Walter Meyer responds to me:

>>I know Bach when I hear him; same with Handel.
>
>Is it because you know all their works or because you recognize the
>respective composers' imprint on unfamiliar works?

I hesitate to really answer this question, because it will likely lead to
more questions which are hard to answer.  The quick answer to Walter is,
some of both.  The better answer is:

a.  There are four composers I place at the top of the heap: Bach,
Beethoven, Handel, and Mozart.  They have this standing because each of
them does one particular thing regularly in their music; they take me to
the musical heights of enjoyment and immediately transport me to an even
greater height.

b.  Given (a), it's easy to get the point where the work is either by Bach
or Handel since baroque music sounds so different from classical-era or
early romantic music.

c.  The only part of the puzzle remaining is whether it's Bach or Handel,
and I find significant differences between the two.  Bach's music exhibits
a greater emotional range, more depth, a strong sense of intellectual
thinking and processing.  Handel's music is the most beautiful music in
the baroque repertoire which is IMMEDIATELY accessible.

Walter also mentioned Telemann.  I think of Telemann as a Handel wanna-be
who doesn't quite get to Handel's level.

Of course, the above is just how I make my differentiations; it works for
me and, I would assume, no one else.

Don Satz
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