gjm comments on Rationality Quotes Thread January 2016 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: elharo 01 January 2016 04:00PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (244)

Sort By: Popular

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: gjm 24 January 2016 06:07:07PM -1 points [-]

'greatest' according to whom?

Decca, some guy writing for the New York Phil, some guy writing for the Daily Telegraph, etc.

Seriously: of course anyone trying to offer an actual careful assessment will say something like "one of the greatest" or "arguably the greatest" or something. As you'll see if you follow all my links above or search the web yourself, one very common practice is to say "widely regarded as the greatest" :-). Personally I rate him well above Sullivan and Holst and roughly equal with Elgar and RVW. I don't know enough Ferneyhough to have a useful opinion.

Comment author: bogus 24 January 2016 06:44:52PM 1 point [-]

Well, yes; it seems that he really had a strong fanbase, mostly among his fellow musicians. But I think you may be underestimating the popularity of Elgar, Sullivan and RVW's music (if not Ferneyhough's). I mean, these might as well be household names among relevant audiences; you can't really say the same for Britten. Now, if I had to mention gay composers who are genuinely notable for their musical output, I'd say Lully and (most obviously) Tchaikovsky.

Comment author: gjm 24 January 2016 07:34:57PM 0 points [-]

you may be underestimating the popularity

I wasn't talking about popularity. I'm sorry if I gave the wrong impression somehow.

(But yes, in terms of popularity Tchaikovsky certainly trumps Britten.)