3 ms·

>few famous historical scientists and artists Plenty of artists: Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, Bizet, Bieber (all right, maybe not the last one) http://en.wikipedia.o

by witek 14y ago

>few famous historical scientists and artists Plenty of artists: Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, Bizet, Bieber (all right, maybe not the last one) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_prodigies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_prodigies Others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_child_prodigies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_child_prodigies

vixen99 14y ago
Not forgetting Mendelssohn as the prime example. Neither Mozart nor Chopin wrote anything comparable in stature to the Octet written when Felix was 16 years old. It's one of the those pieces where within a minute or so you simply 'know' you're listening to a work of genius. Yes, entirely o/t especially on this site. Sorry!
- witek 14y ago
  Somewhat subjective :] I love Chopin myself.
  - clicks 14y ago
    I don't like that the word 'child prodigy' is thrown around for this. For Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, etc. you simply have individuals who were all offspring of musicians, who started at young ages, who both listened to music played by their parents for hours and practiced it for themselves for hours more. Likewise with mathematicians, programming prodigies, etc. And, Chopin's later work is indeed much more mature -- compare the difference for example between the Nocturne in E minor which he wrote when he was 19, and Nocturne in C-Minor, No 21, which he wrote shortly before his death. The difference is pretty stark -- and even non-musicians can sort of detect the growth. I can say likewise for most composers, their craft honed with time -- it's difficult for me to think of any composer who composed something tremendous in the very beginning just out of nowhere -- that kind of stuff doesn't happen.
    - witek 14y ago
      I'm not sure calling Mozart and Chopin prodigies qualifies as throwing terms around [lightly]. With so much recorded music being created over the millennia (since the invention of musical notation), these two, among a few others, stand out as undeniable geniuses of their craft. It also so happens that they started to make waves very early, which wasn't that easy to accomplish in an artist's lifetime back then, especially when you consider that Chopin gave only some 30 public performances in the last 19 years of his life spent in Paris and away from oppressed Poland. Chopin was seven years old when he composed two critically-acclaimed Polonaises, in G minor and B-flat major. Would you really not call him a prodigy?

by witek 14y ago

vixen99 14y ago

Not forgetting Mendelssohn as the prime example. Neither Mozart nor Chopin wrote anything comparable in stature to the Octet written when Felix was 16 years old. It's one of the those pieces where within a minute or so you simply 'know' you're listening to a work of genius. Yes, entirely o/t especially on this site. Sorry!

witek 14y ago
Somewhat subjective :] I love Chopin myself.
- clicks 14y ago
  I don't like that the word 'child prodigy' is thrown around for this. For Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, etc. you simply have individuals who were all offspring of musicians, who started at young ages, who both listened to music played by their parents for hours and practiced it for themselves for hours more. Likewise with mathematicians, programming prodigies, etc. And, Chopin's later work is indeed much more mature -- compare the difference for example between the Nocturne in E minor which he wrote when he was 19, and Nocturne in C-Minor, No 21, which he wrote shortly before his death. The difference is pretty stark -- and even non-musicians can sort of detect the growth. I can say likewise for most composers, their craft honed with time -- it's difficult for me to think of any composer who composed something tremendous in the very beginning just out of nowhere -- that kind of stuff doesn't happen.
  - witek 14y ago
    I'm not sure calling Mozart and Chopin prodigies qualifies as throwing terms around [lightly]. With so much recorded music being created over the millennia (since the invention of musical notation), these two, among a few others, stand out as undeniable geniuses of their craft. It also so happens that they started to make waves very early, which wasn't that easy to accomplish in an artist's lifetime back then, especially when you consider that Chopin gave only some 30 public performances in the last 19 years of his life spent in Paris and away from oppressed Poland. Chopin was seven years old when he composed two critically-acclaimed Polonaises, in G minor and B-flat major. Would you really not call him a prodigy?