Why are all the great composers dead?

[TeeJay]

You forgot disposable rock, unless that is filed under pop.

I kinda included pop rock since its kinda same thing
Basically any pop / rock / rap "artist" who has no clue how to play an instrument and lip syncs live
Its all crap

 

[lomotil]

I wonder why the Mozart era produced such great music. So few people and of those a very tiny percentage musically educated yet the greatest composers ever. WHY? Was the universe aligned to allow the spirit of music into people ? I know this sounds new age wacky but what is the other explanation?

Perhaps they were on psychedelics as it was not illegal then but I know of no music historian who has come up with such a hypothesis based on any evidence.

The archangel of music fucked alot of woman in that time period and planted alot of "music" seeds. The production of sweet symphonies for vestibulocochlear nerve , the eighth paired cranial nerve were the result in the offsprings.

 

[oil&gas]

I would in fact put composers like John Williams and Danny Elfman in their ranks.

For John Williams to be ranked among other classical composers
I'd judge his musicianship by his concert composition. Williams
dedicated his violin concerto to his 1st wife Barbara. It sounds
nothing like his film music. I don't know if Elfman ever wrote
for concert performance.
He is certainly a supremely gifted composer considering
he didn't have the formal training in classical music of Williams.
Yet he could turn out orchestral pieces as moving as 'Black Beauty'.

 

[Insidious Von]

I could be wrong.. I believe it was Felix Mendelssohn who was walking on the beach with a friend. The friend said "All the good music has already been written". Mendelssohn then gestured at the sea and said "Oh, look. Here comes the last wave"

Felix Mendelssohn had quite the sense of humour, unfortunately he died young at 38. The irony is the Anti-Semite Richard Wagner picked up where he left off - Felix was a non practicing Jew.

You can almost hear echoes of the Valkyries in this...Felix never visited Scotland.

 

[Insidious Von]

Bela Bartok spoofing Shostakovich's Leningrad (Symphony 7) Bolero. I love a good musical fart!

 

[MissCroft]

Beautiful!