# Favorite Era(s)



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Mine have to be the Romantic and Impressionism Eras. I like that they feel more artistic to me, at least in the way I see artistic to be. 

I'm listening to the Late String Quartets of Beethoven right now, and it's really speaking to me.

(I'm still searching for what it really is I love about music, so my tastes are changing. However, if I'm being honest with myself, I like music that stands out as unusual and strongly unique).

:tiphat:


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Impressionism wasn’t an era, but a movement in the postromantic/modern era. I recall Debussy didn’t like being called an impressionist. Personally I like the Modern era.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> Impressionism wasn't an era, but a movement in the postromantic/modern era. I recall Debussy didn't like being called an impressionist. Personally I like the Modern era.


Were there other movements?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Phil loves classical said:


> Impressionism wasn't an era, but a movement in the postromantic/modern era. I recall Debussy didn't like being called an impressionist. Personally I like the Modern era.


Debussy was certainly an impressionist, however he felt about being called that. He doesn't get a vote in this.


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## T Son of Ander (Aug 25, 2015)

I hover between early to mid-Baroque and late romantic/early 20th century (postromantic?). I love music from all eras, but those two periods are what I listen to the most. It's hard to pick one favorite. I was looking through my digital library, which keeps track of what you've listened to and when, and for the past several months I've been jumping back and forth between those two the most. It's strange to think that when I was in my 20s, I hardly listened to Baroque at all. But tastes do change over time.

Oh and Ken... I think Debussy *should* get a vote. Someone get a Ouija board!


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

If I had to pinpoint a particular musical timeframe then I'd choose c.1910-1930 - it was a really fertile era for new developments.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Early music through baroque. I'm listening to a Jordi Savall concert at present, of La Folia from Renaissance to Vangelis. It's heavenly. 

There are lots of other classical pieces I listen to from later times, but I come back to this early stuff. 
Why? 
I think because I love the rhythms and ordered structure - you wouldn't think it to look at my desk, but at heart I'm a tidy person. 

The other reason is because baroque music is both of its time and yet, in its perfection & call to platonic ideals, out of its time, and so, when I listen to it, I am lifted beyond time, and briefly in touch with The Eternal.

... or something!...


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

elgars ghost said:


> If I had to pinpoint a particular musical timeframe then I'd choose c.1910-1930 - it was a really fertile era for new developments.


Excellent choice. If we add a few years to each end we can call it the Frank Bridge era


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I like the periods when music was in transition, which is all of them. If I had to choose a favorite it might be the first half of the 20th century.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

It seems like I gravitate to late Romantic and 20th Century because I like sound, and that is the era of large orchestras with their tonal colors and the emphasis on sound for its own sake.


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

About 1930 - present.


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

Chris said:


> Excellent choice. If we add a few years to each end we can call it the Frank Bridge era


Or the Alban Berg era.


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## josquindesprez (Aug 20, 2017)

I'm with Ingélou. Nothing against Romanticism, but the Renaissance and the Baroque (with some exceptions) are phenomenal, with the development of isorhythm and polyphony, and the blending of voice with instrument in some of the later Baroque works, such as Zelenka. I never found much of interest in most works from the Classical era, other than some very early composers like Pergolesi, and while I enjoy the Romantics and the Moderns, I'm not so much into bombast, and the further I get into music the further into its origins I want to go.


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## Gordontrek (Jun 22, 2012)

On this, I'm with the OP. Late Romanticism and Impressionism are definitely my favorite musical eras, and in my opinion they represent the apex of classical music. Closely following these two would be the 20th century in general, specifically post-impressionism and neoclassicism. Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Brahms, Ravel, Stravinsky are probably my most listened-to composers.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

About 1913 (premiere of the Rite of Spring) to the present.


Most of my listening is from the mid 20th century, to the present.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Romantic era mostly but to widen it from Classical era until present.


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## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

I enjoy the present era the best because it is the only era in which all these other choices exist.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

JeffD said:


> I enjoy the present era the best because it is the only era in which all these other choices exist.


Cheating is fun! :lol:


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## Michael Diemer (Nov 12, 2017)

Another vote for late 19th- to early 20th-century. But for background music, I could listen to Baroque all day. Odd how it just never gets old.


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## Taplow (Aug 13, 2017)

1. Mid-late baroque
2. Mid-late romantic

I'm just a mid-late kind of guy.


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

Romanticism, Post-romanticism and partially 20th century.


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## R3PL4Y (Jan 21, 2016)

The whole 20th century. Nowhere else in music has the same amount of depth and variety of composers. You have everything from Mahler's late Romanticism and the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel to the neoclassicism of Stravinsky and Hindemith, serialism with Berg, Webern, and Schoenberg, high romanticism of Elgar and Rachmaninoff, nationalism of Bartok, and so much more. Also, I am primary a listener of orchestral music, and the quantity and quality of orchestral music from the 20th century is unmatched anywhere else in music.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I'll give three answers with differing assumptions.

1) Classical Era.

My favorite two composers are from this era and Haydn is not too far down the list. I'm not sure I've ever heard a work from this era that I did not enjoy. 

2) Romantic Era

Depending on exactly what time period one chooses, there are more works I adore from this era than any other. 

3) Modern/Contemporary (maybe mid-20th century - present)

The vast majority of my listening focuses on this time period. I can't seem to get enough of the wonderful range of sounds that come from this period. There is so much variety, and while many works do not interest me, there is an abundance of music I find fascinating, compelling, and beautiful.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

mmsbls said:


> I'll give three answers with differing assumptions.
> 
> 1) Classical Era.
> 
> ...


Nicely done. :tiphat:


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## Harmonie (Mar 24, 2007)

My favorites are Early Music, Baroque, and whatever era encompasses French Impressionism, Stravinsky, Holst, etc. I also really like Classic, but I think over the years it has fallen slightly below these eras for me.

I'm not big on Romanticism for reasons I never have really figured out, and past Stravinsky, I just don't really like much of anything at all.


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