I voted for Lennon but it's great to see Frank Zappa getting such strong support here as well. He was definitely one-of-a-kind and although he had a long career and produced a large body of work, I don't think his creativity was anywhere near exhausted when he was taken from us.
I voted Zappa because he was on the verge of running for President
. As I read in some interviews from his last years he was all prepared to take a run for the White House before he found out about his cancer, and while I think he would have no chance in an election it would have been a great show. I also personally never had the chance to see him live as I was only a young child when he passed away and I have only gotten into his music within the past 2 years (so its more of a selfish tragedy for me). I also think that it would have been great fun for him to be around for some of the Clinton sex scandal as he would have had a field day with some of that material. Creatively I think he had just started going towards the extreme classical music with Civilization, Phaze III and it would have been interesting to see where he would have taken it as technology has only gotten better since his death.
Originally Posted by n_maher Johnny Cash - for the first time when I heard an artist had passed I felt great sadness at the fact that I was never going to hear new music from them again.
i felt sad too - but there's more to it than sadness.
there's something very hopeful about an artist reaching his peak so late in life. also, if there's ever been an artist who was prepared and ready for death, it was cash. that doesn't take away the sadness, but i wouldn't call cash's death tragic in the sense that most on the list are.
Originally Posted by PSmith08 For me, the biggest tragedies (they're equal) in the whole of music history are the premature death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the death of Richard Wagner. It's clear that Mozart, from the non-Sussmayr sections of the Requiem, was beginning to head in a new direction that sort of prefigures Beethoven. In fact, in his 1991 Teldec recording of Sym. 39-41, Harnoncourt plays them as sort of prefiguring Beethoven in various ways. However, that aspect really comes to the front in the Requiem. It is clear that Mozart was beginning to head in the direction of Romanticism in some small way. He was still firmly grounded in the Classical, but there are hints of overtones of something new. Had he lived, there is no telling where he - and music - might have gone.
Yes! Mozart went way too soon. Damn you Salieri, damn you...
By the way, if any of you people want to be smartasses, here's the definition of "tragedy" in the dictionary:
Quote:
A disastrous event, especially one involving distressing loss or injury to life: "an expedition that ended in tragedy, with all hands lost at sea."
Don't flame me for not having an "accurate" poll or for not having one that goes back to conductors. I'm looking for ones of our time, not during the Renaissance. Thanks.
And yes, I would have added more (especially Keith Moon), but I could only add 20 at the most - and I added these by popularity and musical inspiration and impact. While Keith Moon was quite impactful and inspirational, I felt he was overrated, and it was between Bonham and Moon - so I picked Bonham.
People!
I had 20 as a limit - I am sorry that I couldn't fit EVERY death in the last 50 years on the thread .. I really am! I simply chose ones that were most well-known, popular, and innovative - please stop asking me why I didn't add this and that!
Originally Posted by jumpy Yes! Mozart went way too soon. Damn you Salieri, damn you...
Not to be a rogue, but the Salieri connection has more to do with Milos Forman and Peter Shaffer than it does with history. Mozart, at times, felt that he was being blocked by the older and more successful composer. However, Mozart also reports that Salieri enjoyed Die Zauberflote immensely. I doubt that a composer like Salieri had time to plot the demise of an upstart like Mozart. I don't doubt that Salieri appreciated Mozart's work.
I think drink and dissolute living did more to do Wolfgang in than the machinations of a successful and popular composer, eventually eclipsed by the great "Mozart."
Sorry if you thought I was asking you why not Robert Johnson. That was more of a question of how music might have changed if he had been alive longer. Kind of an alternate history thing. My brain was moving but my fingers didn't follow through.
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