# Who's your hero?



## ethanjamesescano (Aug 29, 2012)

for me, my hero is Bach
without the 12 equal temperament, the harpsichord (and other keyboard instruments) could only play certain keys.
now share who's your hero and why?


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

Why do people have to have a hero? If anything a person's hero should be themselves? Or if you need to have someone to inspire you it's probably healthier and more realistic to have it among quite a few different people, as nobody is perfect except to fanboys/girls.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

ethanjamesescano said:


> for me, my hero is Bach
> without the 12 equal temperament, the harpsichord (and other keyboard instruments) could only play certain keys.
> now share who's your hero and why?


Bach didn't invent, nor use, TET. It had been theorized for a while by Bach's time, but was not even approximated for a little bit after his death. It was only truly achieved far later.

Why not just admire Bach for his inventiveness, his ability to fuse seemingly disparate regional styles, and his impeccable sense of form and balance? That seems enough to me.


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## Karabiner (Apr 1, 2013)

The Well-Tempered Clavier is actually better when played in an unequal temperament in my opinion, the subtle differences between keys make it more interesting. As Mahlerian said, if Bach is your hero then let it be because of his mastery of composition and not for inventing something that he didn't.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Carl Sagan is my hero. The man was so eloquent and, in spite of promoting hard science, among the most spiritual of humans I have ever heard speak.

My musical heroes are legion. Beethoven, Stravinsky, Zappa, Bach, Medtner, Ian Anderson, Handel, Ligeti, Tony Iommi, Martinu, Berg, Vaughan-Williams, etc. Not in that order.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Tony Iommi???

The rest yes.


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## Schubussy (Nov 2, 2012)

What's wrong with Tony Iommi?


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

He's not a virtuoso exactly, for the obvious reasons of lacking a couple of fingertips, but the man's endless supply of expressive scarey riffs are instantly recognizable. There is no one else quite like him.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Jesus is my hero.

Glazunov is His side-kick.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Jesus is my hero.
> 
> Glazunov is His side-kick.


You have superlative taste in heroes.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Weston said:


> He's not a virtuoso exactly, for the obvious reasons of lacking a couple of fingertips, but the man's endless supply of expressive scarey riffs are instantly recognizable. There is no one else quite like him.


.....................


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

the best heroes have the most faces.
up to a thousand.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

George Washington. The real man, not the marble stick figure we were taught about in school.
Richard Wagner, only for his music. I doubt if I could have liked him personally.
Brigham Young
Louis Moreau Gottschalk


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## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

MOZART,BEETHOVEN,DVORAK,TCHAIKOVSKY ,ELGAR are my heros.They make great music.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

I suppose a composer might have a musical inspiration because that could inspire them onto doing music, I'm not sure how much that relates to a non-composer listener though except in some passed down assumptions_ in most cases_.

On Sagan I saw his Royal Institute Christmas Lectures from 1977 recently (about the unmanned space probes at the time), he can be quite funny.


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## ethanjamesescano (Aug 29, 2012)

Kleinzeit said:


> View attachment 19522
> 
> 
> the best heroes have the most faces.
> up to a thousand.


is that Joseph Campbell's theory?


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## Picander (May 8, 2013)

I don't have any hero, but my "antihero" is Don Quixote because I like (a lot) this masterpiece written by Richard Strauss.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

better ask me whose here _I_ am


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## butt (Jun 13, 2013)

For sure my Hero is Eminem.. Love the way he liess


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## chalkpie (Oct 5, 2011)

My father, my mother, my grandfather, Ives, Zappa, Tim Smith, Mahler, Ligeti, Coltrane, Ian Anderson, Shostakovich, and children battling cancer.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

My hero is Charles Ives. To have the strength to continue to compose and create, when all of your compositions end up in a trunk unperformed is a superhuman feat of courage and determination. I aspire to be like that. We could all use a little bit of that in this big wide world of stupid.

We need to lay down some smartness for the future.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

I've always found it difficult to have a musical hero. If I had to pick, however, it would be none other than:


GLENN GOULD


wait,...toss up wth EARL WiLD. The two finest pianists the world has been kind enough to bless us with.


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

Beethoven - I marvel at the inner strength he must have had. Strength, defiance, resolution, and on top of that, it seems, some genuine love, love despite everything.

Schoenberg - To think that he was willing to expose himself to universal ridicule when he went all out with his twelve-tone system. What conviction and determination.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Varese - of course, Zappa, Harry Partch, Peter Green, Joe Jackson, Billy Thorpe, Johannes Ockeghem, Carlo Gesualdo and Léonin. Apart from Varese in no particular order.


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

That cat Carlo's a baaad mutha

Shut yo mouf!

...I was only talking Gesualdo....

we know!


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Varese - of course, Zappa, Harry Partch, Peter Green, Joe Jackson, Billy Thorpe, Johannes Ockeghem, Carlo Gesualdo and Léonin. Apart from Varese in no particular order.


I have to say Billy Thorpe comes as a big surprise to me, but I know only know of his song _Children of the Sun_ which I secretly loved because of the cheesy effects and wide dynamics. I know he did a lot of other styles. Peter Green is a good choice. A musician's musician, whatever that means.


