Einojuhani Rautavaara

Not a household name, his. Einojuhani Rautavaara is still living, rare for composers discussed here on this blog, and he is 80 years old.

In 1972, Rautavaara composed Cantus Arcticus, a concerto for birds and orchestra. The work features tape recordings of birdsong. When I first listened to Cantus Arcticus, I was almost convinced I would not like it very much based on the first couple of minutes. I kept listening, however, and I was rewarded with what turned out to be a beautiful tribute to birds and to nature.

Exploring contemporary classical music can be challenging for many reasons. For one, there is less of a consensus as to what the important works or composers are, so the field to consider is large. This is partly due to the fact that newer works are borne of vastly differing artistic philosophies, leading critics to employ different sets of criteria for determining notable works. Still, now and then you will find a gem, and that gem is likely to be very distinct from what you previously enjoyed listening to and might even give you a fresh perspective on music.

Germany

This graph shows the number of composers from the list of 51 (see Composers) for each country represented. Composers ranked 1-10 are separated from composers ranked 11-51.

Edit: There are errors in the graph due to the fact that (1) Richard Strauss (ranked #34) was German and not Austrian and (2) Handel (ranked #9) is by consensus an English composer, even though he was born in Germany. The corrected totals are as follows:

Country Total (Top 10)
Germany 10 (4)
France 9 (0)
Russia 8 (1)
Austria 6 (3)
Italy 5 (1)
England 4 (1)
Hungary 2 (0)
etc.

Experts

"It just came to me out of thin air," or "It was dictated to me by God." We all have heard quotes like these, spoken by writers, music composers, and others.

Experts thrive by transcribing the complex creations of their subconscious minds, a phenomenon dealing with the brain and about which we presently have little understanding.

An expert chess player rapidly chooses great chess moves in tough board situations due to this phenomenon (only the chess player is less likely to attribute this skill to God). How this comes about is that the chess player, over the course of a lifetime, sees so many chess moves that the player is literally trained only to consider good moves, ones that satisfy the demands of the current situation.

For a composer, the task is not to choose the best sequence of moves but rather to compose a melody that acheives a certain emotion, or to create a variation of a theme to serve as a bridge to the next musical idea, to name a couple of examples. Of course, the shadings of the composer's own inner self, which is a product of much more that just music, find their way into the composer's creations, too.

And so it is that Mozart, who is the archetypal child prodigy, achieved what he did. Surely, he lived and breathed music from the time he was born.

Said Mozart, "Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, I hear them all at once. What a delight this is! All this inventing, this producing, takes place in a pleasing, lively dream."

Meaningful Opera

In Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin, which is based on the novel in verse of the same name by Aleksandr Pushkin, the title character is bored with life. With no real goals or desires to serve, Onegin is not, in reality, the romantic hero Tatyana presumes him to be based on appearances. He lives his life whimsically, free from all of the careful consideration that accompanies a moral life that is dedicated to some purpose. While living in this manner, Onegin gets swept up with the leaves and ends up doing two things he will later regret: (1) He rejects Tatyana, and (2) He kills his friend Lensky in a duel (Proof once again that idle hands are the devil's tools).

Only when it is too late does Onegin learn what all learn eventually - that there is meaning to life. The meaning that he once did not seek was later measured by his guilt. In the end, Tatyana is genuinely moved by the changed Onegin, but she is now married and remains faithful to her husband.

In opera, the focus is on the story, which is told with both words and music. We care about the characters just as we do in novels and movies. An opera's story is typically very melodramatic, but the music justifies this. That is, the music provides the back story. For example, we do not need any more details of Onegin's life to appreciate the opera Eugene Onegin's story, because the way Onegin sings when he sees the married Tatyana tells us all we need to know about Onegin. Such is the power of music, as composed by a master composer such as Tchaikovsky and as performed by a master performer (such as Dmitri Hvorostovsky).

Opera is a unique way of being told a story.

Danse Macabre

In 1874, Camille Saint-Saens arranged a tone poem version of his composition Danse Macabre, which had debuted two years earlier as an art song for voice and piano. It is the orchestral tone poem version that is the most popular today.

