The news you have all been waiting for

The way you correctly pronounce Bach’s name causes me to swoon!! It’s so authentic-sounding, that you should call yourself “Old Sour(Sauer)Kraut” instead of Old Grumpy Guy.
………. just a friendly suggestion

OGG, you continue to delight. I, too, am feeling a little tingle.

Curious to know if the highway scene is Hwy 1 South to Big Sur? Looks familiar.

Thanks so much for another treat.

Would I give you anything not authentic?

It’s either Hwy 1 or a coastal road outside Cape Town in South Africa. I can’t remember which now. It’s over a month since I edited the video, and you have to allow for senility

Not sure about the “Old Sour Kraut’. I am not German (although I have some German ancestry) and I’m grumpy rather than sour

Yes indeed, OGG, I have been checking NQ more frequently in anticipation of this installment. I expected you to place Bach at #3 – not a favorite of mine, actually, but he was the obvious choice.

Thank you. I can sleep now and will look forward to the next video.

Oh, and by the way, congratulations on your Olby! Very well-deserved!

goodnight

For an excellent example of a Bach composition, go to the opening of the original movie called “Rollerball”. Playing “Tocatta and Fugue in D-Minor” while they were powering up the stadium was just perfect.

I’ll bet it’s Jayz @ 2 and Ludacris @ 1, since they inspire worldwide hope and change. Otherwise, you might have to put Mo-z and the Big B in there.

Nothing could have brought me more joy on my birthday eve than this installment of OGG’s Ten Greatest Composers.

I received some sad news today. Old Grumpy Guy’s vid brought some needed joy.

What’s up with the rose colored glasses though??!!

I, too, was thrilled at the correct pronunciation of Bach’s name and I think third place is not so bad for Bach to be in. Personally, I like Bach. I can’t wait for the last two. It’s like waiting for the all time favorite movie or actor. Dang those commercials…

Love it OGG.

Darn. Now you’ve ruined the suspense for everyone. Shame on you.

Ahh, OGG, I’m afraid we’re coming to a serious parting of the ways. Given your previous picks and given who is left, I predict your No.2 will be Beethoven and your No.1 Mozart – and there we will, indeed, part company.

I do have take issue with your ‘damned with faint praise’ approach to JSB and I sourly anticipate your effusions and flourishes when heaping praise upon the utterly unworthy Mozart. I used to describe him as the Burt Bacharach of his time but now I think I’ll start calling him the Obama of musical Salzburg, more au courant don’t you think?

Seriously, I’ve played many Bach pieces and sung in both the ‘Magnificat’ and the stupendous ‘St Matthews Passion’ and I can personally attest to the power and beauty of his musical thought. Where you apparently see repetitive meanderings (calling Haydn? Mozart?) I see a subtle and relentless uncovering of layer after layer musical truth.

In his greatest works, such as the incredible ‘Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor’ he takes us on a journey through the mathematics of music, leaving no permutation unexplored, no variation unexamined, no structure unfinished until, at the last, great resolving chord we come to understand that this vast, complex musical thought is now complete in a way that no one had ever done before and that no one will ever do again.

Why do I have this sneaking suspicion that you’re Karl Haas’s snarky twin, OGG? Seriously, where were you when Karl was recording those programs all alone in the garage, with the decent gag writer permanently out on strike? Even more seriously, for those of us who are a bit late subscribing to this series, who are the winners to date (minus Bach, bien entendu)? Thanks for another listen to “Sheep May Safely Graze” and thanks equally for not including “Pachelbel”. Next person who plays the latter before the next decade is out will be forced to listen to it for the remainder of said decade.

Personally, OGG, I don’t give a fig who you place in the number 1 or 2 positions. This vid and all the others have been an oasis from all the weightier, depressing matters we often discuss here–the good, the bad and the ugly of global and political significance.

I’ve often thought if we had grand music playing in our ears throughout our lives, we’d be far better human beings. I think about that in terms of literature and art, too.

Because these creations represent the best of who and what we are, what we hope to be.

Thanks for the reminder. Thanks for the series!

I would guess that OGG’s no. 1 and no. 2 are actually reversed from your guess (so no. 2= Mozart, no. 1= Beethoven). My guess is based on the statements about the top 2 composers “deviating from the road.” While Mozart certainly did deviate from the road, Beethoven’s deviations were much greater, and more influential to successive composers. So much so that there were 2 main “camps” of composers in the 19th Century who were claiming that their style was the proper successor to Beethoven.

I agree with OGG’s placement of Bach at no. 3. It’s hard to overlook the fact that he didn’t compose an opera.

love it! love it! love it!