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## Sudonim (Feb 28, 2013)

Andreas said:


> Schoenberg - To think that he was willing to expose himself to universal ridicule when he went all out with his twelve-tone system. What conviction and determination.


I tend not to have many "heroes," but this quality is something I do admire in artists. Besides Schoenberg, in jazz I've admired Ornette Coleman and (even more so) Cecil Taylor for the same reason. To pursue your artistic vision when there is a loud chorus of derision attending your every move - some of it even from other musicians - must take a great deal of confidence and conviction.


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## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

Heroes? Wow...

When I was very very young, Beethoven was. 

Later on, Bach and with Bach, everything was OK until I met Mozart's music; but also, his music is beyond heroism.

Likewise I have Keith Jarrett as an outstanding pianist. He has a special place among my favourite musicians.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

deggial said:


> better ask me whose here _I_ am


Oh,you are certainly my hero from Wood Green--innit?


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

kv466 said:


> I've always found it difficult to have a musical hero. If I had to pick, however, it would be none other than:
> 
> GLENN GOULD
> 
> wait,...toss up wth EARL WiLD. The two finest pianists the world has been kind enough to bless us with.


Who would have guessed it,my oh my!
My like is, as you know,actually not split in two, it's for one and not the other.


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## AClockworkOrange (May 24, 2012)

Musically Freddy Mercury and Ronnie James Dio for fighting through illness to continue recording/performing until they physically couldn't rather than simply letting their respective illnesses break their spirits. Neither complained, they simply got on and did it. 

Having seen close up what Cancer can do before it takes an individual from us (two close relatives to that vile illness), that Dio was not only able to finish the tour but do so whilst maintaining his performances is incredible.

Even without their illnesses both of these singers would b heroes to me. Tony Iommi likewise is a phenomenal guitarist - not necessarily a virtuoso to some but his ability to improvise to continue playing in his early days after the industrial accident and his consistent ability to write guitar riffs stand out, his abilities as a soloist are also excellent - frequently overlooked sadly. He is a virtuoso as far I am concerned. Fingers crossed he will beat the cancer, all the best to him.


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

Ludwig Van Beethoven, he faced more difficulty in his life than most ever will and still he decided to conquer those obsticles and he did!


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Thomas Edison, among a tiny handful of others.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Weston said:


> I have to say Billy Thorpe comes as a big surprise to me, but I know only know of his song _Children of the Sun_ which I secretly loved because of the cheesy effects and wide dynamics. I know he did a lot of other styles. Peter Green is a good choice. A musician's musician, whatever that means.


If you lived in Australia, Billy would not be a surprise. You might be surprised to know that Children of the Sun was a big flop for him in his home land of Oz. Below is a clip of how we remember him in Oz. Billy started out here in the very early sixties doing early Beatles type stuff- even knocking them of the top of the charts here for awhile- then progressed into heavy rock - then electronic type stuff (as per you might know him in the US), then was in Mick Fleetwood's band for awhile. then went back in OZ and continued the legend. RIP Billy.


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## wzg (Jun 17, 2013)

Shostakovich, who defeated Stalin with his music...


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

My hero would have been any man who decked the reactionary critic Eduard Hanslick. Such was the arrogance of this malevolent little weasel I'm surprised he didn't appoint himself Arbiter of Taste Without Portfolio.


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

wzg said:


> Shostakovich, who defeated Stalin with his music...


He did, but man was it a damned close-run thing at times!


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## IBMchicago (May 16, 2012)

Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Da Vinci, Mozart.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Musically, I think Brahms. When I think of how to do art, Brahms seems to be the nearest of the really famous composers to the way I'd like to do it if I could - a seamless weave of contemporary aesthetics with traditional aesthetics. Plus, he believed in nothing, which I can appreciate.

Edit: Figured out my non-music hero while I was in the shower. In _No Country for Old Men_, there's a woman who works in the office of the trailer park who refuses to give Anton Chigurh any information, and she doesn't take any crap from him either. That woman is my hero.

Here she is:


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

My heroes - great reformers like Wilberforce, Shaftsbury, Barnardo, Fry, etc
Most of the civil rights we enjoy now had their genesis with these people.


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## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

science said:


> Musically, I think Brahms. When I think of how to do art, Brahms seems to be the nearest of the really famous composers to the way I'd like to do it if I could - a seamless weave of contemporary aesthetics with traditional aesthetics. Plus, he believed in nothing, which I can appreciate.
> 
> Edit: Figured out my non-music hero while I was in the shower. In _No Country for Old Men_, there's a woman who works in the office of the trailer park who refuses to give Anton Chigurh any information, and she doesn't take any crap from him either. That woman is my hero.
> 
> Here she is:


The sheriff meets Chigurh only once in the movie, near the end: they watch each other's movement in reflection of the motel door's shiny lock tube.
When the Sheriff opens the door, why is Chigurh not there? I had to watch that scene 10 times before I saw the OBVIOUS CLUE.


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## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

I always admired Felix Mendelssohn because he was a German Jew.


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