3 ms·

In these other types of music the talent seems much more dispersed. Like there's a lot of great stuff, but no dominant creative figures.

• jerf 12y ago
  I think it's the other way around. There's lots of great stuff, and lots of dominant creative figures, such that it's impossible to pick through all the geniuses to find just "one" to be the "best". Part of why the Classical composers loom so large in our minds is that they were the only "genre" of music available (by the rich modern standards of the term "genre"). We look backwards, and they are all there is to see. Now there's a bajillion genres, and many of them are full of very smart, experienced people plugging away. I do not mourn this turn of events. I celebrate it. (And yes, I am well aware that "Western" music is not the only kind and there's rich traditions of music in all ethnicities, etc etc. Still, Western music of the Classical era was something special and I don't think it's amiss to observe that. In the end, what they created was for all humanity, as evidenced by how quickly it has spread to all, and it is not surprising that when we look back, what we see is Bach and his progeny, which includes Beethoven.)