Death plays this Dance of Death on his fiddle and conjures the dead from their graves to perform a grotesque waltz. Death takes delight in the fact that people from all classes and walks of life arrive ultimately at a common end.

It is hard to imagine a more downcast theme. Still, while perfectly capturing the gruesome spirit of the poem on which it is based, Danse Macabre manages to be beautiful music. It seems there are competing philosophies for translating ugliness into music. On the one hand, we convey ugliness with ugly sounds. On the other hand, we turn to Mozart, who said, "Music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music."

In the case of Danse Macabre, I would think it is precisely the music's beauty that allows it to portray the poem so accurately.

1875

I made this chart using data I produced using a simple computer program. It shows how many of the composers from my list of 51 (see Composers) were living during each year, from 1678 to 1976.

The single highest total for any year was 28, in 1875. If you were alive in 1875, you could have met the following people:

• Tchaikovsky
• Brahms
• Verdi
• Grieg
• Debussy
• Liszt
• Dvorak
• Sibelius
• Puccini
• Wagner
• Strauss II
• Rachmaninov
• Bizet
• Ravel
• Saint-Saens
• Rimsky-Korsakov
• Elgar
• Strauss
• Massenet
• Faure
• Mahler
• Gounod
• Nielsen
• Glazunov
• Mussorgsky
• Bruckner
• Vaughan Williams
• Offenbach

During 1875, the world saw the premieres of Bizet's Carmen (in Paris) and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 (in Boston). Bizet died later that year, a few months after Carmen's premiere.

Inside the Sun's Painting

Today, I listened to Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 5 "Spring" in F Major, played by Henryk Szeryng (violin) and Arthur Rubinstein (piano). I said before how classical music can take us to other worlds. When it takes you to a distant world to which you have been before and long to return to in real life, this is called nostalgia.

In the midst of a cold winter, the dancing melodies of the sonata's first movement remind me of everything I miss about green landscapes, warm scents, outdoor smiles, and glasses of chilled white wine.

The Love for Three Oranges

Sergei Prokofiev's sardonic style prevents him from being more well-known and admired. But, he is one of the most accessible composers from the modern era, and his music bustles with intelligence. He composed his third piano concerto at age 30 in 1921. The work was the culmination of his youth as a composer.

At 53, he composed his Symphony No. 5 against the background of World War II. If you are familiar with Prokofiev, this symphony takes you by surprise. It contains an emotional depth rare for any composer. All of the talent evident from the early phase of his career is there, only now it is put to the use of telling a human story fit for the times during which it was conceived. Listening to the symphony, we witness a person of remarkable ability who has finally learned to express his emotions in terms of the high standard of intellect he demands from his compositions.

The Moustache

Sir Edward Elgar is famous for his moustache, but he wrote some good music, too. My favorite Elgar work is his concert overture In the South (Alassio). Elgar also wrote the famous graduation march from Pomp and Circumstance.

Gate to the Mountains

In many forms of classical music, there are no pictures or words to provide the listener with a work's meaning. Because of this, some people say that an instrumental work can mean whatever you want it to mean. This assertion is true in one sense and false in another.

Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 is not a story about a particular man, his problem, and the problem's resolution. Rather, told over the span of about 35 minutes, it is clearly the story of romantic longing and fulfillment. When listening, the music can be interpreted at any moment to be about whatever man or woman and situation you choose. Just as some pop songs are loved because many people can relate to them by connecting their own experiences to the songs' general themes, the same is true with classical music works.

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is the story of joyous triumph. This is a more general story than the one told by Rachmaninov's piano concerto, and as such it is even more universally loved, as there are an even greater number of positive, consonant interpretations. (One possible interpretation is the feeling of taking an exam in college for which you had studied long and hard and feeling good about it when you walk out of the exam room.)

Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" is the story of an epic journey. Occasionally when I listen to it I think of the Fellowship of the Ring setting out to conquer a vast terrain of fields and mountains. (Stylistically, the music is subtle and tender. In this regard, the second movement has few rivals in the symphonic literature.)

While it might take decades to experience your own romantic longings and fulfillments, moments of joyous triumph, and epic journies, once you have those experiences to relate, works of classical music can bring the essences of those experiences rushing back to your mind. The effect can be exhilarating. I conclude by quoting Leo Tolstoy: "Music is the shorthand of emotion."

