I listen to a lot of solo piano music, and this period encompasses all of Schubert, Chopin, and Mendelssohn; most of Schumann; and mature Beethoven.
Lately, though, I have also been listening to a lot of 20th/21st century music (largely due to the excellent suggestions I find here). This era may take the lead in the future.
And Bach will always represent a healthy chunk of my listening time as well.
If I were to take my whole life into account the time period would be shifted way back because of my earlier decades of binging on baroque and Beethoven.
Poll is meaningless for me because I listen to music from all of these periods. I checked out my music library and the top twenty composers come from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. They include Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Hindemith and Carter.
One week it may be one period and next week it may be another.
A few weeks ago I was digging on the music for Frank Ticheli, a contemporary composer.
This week it is 1850-1900 because I am digging on Rimsky-Korsakov's Snow Maiden and 1900-1950 because I am listening to Zandonai's opera Francesca da Rimini.
Next week it maybe 1750-1800 and 1800-1850 because I just acquired a set of clarinetist Sabine Meyer performing late 18th century and early 19th century clarinet concertos. One of them is an obscure concerto for Basset Horn by Stamitz.
On a regular basis most of us listen to music from all periods so it is impossible for us to answer this question yet some of our members keep asking it thinking that this time they may get a different answer.
Many of our ears can process music from all centuries not just one. Some of us even have the facility to dig ABBA (Still hate Mama Mia. Barf!).
And really. Most of you all are going to listen to what you want to regardless of my listening habits.
It's difficult to say exactly, as I have pretty large collections of Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and numerous others, but I'd say my listening starts to get pretty heavy around Mahler to Stockhausen.
This was tricky, because I spend a reasonable amount of time listening to each period listed.
It's likely that my recent listening has favoured 21st-century music over others, but I think on balance the first half of the 20th century is a better depiction of where I'm at generally.
Before 1700. I love medieval dance music, tunes by Byrd & Dowland, and I also listen to a lot of the earlier baroque, such as Lawes, Purcell and Lully. However, I do listen to quite a lot of music from 1700-1750 too (Handel, de Fesch), so I had to ponder before I voted.
As for these polls having been posted before, who cares? I'll take any opportunity of 'plugging' early music & baroque!
I voted 1700-1750 simply because of the amount of Bach I know I have listened to over my lifetime. Other than Bach standing out I really couldn't point to a specific time period that is a 'favorite'.
Although I like the late baroque, classical and romantic periods (i.e. c. 1700-1900) the period between c. 1900 and 1950 is my favourite as music moved on so quickly, mirroring similar advances in other arts, science and industry. The diversity within that period is stunning - Saint-Saens and Dvorak still representing the Old Guard in 1900, Varese composing the astonishing Hyperprism less than 25 years later and then...well, you get the drift.
I wonder why 1900-1950 is so far ahead of the other periods. My conjecture is the wide mix of styles from lingering romanticism to wild inaccessible modernism and hints of post-modernism. So maybe this period is eclectic enough to our ears but offers enough recordings to be explored more than more current periods.
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