# Style versus substance



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I think that in classical music, as in pop, we tend to be very forgiving of music written in the styles we like. I happily admit to liking some classical-era pieces that most might regard as real yawners, and being bored poopless by possibly excellent works in the late 19th-century idiom by English or American composers.

How about you? Are there styles of music that lead you to forgive transgressions, or perhaps to ignore excellence?


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

I'll forgive more than most in listening to second-string German/Austrian late romantics like Franz Schmidt or Max Reger. I find Schmidt's Fourth Symphony to be a stirring work, but it's thickly scored and chromatic from here to who knows where...


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Of course. I like what I like and I seek it out. I experiment with things outside my realm of fascination, but I come back home for my fix of ecstasy. I can't think of anything I like that would be considered a "real yawner," as I don't know which pieces are considered such. I tend to be most receptive to what I call a European sound (I know it when I hear it, but I cannot define it); when I hear what I call an American sound (ditto), my interest diminishes proportionally.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

It's not just style, but also instrumentation. I'm a fan of classical guitar, but much of its repertoire is essentially lightweight music of the kind I would normally not spend much time on. But somehow, the instrument itself ennobles the music of, say, Giuliani or Sor.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

It kind of crosses a lot of different styles, but the type of music I tend to turn away from I can best characterize as (subjectively) "uninteresting.". These can include "pretty but uninteresting" (Delius, say), "monumental but uninteresting" (for me, a lot of Bruckner), "busy but uninteresting" (French Romantic violin concerti), "dull and uninteresting" (name your poison) . . . You get the idea.


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## Dustin (Mar 30, 2012)

Well not necessarily style, but I do tend to forgive less than great solo piano pieces. I've always been hugely attracted to the sound of a grand piano, ESPECIALLY if it's a live performance and I'm there. It's a shame that even with high quality headphones, the experience of being in the same room as a grand piano can't even be closely replicated.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

This is nearly impossible when assessing one's self, but I am fairly certain that my attention always goes "to that man behind the curtain," i.e. the person, not their clothes.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Yes, I am more forgiving of *Early Music* in particular. The genre has a fascinating 'strangeness' about it that compensates for any shortcomings in a particular piece, plus I feel it would be churlish to turn away from something which had the good luck to survive.  I also love the *Baroque Style* & am more forgiving of pedestrian pieces there, *provided* they do not go on too long.

Oddly enough, my major musical passion is folk music, and there I am very *un*forgiving. If it's a run-of-the-mill hornpipe or strathspey, I can't be doing with it, not when there are so many dazzle-your-skull pieces available.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

If you like a style a lot then pieces which are really well crafted and performed (like earlier, simpler works) are likely to impress you more than for somebody who dips into it much less. And classical music does have a lot of well crafted work. But I still think a piece which is pretty generic and uncreative can bore both types of people, also those who don't know a style well may just latch onto things which are famous and considered more ambitious and unfairly pass over some lesser known works. Hero worship to me is separate from having a favourite style, it's like a social thing of wanting to team up behind someone with others.


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

I share Ingelou's thoughts exactly when it comes to Early Music and Baroque. Just about anything played on those early ensembles can be very alluring, even the most frivolous little jig. Likewise the a capella coral music of the Renaissance.

I am probably less forgiving when dealing with later music, e.g. Romanticism, as that's where works can start to sound derivative. Given that the whole point of Romanticism is for each composer to find a distinctive means of expression, I don't really have time for cheap imitations.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

Winterreisender said:


> Given that the whole point of Romanticism is for each composer to find a distinctive means of expression


But did everyone agree with that anyway? It was no doubt in _some_ artistic manifestos, but they are often different to what is actually practised.


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

starry said:


> But did everyone agree with that anyway? It was no doubt in _some_ artistic manifestos, but they are often different to what is actually practised.


Most of the Romantic composers worth listening seem to have a pretty distinctive style, in my opinion. I would be interested if you could think of some examples to the contrary.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Rossini keeps challenging me in how much can I forgive him, constantly. I'm doing my best.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I know at least half the symphonies of Myaskovsky well, along with Lyatoshynsky, Shchedrin, etc. I also know about 25 concertos by CPE Bach. And every album Henry Cow ever recorded. I rest my case.


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## Guest (Jan 15, 2014)

KenOC said:


> we tend to be very forgiving of music written in the styles we like.


Do we? I don't know that "we" do. I certainly know that I don't. If anything, I am more forgiving of music written in styles I don't like, probably because I care less about whether those things exist or not/succeed or not.



KenOC said:


> Are there styles of music that lead you to forgive transgressions, or perhaps to ignore excellence?


When I'm listening to music, I am doing neither one of these things. I'm listening to music. How about you? Do you listen to music or are you looking for excellencies and trangressions? (Does every situation consist of two options and two only?)*

*Interesting side note: the idea that there are two sides to every issue comes from an exercise in ancient Greek schools in which each thing to be debated was assigned two sides. This was an exercise only, and it was for beginning debaters. A simplification for teaching purposes, not a description of the real world. In the real world, you may have already noticed that some issues only have one side and some have three, four, or seventeen sides.


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