I happened to notice when a certain poll first surveyed, there were about 30 individuals who said Beethoven's Ninth wasn't their favorite piece, and how many said it was? That number was of course, zero. We can understand why most people don't consider the greatest piece on Talk Classical polls, their favorite, in fact it makes total sense.
Let's go back to an older sample of our favorite composers. It seemed unanimous that everyone chose Chopin as one of their favorites, he was on everyone's list, and this makes him still one of the elite on Talk Classical, yet on each list individually he was low. His name still skyrocketed to the top of the final list.
Analyzing the Ninth with this in mind, what makes such a work unable to hit the very top of the individual preference? Well, it's unanimously very close, and that's what makes the Ninth the top piece, but if 100 is the greatest and none have reached 100, we go with the next best thing. A piece that's almost there. Statistics aside, let's finally explore these individual reasons we consider certain pieces and composers better than the average best, and why it makes sense to us personally.
Compare Bach's Mass and WTC, or Beethoven as a composer, feeling free to denote in either of these circumstances why you make preference for another instead, however I'll provide for you an analogy of why that might be. It's clear that individuals find perfection in ideas unique to them, and while others might not understand the greatness of them, they still exist nevertheless as subjective benchmarks of absolute individual perfection. Sometimes in marrying these ideas or descriptors we reach a greater sense of objectivity, but the pieces that marry them often don't reach us as favorites. They end up at the top of the great hall only for a wider appeal, especially those that chose the right few aspects to draw a wider audience in.
I want to start with a sense of perfection in certain individual descriptors that a great piece can reach. For the first descriptor, some favorites of mine often have a flawless sense of classical form and counterpoint--I think particularly of, Beethoven's Third and Sixth symphony. The Ninth also has this sprawled and epic sensibility compared to these works--it really marries both brilliant classical form with epic and imaginative evocation, and even grander celebration.
To really summarize everything so far, the Ninth balances and captures two or more of the greatest aspects in music, and therefore reaches a wider audience and vote. Its second aspect or descriptor, that broad sense of expression or adventure, has on its own been perfected for me in the likes of works like Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. Classical form and counterpoint has been accomplished flawlessly by the Eroica and Pastoral of Beethoven, both also celebratory in nature. Beethoven marries these greatest concepts above and more, for the first time in composing the Ninth, and is this result better than those that focused individually on one?
I can only form these above preferences and analogies in regards to why my ears might gravitate to music, not why others enjoy these works, but the actual gravitation itself inevitably must begin with what my ears simply enjoy to begin with: the pieces that captured these elements best separately. Yet I still wonder if there's a perfect piece out there that does marry everything one enjoys, and if so, please share it and try explaining, with this in mind: Descriptors of perfection tend to be inevitably quite subjective and varied. I once pointed out that harmonically, a very overlooked composer was my favorite, and have had to acknowledge for a long time that people don't agree and it's still never changed my opinion. If a work is limited into certain descriptors it may not reach a wider appeal by doing everything, but for those who appreciate what it does, it is absolute in ingenuity and focus. It is often that unfocused works will enter a higher status of fame and acknowledgement, but for doing more things not as well.
This in conclusion, is how we may often reach The Greatest Pieces and Composers, that still are not our top personal favorites. But what those perfect descriptors are, like the many in the Ninth, may be different for someone and indicate greater inspiration for other pieces. So which favorite piece of yours fits your ideal focus, compared to a similar more widely-esteemed work?
Let's go back to an older sample of our favorite composers. It seemed unanimous that everyone chose Chopin as one of their favorites, he was on everyone's list, and this makes him still one of the elite on Talk Classical, yet on each list individually he was low. His name still skyrocketed to the top of the final list.
Analyzing the Ninth with this in mind, what makes such a work unable to hit the very top of the individual preference? Well, it's unanimously very close, and that's what makes the Ninth the top piece, but if 100 is the greatest and none have reached 100, we go with the next best thing. A piece that's almost there. Statistics aside, let's finally explore these individual reasons we consider certain pieces and composers better than the average best, and why it makes sense to us personally.
Compare Bach's Mass and WTC, or Beethoven as a composer, feeling free to denote in either of these circumstances why you make preference for another instead, however I'll provide for you an analogy of why that might be. It's clear that individuals find perfection in ideas unique to them, and while others might not understand the greatness of them, they still exist nevertheless as subjective benchmarks of absolute individual perfection. Sometimes in marrying these ideas or descriptors we reach a greater sense of objectivity, but the pieces that marry them often don't reach us as favorites. They end up at the top of the great hall only for a wider appeal, especially those that chose the right few aspects to draw a wider audience in.
I want to start with a sense of perfection in certain individual descriptors that a great piece can reach. For the first descriptor, some favorites of mine often have a flawless sense of classical form and counterpoint--I think particularly of, Beethoven's Third and Sixth symphony. The Ninth also has this sprawled and epic sensibility compared to these works--it really marries both brilliant classical form with epic and imaginative evocation, and even grander celebration.
To really summarize everything so far, the Ninth balances and captures two or more of the greatest aspects in music, and therefore reaches a wider audience and vote. Its second aspect or descriptor, that broad sense of expression or adventure, has on its own been perfected for me in the likes of works like Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. Classical form and counterpoint has been accomplished flawlessly by the Eroica and Pastoral of Beethoven, both also celebratory in nature. Beethoven marries these greatest concepts above and more, for the first time in composing the Ninth, and is this result better than those that focused individually on one?
I can only form these above preferences and analogies in regards to why my ears might gravitate to music, not why others enjoy these works, but the actual gravitation itself inevitably must begin with what my ears simply enjoy to begin with: the pieces that captured these elements best separately. Yet I still wonder if there's a perfect piece out there that does marry everything one enjoys, and if so, please share it and try explaining, with this in mind: Descriptors of perfection tend to be inevitably quite subjective and varied. I once pointed out that harmonically, a very overlooked composer was my favorite, and have had to acknowledge for a long time that people don't agree and it's still never changed my opinion. If a work is limited into certain descriptors it may not reach a wider appeal by doing everything, but for those who appreciate what it does, it is absolute in ingenuity and focus. It is often that unfocused works will enter a higher status of fame and acknowledgement, but for doing more things not as well.
This in conclusion, is how we may often reach The Greatest Pieces and Composers, that still are not our top personal favorites. But what those perfect descriptors are, like the many in the Ninth, may be different for someone and indicate greater inspiration for other pieces. So which favorite piece of yours fits your ideal focus, compared to a similar more widely-esteemed work?
