Do you have prejudices regarding any composer?

Yes, but I can think of only a few offhand

I am reticent to wholeheartedly embrace the music of composers whose music is deeply nationalistic, eg., the slew of Slavic composers with all of their folk melodies. Smetana comes to mind (I recently added Dvořák to my hearem and have discovered some of Janáček's later works, however).

The English school of composers (I mentioned them in another thread yesterday), Elgar, Walton, Bax (actually Irish, I believe), Vaughan Williams and likely others, seem a bit nationalistic and stodgy (Elgar's chamber music turns out to be very nice, however, what little I have heard, as well as the Concertos; and I have received a most promising recommendation for an opera by Vaughan Williams recently).

I cannot locate the details, but, if my memory is correct, Vincent d'Indy was instrumental in ousting Camille Saint-Saëns from his position in some musical society. He showed himself to be such an @$$ that I have written him off. Luckily, his music is not much performed these days, anyway.

I don't wish to constantly have to come back to this, but American composers continually display that American sound, for want of a more precise term. As soon as I hear it, it's over between us. Copland, in his populist phase (his early output is surprisingly interesting!), raises hairs all over my body. The minimalists similarly. They sound like diluted classical music, intended to appeal to pop audiences, to give them a feeling of culture. As I stated elsewhere, I have discovered a few pieces that sound okay, but I'm interested in composers who are on my wave length, whose output I embrace rabidly, as opposed to composers who manage to write an occasional piece that is just okay.

There are probably a few others. All in all, I am quite accepting and open to most composers and their works and am continually breaking down my prejudices and adding even more composers to my collection and ears. Opera is subject to a recent campaign in this direction, for example, as are composers mentioned above and elsewhere.

Man, you guys are naming all my favorite composers, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky in particular. I love Rachmaninov's dramatic flowing melodies that are found in his piano concerti and symphonies, but I can see how someone would find them "Disneyish"; sometimes they do sound like they could be the soundtrack to an emotional romantic movie.

But anyway, I guess I've had some prejudice against Wagner; I thought I'd find his operas a bit grating and tedious from some of the samples I'd heard. But there were numerous times when I heard an amazing orchestral piece on the radio and said to myself (what was that?!), after I was blown away by it. And I was surprised to find out it was an excerpt from one of Wagner's operas. After actually listening to two of his operas in full (Tristan and Tannhäuser), Wagner has become one of my all-time favorite opera composers. (And my prejudice against him surprisingly was only about music).

I do seem to have instant prejudice against any contemporary composers who use electronic instruments in their classical music, however. Doesn't mean I'll never give it a chance, but it's pretty much at the bottom of my list of music to get into. I also seem to be uninterested in exploring minimalism. That may change, however, as I'm always exploring new sub-genres.

SweetJesus said:

I can't stand Tchaikovsky since the very beginning. Too Disney-ish for me most of the time. So I kind of look somewhere else whenever our paths cross. I know it's bad and all of that, but I am sure some of you have the same unavoidable feeling about some other composers. :devil:

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It's fascinating that Tchaikovsky is "too Disney-ish", considering the composer died a full eight years before Walter Elias Disney was born. Perhaps if you contended that Disney was too Tchaikovsky-ish, your prejudice would gain greater validity. But Disney was less a composer than a cartoonist, and Tchaikovsky much more a composer than ever a cartoonist. I would also contend that Tchaikovsky was much more of a composer than ever was Disney as a cartoonist. But this is rather like comparing apples and oranges, or Russian ballet and mice.
Which might reveal a prejudice I have for a certain Russian composer.
Few composers move my heart in the way Tchaikovsky can. The Sixth Symphony (seeming to me a rewriting of Beethoven's triumphal Fifth) remains as stunning a portrait about wrestling with destiny, a destiny which crushes the protagonist and leaves him shattered and devastated, as was ever devised in art. It plumbs emotional heights and depths which Disney, at his most creative, could only glance at.
Yet, this same composer gave us the joyous Nutcracker and the Capriccio Italien, two phenomenal piano concerti and a to-die-for violin concerto. If I find any shortcomings in Tchaikovsky's work, I rather chalk them up to my own lack of understanding. My prejudice for Pyotr Ilyich includes giving him the benefit of the doubt.

If I have prejudices towards the negative concerning music -- that is, prejudices towards music I don't like, I would name rap, hip-hop, and much minimalism. But I'm not so closed minded to not be prepared to listen to fostering arguments for these genres as music, should there be one out there who can eloquently make the case. I'm all ears.