To which composer(s) belong(s) your three favorite fugues?
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I also voted Bach.Let's test J.S. Bach's supremacy in the field here at TC.
If you select other(s), please tell us who.
If you had written "To which composer belong your fifty favorite fugues?" my answer would still be Bach.
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I know why Bernstein is there. I'm not gonna answer this poll. I also don't feel the need to "test Bach's supremacy" as that is history also confirmed by competend scholars and composers.
This is a poll. There are polls of all kinds around here, and I see no harm in making one about fugues. You participate if you wish, of course.
Bernstein said that Beethoven never wrote a good fugue, so I assume that he must have better ones and, considering that Beethoven has a single option for him here, I think that it's fair that Bernstein also have one. He is a composer after all, and I don't know why his presence in the poll should be a problem.
If the talking is just about counterpoint and nothing else (not fugues), then I think that J.S. Bach has competition from the Renaissance masters such as Palestrina, Tallis, Josquin, Victoria and others.
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No comment. Do not expect any other replies from me. I'm not gonna push this further, as in the Haydn's vs Mozart's symphonies thread you have clearly completely misunderstood my words as an attack on Beethoven (which is one of my and Bernstein's favourite composers...) and that is the reason of this poll's existence. Goodbye.
Umm...........
No, not really.
Well, to each their own, but I think that there's a reason for the Renaissance to be called The Golden Age of Polyphony. This said, I of course acknowledge Bach's genius for counterpoint, and it's no surprise to me that he is leading this poll (I voted for him here by the way).
I think that your response to our little disagreement is being a bit disproportional and exaggerated. But you do as you wish. I suggest you to not get too personal in discussions such as this, and apologize if my defense of Beethoven annoyed you somehow.
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Beethoven.
Bach might have my 30 favorite fugues as fugues. But Beethoven has a few pieces that happen to be fugal and I prefer them clearly to even my favorite dozen or so of Bach fugues: op.133, op.131,i, op.106,iv would be my 3 favourite instrumental, then op.110, finale and the two great vocal ones (in "vitam venturi saeculi" and in "gloria dei patris" from op.123. Of course there are lots of other good ones, two in the Diabellis, the variations op.35, op.102 etc., the C major mass, but I don't rate them as highly,
Bach might have my 30 favorite fugues as fugues. But Beethoven has a few pieces that happen to be fugal and I prefer them clearly to even my favorite dozen or so of Bach fugues: op.133, op.131,i, op.106,iv would be my 3 favourite instrumental, then op.110, finale and the two great vocal ones (in "vitam venturi saeculi" and in "gloria dei patris" from op.123. Of course there are lots of other good ones, two in the Diabellis, the variations op.35, op.102 etc., the C major mass, but I don't rate them as highly,
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Bach and Beethoven... I also like the Shostakovich...
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I have 3.5 recordings of the DSCH P&F but I am a bit on the edge here. After Bach and Beethoven, it would probably be Brahms (Handel variations, 1st cello sonata, vocal music), Handel or assorted single/singular movements, such as the first of Bartok's music for strings, percussion etc., Mozart's c minor for strings, Mendelssohn e minor P&F, maybe Schumann (although my favorite polylphonic Schumann is the canonical studies for pedal piano, technically not fugues, as they manage to sound as "natural" as Bach (and not like striving hard to imitate Bach or Handel or just striving).
I enjoy John Williams' music and think that he is very underrated in this forum. Which fugue by him you had in mind when voting here?
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Given that Williams has many fans here on TC, I can't consider him underrated; if anything, just the opposite.
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Is Shostakovich Op87. Simples.
Perhaps you're right, but I was a bit surprised that even Cage (who most here don't even consider a great composer) almost beat Williams in a poll here some time ago.
I love a great deal of Renaissance composers who composed highly contrapuntal music that in many regards anticipated the fugue (especially the Fantasia and Ricercare genres that were the fugue's direct ancestors). But if we include only the fugue proper, then I think it would be Bach and Shostakovich. But I also have to mention Beethoven and his Große Fuge!
Which fugues by them exactly? That's a much harder question. Sometimes it comes down to my mood.
Which fugues by them exactly? That's a much harder question. Sometimes it comes down to my mood.
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