be my choice. The best is always yet to come.


Judging from our recent history in almost everything from music to politics, I'm not so sure.


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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

Don't let the "news" scare you.

Death from War is at an all time low. Extreme poverty has gone down rapidly in the last 25 years. Literacy is at an all time high. The level of violent crime in the USA has dropped hugely in the last 50 years, (As recent as the early 80s and mid-90s, there were over 50 violent crime victims per 1,000 individuals. This number has dropped threefold to 15 victims per 1,000 people). On and on it goes. A majority of the human population live better lives now, than most of the Kings and Emperors of history.

Here is just one such source,

http://www.vox.com/2015/7/13/8908397/11-charts-best-time-in-history

...it is easy to search out more, amazing, good "news" (It just doesn't sell)...


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## Francis Poulenc (Nov 6, 2016)

1890-1900. In terms of the musical future, there isn't much reason for optimism.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

I'm a big Russian music fan, so I'll say *1890-1900*, the height of the Russian Silver Age that witnessed, among other things:


Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony (1893)
Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame (actually written in 1889, though premiered in 1890)
Glazunov's very fine middle symphonies (nos. 4-6, with the Sixth being part of his pinnacle period, not excluding Raymonda).
Glazunov's Two Piano Sonatas (1900-1901) and "The Seasons" (1900).
Rachmaninoff's First Symphony and his songs.
Rimsky-Korsakov's operas, including Mlada, Sadko, The Tsar's Bride.
Scriabin's First Symphony and many of his fine piano works, including his early-middle sonatas.
Felix Blumenfeld's Twenty-four Preludes (1895).
And so forth. And of course, I cannot ignore Bruckner, Mahler, or even Strauss (or even the fledgling/emerging Zemlinsky).

The *1920-1930* period would by my second favorite period, not only because of the Russian Avant-garde (Knipper, Mosolov, Roslavets, Lourie, Popov, Shostakovich, Protopopov, briefly Myaskovsky and Kabalevsky), but also the Avant-garde movement in other countries, like, say, the United States (Antheil, Jazz, Ives), France (Honegger, a Swiss, Le Six), Germany (which began earlier in fact).


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## Francis Poulenc (Nov 6, 2016)

3 people have already gone for 1890-1900, one decade among the dozens we could have chosen from.

Mahler's 2nd, 3rd and 5th were written during this decade. Even if nothing else had been written, that alone would make it the greatest decade of all time.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

1905-1915 is a worthy contender. You'd get the later (AKA best) Mahler symphonies: 6th, 7th, 9th and Das Lied, plus many of the best works of Debussy, Scriabin, Schoenberg, Ravel, Stravinsky, Fauré, Sibelius, Ives, Rachmaninov, Berg, Satie, etc.


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