They're the best remembered names now, but there were plenty of prolific symphony composers in the classical period.Originally Posted by PeterG
C.P.E. Bach - 20 symphonies
Dittersdorf - 120+ symphonies
Hofmann - 67 symphonies
Wanhal - 51 symphonies
etc.
Plus another Haydn...Michael Haydn who wrote 43 symphonies...
...and "Haydn's Wife" Boccherini who wrote 30 symphonies.
Last edited by progmatist; 02-27-2014 at 12:02 PM.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
Okay, let's have a look at your response in response to my statement "Also remember that, only two "Classical" (period) composers before him, namely, Mozart and Haydn were big symphony composers"
C.P.E. Bach was not a classial period composer he was a Baroque composer, he predates Mozart.
Hofmann (I assume you are talking about Leopold) was a Baroque composer and predates Mozart who is acknowledged as the FIRST composer of the Classical period.
But I'll give you Dittersdorf and Wanhal (never heard anything by Wanhal by the way).
However, it all misses my point. I list 2 and you provide 2 more, so we can come up with only 4 composers of the Classical period before Beethoven that wrote more symphonies than Beethoven out of all the tohusands of composers that were working at the time, which supports my argument that the symphony was a relatively new format, which first gained popularity in the late Baroque period.
Nonsense. The classical period began before Mozart was born. Wiki: "The dates of the Classical period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1730 and 1820." Now even I think that's a bit generous, but even if you narrow it down to 1750-1800, C.P.E. Bach and Leopold Hofmann were primarily active during those years. Your precious Mozart even assisted Hofmann. Are you seriously saying they somehow don't count as contemporaries?
No one's disputing that the symphony was a new form. Where you got it backwards was when you suggested that Beethoven was being "prolific" compared to older composers in writing nine symphonies. In fact the symphony when it first emerged was just another form that 18th century composers cranked out by the dozen, as Progmatist and I have pointed out. It was part of the sensibility of the Romantic period ushered in by Beethoven that the symphony was a big, dramatic deal, and that's why he produced only nine, and the composers who followed in his footsteps rarely even dared to write that many.which supports my argument that the symphony was a relatively new format, which first gained popularity in the late Baroque period.
Okay, end of discussion then, if you think Wiki is more reliable than academic books on the subject.
What "academic" book states that Mozart was the first composer of the classical period?
Do you prefer the word scholastic then?
I prefer a conversation that actually addresses the substance of my remarks rather than quibbles over semantics or the reliability of Wikipedia.
Well, the substance of my arugment is based on the many books I've read, which contain knowledge that predates the internet, and that is substance which you called nonsense, so end of discussion as far as I'm concerned.
So, a vast variety of sources.
Being rude is not helpful. I don't consider it my task to educate you in the subjects I've read or to provide you with a bibliography, you can get that from your local library.
Good thing, too!
But I still want to know on whose authority Leopold Hofmann--who was born six years after Haydn, and who was active throughout Mozart's entire lifetime--is too early to be considered a classical period composer.
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