Rest in peace, Chopin.

It's the 158th anniversary of his death today.

He left the world a richer place.

I'll dedicate today to that pesky etude 10/4 of his ... I'm gonna get it under 2 mins or die trying!

I'll alert the paramedics.

I'll call Richter!

Wow, I completely forgot what today was. Sorry you had to die so young, you made the world worth living in. Rest in peace to the greatest composer of all time.

I beg to differ.

That's not being very nice to the memory of Chopin .

Why, may I ask, do you beg to differ?

Ask anyone on the street to name you a "classical" composer (classical meaning anything dealing with Rachmaninov and earlier)....I bet you $10 that the first to be named will be Bach or Mozart, then Beethoven in a close third.

What does this imply? Well not too much for us Classical fanatics, however, we must consider the response from everyone, regardless if they hold a PHd in Music or only had one year of Music in primary school. The most named person will provide us an understanding on what the populus hears most. (The 3 mentioned above).

Now, what about MY personal opinion. Chopin is great, don't get me wrong, Nocturnes, waltzes, Scherzos, etc. But he died so young and his compositions so few when compared to more prolific composers and longer-lived composers. (Bach's compositions number in the hundreds, Liszt...hundreds, Mozart..hundreds) Their music to me is always fresh ebcause there is something new to me.

Bach is perhaps the greatest composer, ever. Even Chopin acknowledged this. Try to name a composer from the Baroque era without saying Bach. It's a lot harder. His impact of that era and of decades later were so huge.

I am sorry that this may seem a little "dumbed-down" but I cannot talk sophisticated about music theory and throw in the periodic musical jargon. I know little about it. I took it from an athestic stand point. More compositions keep the music fresh. Listen to Chopin's waltzes a few dozen times, they'll become stagnant because that intial swooning wears off.

I hope I made sense. But don't get me wrong, Chopin is great, but not the greatest.

I respect your opinion. However, I always find new things within Chopin's music, and I find Bach, Mozart, and pretty much any composer before Beethoven very boring with predictable music. Chopin may only have composed about 250 pieces, but I think he put more of his soul and emotion into those pieces than Bach and Mozart had in all of their pieces combined. When, played correctly, Chopin's music has so much depth and innovation.

I do agree with you though, that Bach impacted Chopin a lot (I can't really tell in his compositions though).

That Chopin wrote almost strictly for piano, and therefore the unwashed masses for the most part have never heard of him.

I don't really care how much music someone put out. Mozart to me is repetitive and boring. Liszt to me lacks profundity. Beethoven to me is hit and miss, having quite a few works of genius but quite a few duds, too. Bach is an undeniable genius, but I put him about equal with Chopin. I would rank Schubert above all the rest you listed, if for no other reason than his vocal music, some of which is just pure gold. As far as overall consistency of genius, though, Bach and Chopin are the only ones that really cut it for me out of all of them.

I like that.




Me too - except I'll leave just Chopin's name in there.




With that being true, we can also say that many people may claim to not know Chopin, but I would bet they have heard his music. It's everywhere - movies, television, commercials, video games. I think even more than the other's.

Come on people, the greatest composer is Beethoven! Sheesh!