Beethoven.

Beethoven or Bartok. Both have such an awesome (if radically different) sound.

wellllllllllllllllllllll...

interesting question...

first thing that came to mind is...

would you REALLY want to compose music like *someone else*????

if someone twisted my arm, my answer would be chopin or........rachmaninoff.

OH.



Jeanne W

Mozart

Schubert

I am not the slightest bit interested in emulating anybody. Of course I like many characteristics of much music, but any desire to imitate vanished many years ago.

I'm with you Ted2. I'd rather be myself, imperfect as I and it (my music) may be.



Jeanne W

Chopin. Definitely.

Beethoven

Can I please be Chopin AND Beethoven?

It's difficult to say. I'm stuck between Beethoven, Liszt and Rachmaninoff (but only Rach's 2nd and 3rd piano concertos).

I suppose, over all, I'd go with Beethoven, but I'd have to stick some Lisztian pianistic writing in there or I'd go insane not having anything "impossibly difficult" to play.

(The last thing I wrote, a fantasy in C-sharp minor, I was told sounds like there are five hands on the piano. But it's actually a very simple piece harmonically-speaking. It's the octaves that get to you... )

Beethoven - too complex, and too many notes! I like his music but one look as his scores and immediately I say, that's a lot of notes chalked in there! Sometimes, opening a book of his Sonatas to choose one, I've said to myself, wow, look at all those notes, close the book and move on to something else. .

ROTFL! This reminds me of the movie Amadeus. "Too many notes!" said the Emporer.

Easy: Chopin!

my teacher likes Mozart and Brahms, but not Beethoven. when i asked why, he pointed out some passages from Beethoven's sonatas (appassionata etc), and told me how 'unpianistic' those passages're. but still, i'd stick to Beethoven!

I hate this term 'unpianistic'. To me its just an excuse for people who can't be bothered to find the solution to particular technical problems and it really isn't a reason for discounting someone like Beethoven. One of the great things about the 32 sonatas is that they test the extremes of what is possible on a piano and using ten fingers. The challenges make them incredibly rewarding and fascinating to learn and play.

i agree with you, matthewpiano. but my teacher meant more than just that, since he also said those passages're not 'interesting' from a pianist point of view, as Brahms would do with a passage like that - making it more interesting: as my teacher played a passage from Brahms's 1st piano concerto (1st movement) where LH do trills over the RH theme. i had much to argue with him (and i did), but i also saw his point. i always like Beethoven more though.

Beethoven- Composed with such fire and passion

and expressed it so clearly on the piano. I wouldn't like to compose "like him" but to compose with his "abilities"

I'd be wary whenever someone says something like this, no matter who they are. Some people find things interesting, others do not. But nothing in a subjective environment is ever so objective as to be universally applicable.

I hope I can compose my way into as great a niche as did Scriabin or Ravel. Both were so unique and off on their own that noone has since come close to approaching either! Not to say I would write music exactly as either did, just with as great an individuality as they did.

Myself, I would not want to compose like anyone else, because I am me.

I would like to be as organized and planned as Ligeti, Berg, or Shoenberg.

I would like to be as abstract as Cage

I would like to be as logical as Riley or Reich

I would like to be as colourful as Messiaen

I would like to be as transcendtal as Beethoven

Although I'd like to compose like 'myself' with my own original ideas I would love to have some of Satie's characteristics - his amazing ability to portray his emotion through his work and allow the pianist to also feel this when they play it. I just love the eerieness and the hypnotic atmosphere that he can create.

To many notes?! hehe

I would agree with L'echange. Almost like asking a person who would they rather be.

As quoted by a famous philosopher (can't quite remember his name) "I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam".

John