Which country has produce the best classical music?

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
I give you Yoko Ono as evidence.

Oh, no thanks, you can keep her.

[Dis]

Originally posted by LordShiva
And this person.

I don't know what this is, but it needs to be burned.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
He wrote over 100 in Italian alone, not to mention French and then became a professor.

Ok. Russia or Germany then. Germany.

No please, all countries are open and I'm aware that Italy has a great musical tradition even if I'm not all that knowledgable about the specifics.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by aneeshm
Are we talking about only the Western school of classical music , or about classical music anywhere in the world ? Because if the former , then I'm not qualified to comment , but if the latter , then India .

The origins of our musical tradition are lost in the mists of antiquity - one of our four primary scriptures deals exclusively with music . The powers ( there's nothing else that quite describes it ) that Indian vocalists have acquired in voice modulation are unparalleled by anything anywhere in the world . Our instruments are the most pleasing to the ear - they are the least jarring or violent , IMHO . But Indian classical music does not have much exposure even within India .

I love the Indian music that I've heard. I doubt there are too many people here who are qualified to comment on it, but if you are please share your favorite composers or compositions so that we can check them out.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
You need to clarify the periods. do you include medieval music as "classical" as Molly seems to think you do?

And whats Germany? I presume German speaking Austrians/Viennese are included.

I will limit it to post 1600, and affirmatively included German speaking Austrians.

The Russians are great, and produced some great music.

But I think Germany still wins hands down. JS Bach alone is overwhelming - all those cantatas, magnicat, etc.. Beethoven - the 6th symphony, the moonlight Sonata, Coriolanus Overture (to skip the most obvious symphonies. Mozart - The Magic Flute, the other operas, the late symphonies, severl incredible concertos, the Requiem Mass. Haydn - lots of great symphonies. Shubert - lieder. Brahms - the symphonies, Variations on a theme by Bach, etc.

Thats not even gettting into Schuman or Liszt or Wagner. Or JC Bach, KPE Bach. Felix Mendelsohn.
Gustav Mahler. Anton Bruckner.

Or the 12 tone guys - Schoenberg, who transformed 20th c music, (even excluding the stuff he composed after coming to America) Webern. Alban Berg.

To keep it interesting (and give others a chance) let's use modern geographical units (Germany and Austria are seperate) but keep the time frame as wide as possible. Music made in the 20th century should be of a type that existed before the 20th century, while ancient music is fine, even if it doesn't have as large a following. It only matters that you think it's great.

[Heresson]

Sad to say that, But Germany, incl. Austria.
I don't know how, but Germans have lots of great composers, those reknown ones and the ones that are less known.
Saying that, I can not stop being amazed at current pathethic state of German music.

[Ecthy]

Current German pop music is about in as sad a state than most of continental Europe. The East certainly doesn't have anything on us.

[Heresson]

Oh, but we never were a musical might, so it's not a decline. You, on the other hand, were a leading music power, and right now... well...

[VetLegion]

I think Germany was also a leading cinema power in the 1920s or so.

[Colon™]

[Colon™]

Oh and as for music, Germany simply quit daddling around with organic instruments and chose the autobahn of the future:

[Cort Haus]

Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schultz were hugely influential. Together with psychedelic rock bands like Hawkwind they more or less invented 90's techno twenty years earlier.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Sikander



To keep it interesting (and give others a chance) let's use modern geographical units (Germany and Austria are seperate)

That makes it really complicated. Beethoven was from Germany, really developed as a composer in Vienna, is considered part of the Vienna school, but completed many of his later works, IIUC, back in "Germany". Do we really have to go through each work to see where he lived when he wrote most of it? This aint like say Handel moving from Germany to England, or Schoenberg moving from Vienna to the US - Ludwig was regularly back and forth between Vienna and "Germany" precisely cause there wasnt such a distinction then.

I threw Vienna in with Germany cause the distinction so overcomplicates things, doesnt really match any cultural or musical distinction. EVEN though I know it makes Germany-Austria overwhelming.

What do we mean by "type of music that has gone before", wrt 20th c music - so neo romantic is ok, but not 12 tone? why not, the 12 tone folks, IIUC, thought they were fulfilling the direction late romantic music was headed in. 12 tone ok, but not jazz? How about classicaly orchestrated jazz, like Gershwin, or Classical with folk and jazz influences, like Copeland? This basically kills US music, and seems arbitrary. 12 tone and neo romantic ok, but not John Cage? Or are we just trying to avoid US pop music? If so, lets just say "art music" and leave it at that (or is that too debatable?)

[Odin]

Germany (including Austria)

[Wernazuma III]

Austria, including Germany.