Gee OGG, I am really surprised at your admonition to us about not wanting any jokes about Air on a G-String considering your comment in the Olby Award post about wanting to be a “candidate for male Pop Tart.” And then, of course, there are your comments in this latest installment of Top 10 Greatest Composers about ‘size doesn’t matter,’ and ‘it is what you do with it, and how you use it,’ that matter.

Maybe a little double standard there OGG? Or maybe what is good for the goose is not good for the gander after all.

After this installment I too wonder who will be # 1 and # 2. Will it be the usual suspects, or will you choose someone from left field to surprise us all? Although I am more in tune with Peggy Sue’s comment and don’t really care as much who is # 1 as how beautiful music (and art and literature, too) can grace our lives and lift us mere humans to angelic heights.

Music is not about mathematics, though sadly it has fallen prey to mathematical stylists like the serialists/minimalists who have shut down some of their senses and allowed themselves to be imprisoned by a theoretical straitjacket.

You can find the previous seven either here on NQ or on my Youtube channel where I have a playlist that presents them in order of appearance from ten upward.

I too feel that everyone’s life would be enriched and the world would be a better place if more people were exposed to the music of the great composers.

I know. I’m a terrible hypocrite; a whited sepulcher. But I’m glad you’re enjoying the music.

Also, Herr Grumpy, just a word in your ear…..Yes, sheep MAY safely graze, but not in Louisiana where my kinfolk live. After they’ve had a couple of cases of Thunderbird, nothing on two legs, or four legs, is safe. FYI

Dear Old Grumpy Guy,

I would not have hesitated to place Bach at #1, but as you say, you’re right, and we’re wrong, so I’ll shut up on that score.

I enjoy your vids very much, but I’m afraid I have to point out that lately some blurriness has been creeping into your graphics (such as in the scenes of the grazing sheep). Perhaps if you adjusted the focus!?!?!

Cantatas rule!

I beg to differ: music, especially western music, is very much about mathematics – although I agree with your assessment of the execrable work of the serialists and minimalists.

Cognitive scientists have found that musicians, mathematicians and software programmers use the same parts of the brain in their work, something the technology sector has known for decades.

I understand your point that the creative thought must be paramount but I have unfortunately found that JSB’s revelation of the mathematics in the music, pure delight to me, puts most folks off.

at least we agree on the serialists/minimalists.

No operas? Yet hundreds upon hundreds of chorales, cantatas, masses, magnificats and passions – among them many of the greatest vocal works in human history… I think your categories are too narrow!

As to Beethoven and Mozart, I love Beethoven and detest Mozart, it’s a visceral thing and I don’t apologize for it, but I’ve always been amazed at the fawning of the musical world on the altar of the ‘great’ Mozart. His music has always seemed obvious and trite to me, the only things I have any respect for are the pieces he wrote in the last couple of years of his life when he was staring death in the face.

de gustibus non disputatum

I could have predicted that my impressionistic sheep and other visuals would be lost on you oowawa, and would probably have been disappointed if this had not been the case.

Still, I know you are a closeted fan, oowawa, so I forgive you

I accept your forgiveness, humbly.

Wow! So it really is Jay-z and Ludacris? I hope I got them in the right order!

In all seriousness, I totally enjoyed your 10th through 5th picks. There were interesting because you really had to make your cases. The higher you go, the less controversy. Maybe you should do a 20 through 11?

The great pianist Alfred Brendel said “Mozart is too easy for children, but too difficult for professionals.” Maybe that includes ‘professional’ listeners, too?

btw I can see that those who prefer mathematical certainty would not like Mozart, who would not be bound by mathematics.

Humbly? Somehow I doubt it.

BRAVO!!!

Thank you for sharing your vast knowledge of music.

It will forever aid my appreciation of Bach.

Well, the lack of an opera in Bach’s repertoire is certainly NOT the only reason why I’d put Bach at no. 3, but I didn’t think I needed to reiterate everything that Old Grumpy Guy had said in his video. That said, the chorales, cantatas, masses, magnificats and passions are wonderful, but considering how important opera was in that time, it’s hard to overlook the fact that he created none.

By the way, I’m very much enjoying this series, Old Grumpy Guy. Thank you so much for taking the time to put this all together.

Hmm. Looks like my previous guess was right & Mozart will be in the top 2. I’m guessing Beethoven for the other. Thanks Your Grumpiness for sharing these with us! I hope you do an opera series next! Have greatly enjoyed these!

Viennese Waltzes anyone? Or are they not sour enough?!

Great! Love the high-brow for a change…It’s opened up my cultural weltanschaaung! Dankeshoen…

I love Johann Strauss. But unfortunately he was rather limited stylistically. Great waltzes though. I love Fledermaus