# Is There a Picasso in CM?



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Bright colors with melodies that have some comedic value? For solo piano too, if you can.

https://uploads7.wikiart.org/images/pablo-picasso/bullfight-1934.jpg


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Sergei Prokofiev.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> Sergei Prokofiev.


Thanks. Just added all his solo piano works to my piano music playlist!  I scanned a piece, and I hear it. Thank you.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Bright colors with melodies that have some comedic value? For solo piano too, if you can.
> 
> https://uploads7.wikiart.org/images/pablo-picasso/bullfight-1934.jpg


Howard Skempton


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

when I looked at the image, the first composer that came to my mind was Milhaud. Here is solo piano


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)




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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Mandryka said:


> Howard Skempton


He's interesting too! I listened to a prelude of his, it fit the bill nicely.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I had another idea - Kurtag’s Jatekok.

But there’s someone who fits the bill even better, for comedic but interesting solo piano, when I remember I’ll post.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I nominate *Stravinsk*y: popular with a mass audience but still producing challenging music of the highest order, and he went through several stylist changes - all traits I also associate with Picasso.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Mandryka said:


> I had another idea - Kurtag's Jatekok.
> 
> But there's someone who fits the bill even better, for comedic but interesting solo piano, when I remember I'll post.


Remembered - Chris Newman.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Satie.... maybe??


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Mandryka said:


> I had another idea - Kurtag's Jatekok.
> 
> But there's someone who fits the bill even better, for comedic but interesting solo piano, when I remember I'll post.


Listened to the first to pieces from the work, it blew my mind. I've never heard anything like that, thank you!


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

"Is There a Picasso in CM?"

Th obvious answer is Stravinsky as they were approximate contemporaries, both lived long lives, and went through many stylistic changes. I think they may have known one another in Paris back in the 1920s when Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas and other in that circle made Paris the cultural hub of the solar system during that time.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

premont said:


> Satie.... maybe??


I would think so. He actually collaborated with Picasso on Parade and Mercure. That sounds like a stamp of approval. Parade is full of bright colors and melodies with comedic value.

Also, his piano music after his Rosicrucian phase (like Descriptions Automatiques) can be said to be of a cubist construction.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

hammeredklavier said:


>


Thanks, I have all his works already.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Poulenc seems to fit too.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Stravinsky...excelled at all the different styles ...like Picasso.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

In a magazine article published in the 1920s Ezra Pound referred to George Antheil as the musical counterpart of Picasso. Antheil later called Pound "the world's foremost expert in genius".


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

SanAntone said:


> I nominate *Stravinsk*y: popular with a mass audience but still producing challenging music of the highest order, and he went through several stylist changes - all traits I also associate with Picasso.


That was my choice, too. He stands tall across the century in the same way that Picasso did.


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## HerbertNorman (Jan 9, 2020)

Heck148 said:


> Stravinsky...excelled at all the different styles ...like Picasso.


I would choose him too


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Stravinsky has some very interesting melodies, thanks for the rec guys! I had really only been familiar with Rite of Spring and Firebird.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Just as a statistic, Prokofiev produced roughly 30% more works than Stravinsky over his lifetime, so that to the extent that Picasso is noted for variety of styles and for sheer quantity of output, Prokofiev might be an equal fit to Picasso. Variety of Prokofievan styles multiplied by number of works equals a metric which may match or exceed the same metric as Stravinsky.


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## HerbertNorman (Jan 9, 2020)

I am very interested in the visual arts too ... Comparing a composer to one who does visual art is not evident. But viewing the times and the fact that they knew each other , Stravinsky and Picasso are comparable in the way they changed their approach to their art and style. I mean they had an influence on each other too imho. 

They were so good at what they did , created ... whatever style it was in...


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Insofar as Picasso tore apart his world and reconstructed it in a new vision I would consider Arnold Schoenberg the composer most alike him.


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## HerbertNorman (Jan 9, 2020)

https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2009/mar/19/stravinsky-picasso-past-rivals


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Strange Magic said:


> Just as a statistic, Prokofiev produced roughly 30% more works than Stravinsky over his lifetime, so that to the extent that Picasso is noted for variety of styles and for sheer quantity of output, Prokofiev might be an equal fit to Picasso. Variety of Prokofievan styles multiplied by number of works equals a metric which may match or exceed the same metric as Stravinsky.


But Prokofiev, for all that I love a lot of his music, lacks the sheer stature (and originality) of Stravinsky and Picasso?


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

premont said:


> Satie.... maybe??


Perhaps Satie is more akin to Salvador Dalì... many of his pieces have a dreamlike quality, and he certainly gave them very surreal titles


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Enthusiast said:


> But Prokofiev, for all that I love a lot of his music, lacks the sheer stature (and originality) of Stravinsky and Picasso?


Granted that Prokofiev did not range as far afield as Stravinsky, there is the factor of "mass" appeal. Once one is past the three big early ballet scores, for many (certainly this TC audience is different), Stravinsky has shot his bolt. And there have been criticisms that Stravinsky later dabbled in certain genres in an attempt to play catch-up baseball with other composers who he perhaps felt were moving beyond him. Prokofiev I think continued to compose big, excellent (and more popular) work right up to the day he died. In that sense he more closely mirrors Picasso.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

^ In the spirit of play rather than argument the same criticism was levelled at Picasso. In both cases it is surely wrong. But I agree that far too many people think they know Stravinsky from those three early ballet. If any of his music is less than typical of his voice it is probably them! But it is remarkable how all his varied work always sounds distinctively Stravinsky. The same it true of Picasso, of course.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Enthusiast said:


> ^ In the spirit of play rather than argument the same criticism was levelled at Picasso. In both cases it is surely wrong. But I agree that far too many people think they know Stravinsky from those three early ballet. If any of his music is less than typical of his voice it is probably them! But it is remarkable how all his varied work always sounds distinctively Stravinsky. The same it true of Picasso, of course.


Even moreso with Prokofiev. His music was less all over the map than Stravinky's and hence holds together more as the product of a clearly identifiable personality. His what I call harum-scarum music (he called it scherzo-ish/joking music) figures in much of his work.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

I don't see a big parallel between Prokofiev and Picasso...I love Prokofiev's music, but I don't hear the diversity of styles, the mastery of so many different styles and techniques that we see with Picasso and hear with Stravinsky.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Strange Magic said:


> Even moreso with Prokofiev. His music was less all over the map than Stravinky's and hence holds together more as the product of a clearly identifiable personality. His what I call harum-scarum music (he called it scherzo-ish/joking music) figures in much of his work.


I don't recognise Stravinsky in your description "all over the map". I know a lot of his music and cannot think of a single piece that I would not recognise instantly as his. He would be a prime example of a composer with a very distinctive voice to me.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Enthusiast said:


> I don't recognise Stravinsky in your description "all over the map". I know a lot of his music and cannot think of a single piece that I would recognise instantly as his. He would be a prime example of a composer with a very distinctive voice to me.


Is the word "not" missing somewhere in your post?


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

^ Ooh yes. Thanks!


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