Community

Experiencing something extraordinary does not mean much unless you have someone to share it with. On the other hand, sharing with others does not mean much unless you have something extraordinary to share.

Last night, at some classical music concerts, groups of people were each given something extraordinary to share. Folks passed by one another afterward and exchanged knowing smiles. Complete strangers were made to feel affection for one another.

Talent

Johann Sebastian Bach, of all people, is quoted as saying, "I worked hard. Anyone who works as hard as I did can achieve the same results." When we call someone talented, it is not only because that person has a high degree of natural ability for a particular skill but also because that person has a general aptitude for hard work. For when has one ever manifested itself without the other?

Expertise is gained only through repetition. I would like to know how common it is for one to have the natural ability required for the sake of sitting through the number of repetitions both at the keyboard and in front of the composer's desk necessary to become a composer of Bach's caliber.

Other Worlds

When listening to a recording of music, there is the issue of audio quality. Even if the recording engineers have done a great job, the odds are that the audio system used to play back the recording is not up to par with live performances. It is tempting, then, to spend heavily on an expensive audio system. However, there is a strange phenomenon that applies here - above a certain point, the closer something is to perfection, the more we tend to notice the imperfections.

When I listen to music, I hope to experience the music's soul, to be transported to another world, almost forgetting where I am. A recording is not measured by its audio quality but rather by its ability to make listeners forget they are listening to a recording that is performed by a certain orchestra and conducted by a certain conductor. A good recording should bring the listener face to face with the composition. It is only after listening that we wish to reflect on matters such as audio quality, performer, and conductor, lest we be disturbed.

Some people prefer older recordings. Maybe, without realizing it, this phenomenon related to audio quality is sometimes the reason. A couple years ago, I would have been unimpressed by offerings of FM quality audio. Yet, over the course of listening to many recordings on Naxos's website, I have had some wonderful listening experiences.

Naxos

On their website, Naxos calls itself, "The World's Leading Classical Music Label." In recent years, they certainly have been one of the most successful, offering good quality recordings at a fraction of the price you will find elsewhere. Their website, naxos.com, is also becoming the most important resource I know of for cheaply exploring the full classical music catalog. For $20 per year, you can gain access to their entire CD collection in streaming FM quality audio. That is over 5,000 CDs worth of music.

Renewal

A phrase you might find in a review of a classical music recording is, "It got rid of some cobwebs." This sounds like a good thing, but what does it mean?

When we become too familiar with something, whatever it may be, we tend to lose sight of it. For example, I once heard said about Beethoven's Fifth Symphony that "its familiarity masks its greatness." This seems to be part of the human condition, that we lose sight of that which we value the most by means of experiencing it. The process of discovery is therefore the most inherently enjoyable of all human experiences. But must we simply discard all our treasures that we worked so hard to find?

In human relationships, we overcome this dilemma by creating bonds with our close friends and loved ones that allow us to share a multitude of new experiences together. So, rather than friendship being just the end of a process of mutual discovery, it is also the beginning of a much broader process of discovery - with friends, we set our sights on the horizon and set out arm in arm to conquer the world. As Aristotle said, "Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies."

So, how can a beloved work of classical music continue to offer us new experiences? The more familiar a recording or style of interpretation, and the more familiar our state of mind and our surroundings, the more we will lose sight of that work's genius and of its emotional impact. But all it takes is a well-placed light to clear away some cobwebs and present us with something fresh, something new to experience that is different on the surface but the same in substance. This is what a good, new recording can achieve and is one reason why works continue to be recorded over and over again. Incidentally, listening with a friend is a good way to make an old, trusted recording come alive again.

Matter Over Mind

Sergei Rachmaninov once said, "Music must first and foremost be loved, it must come from the heart and it must be directed to the heart. Otherwise it cannot hope to be lasting, indestructible art."

Sunrise

There is a special place in the art world for those who create something entirely new and succeed greatly. Such is the case with Claude Debussy and his 1905 composition, La Mer (The Sea). If you enjoy the mystery of the sea, La Mer will dazzle you. Near the end of the first movement, De l'aube a midi sur la mer (From dawn to noon on the sea), it takes little imagination to see the sun perched radiantly above the water, replacing all of the dark mystery with sunlight.

