Most influencial musician of all time?
Jul 25, 2009 at 8:28 PM Post #61 of 82
Quote:

Originally Posted by robm321 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
David, I don't think we are that far off in our belief. First of all, the thread may as well have been titled "most influential composer". By having musician in the title, I think many of us immediately put musicianship first and it's influence. But overall, I do think composition is what's most important if that's what the OP really meant.

I think the only place where we disagree is in your statement that "the most essential part of being a musician is composing". That's simply not true in classical where the best players are not composers but play all of the great compositions of others, and I used Segovia as an example. He influenced and was probably the best guitarist of all time without being a composer. I realize this is probably more the exception than the rule and splitting hairs which is why I don't think we really disagree overall.



:) To be fair I said ONE of the most essential parts of being a musician is being a composer. The OP brought up Mozart so I immediately believed they were after the essence of being a musician which includes composition. I really can't separate being a great composer from being a great musician. It's impossible for me to do so.
 
Jul 26, 2009 at 10:54 PM Post #66 of 82
The development of this man is so darn interesting and unique in history IMO


The Rasumovsky quartets and the Hamerklavier sonata still blow me of this planet

I'm not very fond of his symphonies though, except for his 9th.., I find his use of instrumentation a bit poor somehow (can I say this ?)
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Jul 26, 2009 at 10:58 PM Post #67 of 82
Wow. Almost 5 pages and no one has mentioned Frank Zappa.

I'm ashamed of being a member here
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Well, maybe he was more influental to the musicians, dunno..
 
Jul 26, 2009 at 11:07 PM Post #68 of 82
Quote:

Originally Posted by electropop /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Wow. Almost 5 pages and no one has mentioned Frank Zappa.

I'm ashamed of being a member here
icon10.gif


Well, maybe he was more influental to the musicians, dunno..



I love Zappa, and he was very influential to me, but I feel like when discussing the most influential musician of all time.......you're really limited to thinking of the entire history...and that really limits you to just a few........ Beethoven, Haydn, Bach, Wagner, Palestrina, Machaut........granted that's all western music, but the figureheads of Western Music have been far more well-documented. The person who discovered what 4/4 time was, very possibly in Mesopotamia, is extremely important. The first person to understand what tonality was is extremely important......that would probably be the Greeks.

But if we're talking about musician's whose music have been circulated for years and touched nearly every musician since in some way....it's probably Beethoven or Bach or Haydn etc.

I'd like to think that the most influential instrumentalist of the 20th century is Louis Armstrong.
 
Jul 27, 2009 at 7:32 AM Post #70 of 82
Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMahler /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The first person to understand what tonality was is extremely important......that would probably be the Greeks.


I guess I should change my vote to Pythagoras.
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Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMahler /img/forum/go_quote.gif
But if we're talking about musician's whose music have been circulated for years and touched nearly every musician since in some way....it's probably Beethoven or Bach or Haydn etc.


Easy to underestimate Haydn, he has certainly been the developer of a lot of composition-forms (piano trio, string quartet, even the symphony to an extent).

I wonder how significant the influence of J.S. Bach's music throughout musical history really has been though. Certainly throughout the Rococco and Classical period he was mainly remembered (if he was remembered at all) as the father of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Johann Christian Bach (and perhaps vaguely as the composer of some very stuffy and complicated music). And it was only some of the Early Romantics (Chopin, Schumann) who started using his Well-tempered Clavier in their teaching again. But even after that, real reappreciation seems to have only come about at the start of the 20th century or so.
 
Jul 27, 2009 at 1:02 PM Post #72 of 82
Jimi Hendrix for rock guitar of course..

and for jazz I have to agree on Louis Armstrong, but especially in Jazz there are lots of major influences, which can be laid aside easily on the other side.. something to do with the freedom that's inherent to the genre i guess..
 
Jul 27, 2009 at 5:36 PM Post #73 of 82
Quote:

Originally Posted by davidmahler
:) To be fair I said ONE of the most essential parts of being a musician is being a composer.


Very true - I guess we agree.

Also, I'd say:

Robert Johnson for blues and Duke Ellington for jazz.
 
Jul 27, 2009 at 6:06 PM Post #74 of 82
Quote:

Originally Posted by Drosera /img/forum/go_quote.gif

I wonder how significant the influence of J.S. Bach's music throughout musical history really has been though. Certainly throughout the Rococco and Classical period he was mainly remembered (if he was remembered at all) as the father of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Johann Christian Bach (and perhaps vaguely as the composer of some very stuffy and complicated music). And it was only some of the Early Romantics (Chopin, Schumann) who started using his Well-tempered Clavier in their teaching again. But even after that, real reappreciation seems to have only come about at the start of the 20th century or so.



True as far as it goes, but remember that his relatively few admirers included Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann and Mendelssohn. His influence was out of proportion to his popularity.
 
Jul 27, 2009 at 9:14 PM Post #75 of 82
Quote:

Originally Posted by Henry Flower /img/forum/go_quote.gif
True as far as it goes, but remember that his relatively few admirers included Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann and Mendelssohn. His influence was out of proportion to his popularity.


Indeed, and pop music wouldn't exist as we know it if it weren't for him. But wait, is that a pro or a con?
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