# Who do you prefer: Berg or Gounod?



## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Overall, which or these two composers has music that you like more?


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Berg. I have one Gounod opera which I'm not crazy about. I love Berg's music. Kind of an odd comparison.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Ops, I posted this in the wrong place. Please, someone move this to the _Classical Music Discussion Polls_ subforum.


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## Lilijana (Dec 17, 2019)

Probably Berg but only because his music seems to be more often performed at the moment, owing it to be more frequently seen/heard/kept in my mind. I don't know the last time I saw the name _Gounod_ when I was out and about. Probably for some trailer of 'Faust' but that may have been it. Naturally, I know Gounod's music less well because of it. It's probably unfair of me to vote in the poll considering I know the music of one composer better than another, but even out of the things I _have_ heard by Gounod I _think_ I prefer Berg anyway.

The question did get me thinking about Gounod; thank you for that!

So, what is the poll aspect of the thread for?


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I can't vote. Gounod is more fun but a little more on the surface, and Berg is more impactful and more complex. I think it's too apples and oranges.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

composer jess said:


> Probably Berg but only because his music seems to be more often performed at the moment, owing it to be more frequently seen/heard/kept in my mind. I don't know the last time I saw the name _Gounod_ when I was out and about. Probably for some trailer of 'Faust' but that may have been it. Naturally, I know Gounod's music less well because of it. It's probably unfair of me to vote in the poll considering I know the music of one composer better than another, but even out of the things I _have_ heard by Gounod I _think_ I prefer Berg anyway.
> 
> The question did get me thinking about Gounod; thank you for that!
> 
> *So, what is the poll aspect of the thread for?*





starthrower said:


> Berg. I have one Gounod opera which I'm not crazy about. I love Berg's music.* Kind of an odd comparison.*





Manxfeeder said:


> I can't vote. Gounod is more fun but a little more on the surface, and Berg is more impactful and more complex. *I think it's too apples and oranges.*


I want to know the musical preferences of the members. The link that made me curious about the results of this poll came from the following quote from Berg:

"When I compose, I feel like Beethoven. Only afterwards do I realise that I am at best only a Bizet." - Alban Berg

Edit: ...and I mistakenly made the poll with Gounod instead of Bizet and only now realized that. Ops...


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I went with Gounod mainly because I like his symphonies.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

In opera: Gounod
In everything else: Berg

I prefer everything else.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Manxfeeder said:


> I can't vote. I think it's too apples and oranges.


More like chocolate mousse and sauerkraut. This is some sort of psychological evaluation test. Will I be involuntarily committed if I pick the wrong one?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Merl said:


> I went with Gounod mainly because I like his symphonies.


Not well-known, I suspect, but very pleasing music.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Woodduck said:


> Not well-known, I suspect, but very pleasing music.


I didn't even know he wrote symphonies. I'll have to give a listen to some of these.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

_"Funeral March of a Marionette" (Marche funèbre d'une marionnette) is a short piece by Charles Gounod. It was originally written for solo piano in 1872 and orchestrated in 1879. It is perhaps best known as the theme music for the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

_Since I imprinted on this TV show and its theme music as a pre-school child, this music means more to me than anything I ever heard by Berg. My brain was at an early stage of development, and the music had an indelible impression.

Now? I "prefer" Berg.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

millionrainbows said:


> _"Funeral March of a Marionette" (Marche funèbre d'une marionnette) is a short piece by Charles Gounod. It was originally written for solo piano in 1872 and orchestrated in 1879. It is perhaps best known as the theme music for the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
> 
> _Since I imprinted on this TV show and its theme music as a pre-school child, this music means more to me than anything I ever heard by Berg. My brain was at an early stage of development, and the music had an indelible impression.


Millions of people in their 60s, 70s and 80s will always visualize a rotund silhouette whenever they hear this music. It almost defined Hitchcock's macabre humor, and he made it immortal.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Woodduck said:


> More like chocolate mousse and sauerkraut. This is some sort of psychological evaluation test. *Will I be involuntarily committed if I pick the wrong one?*


No, but you'll receive some Mozart chocolate for the right pick of course!  I'll send it in the 31st day of the next month...


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

starthrower said:


> I didn't even know he wrote symphonies. I'll have to give a listen to some of these.


Try this or Marriner. Both excellent. Very Beethovian influences.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

I voted Gounod.
What on earth do they have in common?


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Rogerx said:


> I voted Gounod.
> What on earth do they have in common?


Composing. I'm not very familiar with pre-20th century French music. A bit of Saint Saens, but nothing else.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

^ One shocking things about Saint-Saens is that a fair bit of his music was written in the 20th century. 

I do know and like a fair bit of Gounod but I certainly like Berg more. Beyond that it seems - only to me? - that even if I preferred Gounod I would still recognise that Berg was a greater composer. Partly this is about their places in history but it is also about Berg's capacity to tell us (so it seems to me) things of much more importance.


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## David Phillips (Jun 26, 2017)

I'd vote for Bizet. Wonderful composer!


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## AeolianStrains (Apr 4, 2018)

I'd take Gounod or Bizet over Berg any day.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Berg wrote great Berg music, and Gounod wrote great Gounod music ….

And that's as far as I got in making a selection from this comparison.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I have some Berg in my library, even some duplicates. I have no Gounod though I have in the past. To me he lacks staying power compared to Berg whose music for me stands up to repeat and comparative listening better...even though Gounod wrote Ave Maria and Faust.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

larold said:


> I have some Berg in my library, even some duplicates. I have no Gounod though I have in the past. To me he lacks staying power compared to Berg whose music for me stands up to repeat and comparative listening better...even though Gounod wrote Ave Maria and Faust.


I tend to agree with this, although I find myself rarely listening to either of them. I suppose my sensibility is more Geman than French (Ned Rorem wrote entertainingly about the difference and identified his own sensibility as French). The Met Opera broadcast _Wozzeck_ recently and I'm glad I heard it (for the first time in many years). If they do _Faust_ I'll probably enjoy that too, likewise after years away from it. But without the broadcasts it would probably be more years before I returned to either work.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

I voted for Gounod, because I like more his music. As importance to music history - development etc. Berg easily wins. A Rossini - Gounod poll should be more to the point. Thanks.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Dimace said:


> A Rossini - Gounod poll should be more to the point.


I agree and would vote for Rossini.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

I like both but it was Gounod I heard in my head first. So Gounod.


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