Drop in a Pond

In my view, the highest level at which we may justifiably organize classical music is by composer. Some organize classical music by period (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, etc.), but this method is known to be imperfect - the periods overlap, some composers belong to multiple periods, and, for these and other reasons, some composers and works are hard to categorize. And when something is hard to categorize, it sometimes is undervalued. The same type of problem arises when attempting to organize classical music by form (symphony, concerto, tone poem, etc.).

We can avoid all of this potential confusion and injustice while sacrificing little, for knowing the period of some music offers only a small amount of information, anyway. On the other hand, organizing music by composer seems like a natural thing to do. This is because while there is no definitive entity to which we can tie all of the music corresponding to a particular period or form, all of the music composed by a particular composer springs from a common creative center.

This is why I began by listing composers. They are the organizational entry point into the world of classical music. At the other extreme, there is, not the work, but the single performance or recording, the experience of actually listening to classical music. Listening to some performance or recording and finding it enjoyable is the step a person takes when first entering the physical world of classical music. Depending on the person and the performance or recording, that step might be small or it might be long. It might compel the listener to seek other performances or recordings of the same work, by the same composer, of the same form, or by other related composers. Or it might compel the listener to explore the entire world of classical music.

The image that comes to mind is one of a drop of water falling into a pond. If the drop is heavy and forceful enough, the ripples will travel broadly across the pond's surface.

Composers

Rankings of composers according to "greatness" are always controversial and are often unappreciated, but a decent list of rankings can help us gain a rough perspective on who the important ones are, as long as we don't take the list too seriously. That said, this is not a list of "greatness" rankings - it just looks like one. The following ordered list was obtained by tallying up the number of CDs each composer has in the naxos.com online classical music catalogue.

If there were an objective way of evaluating composers, I imagine the evaluation would largely consider each composer's legacy, how strongly they are remembered, how relevant they remain over time. To a degree, the number of times a composer has been recorded on CD (a recent, mature medium of sound) is a measurement of that composer's legacy.

Instead of arbitrarily choosing 50 as the cut-off point, I chose to base the cut-off on some criteria. The first criterion is the following: To make it onto the list, a composer needed to be within one order of magnitude of the number one composer, meaning that a composer needed at least 72 CDs in the catalogue. The second criterion is as follows: Because there are thousands of composers in the catalogue and because it took some time to compile data for each composer, I narrowed the field from the start to the 162 selected by music critic Ted Libbey (of NPR and NEA fame) for inclusion in the small companion catalogue to NPR's Classical Music Encyclopedia (see naxos.com/workman). This left 51 composers.

1. Mozart 717
2. Bach 560
3. Beethoven 555
4. Tchaikovsky 405
5. Schubert 370
6. Brahms 334
7. Verdi 332
8. Mendelssohn 297
9. Handel 283
10. Haydn 259
11. Grieg 253
12. Chopin 252
13. Schumann 252
14. Debussy 220
15. Liszt 219
16. Dvorak 209
17. Sibelius 206
18. Puccini 201
19. Wagner 197
20. Vivaldi 195
21. Strauss II 193
22. Rossini 181
23. Rachmaninov 168
24. Bizet 162
25. Shostakovich 162
26. Ravel 153
27. Saint-Saens 153
28. Prokofiev 151
29. Rimsky-Korsakov 132
30. Elgar 126
31. Stravinsky 122
32. Donizetti 120
33. Gershwin 113
34. Strauss 113
35. Massenet 108
36. Faure 101
37. Britten 100
    
38. Mahler 99
39. Gounod 95
    
40. Nielsen 95
41. Weber 95
    
42. Telemann 91
    
43. Bartok 87
    
44. Berlioz 82
45. Glazunov 82
46. Mussorgsky 82
47. Villa-Lobos 80
48. Bruckner 79
    
49. Vaughan Williams 78
    
50. C.P.E. Bach 76
51. Offenbach 73

Edit: Because he is one of my sister's favorite composers, I will reveal that Purcell is #52.