Drew Capuder wrote:

>>Let anyone who denigrates the last movement of Beethoven's 9th be
>>condemned to a lifetime of Rossini.

Bob Draper responded:

>Interesting choice of torturer. Some would find this punishment bliss.
>
>I see Rossini as the Vivaldi of the 19c. Those who denigrade Vivaldi
>do so in the light of  their experience of Bach. Similarly Rossini's
>detractors see Verdi as his superior.

In my original post, I was half kidding and half serious about Rossini,
although I intended no offense.  I think the world of Beethoven's 9th, and
I don't think a whole lot of Rossini.  However, my remark was partly poking
fun at the severity of disagreements about composers.  I chose Rossini to
"dump on" because there is a funny passage in Gravity's Rainbow where 2
characters (Saure and Gustav, if memory serves me correctly) are violently
debating the merits of Beethoven and Rossini.  The Rossini proponent says
that the only thing you want to do after listening to Beethoven is "invade
Poland;" and the Beethoven proponent ridicules Rossini fans as "farting
through their dentures." One of the remarks in the novel that stands out in
my mind is that the Rossini proponent says that there is more "profundity"
in a single snare drum attack in one of the Rossini overtures than either
all of Beethoven's 9th or all of Beethoven's symphonies.

I fully agree with Bob that Rossini is bliss for many people, including
people that I know and respect.  While Rossini is closer to "hell" for me,
this is only a reminder that hell and bliss (or heaven) are frequently the
same thing for different people, and the passage from Gravity's Rainbow is
a good illustration of that.

I think Bob's comparison between Rossini and Vivaldi is, within limits, a
fair comparison, probably especially from the perspective of the listener.
However, even though I am not a big fan of Rossini, I am not, as Bob seems
to suggest, a particularly big Verdi fan (although as I accumulate age and
very limited amounts of wisdom I get to like more of the mature Verdi
operas and his Requiem).  I enjoy a good bit of Vivaldi and a good bit more
of Handel.

I completely agree with Bob's statement that we shouldn't trash composers
who use "lighter forces." Mozart, I believe, is frequently dismissed
unfairly because he is tagged as a "lighter" and excessively "accessible"
composer.  One of the reasons why I like Ligeti is that he has a real sense
of humor that comes out in his music, and that is pretty unusual for modern
composers.  Ligeti combines the ridiculous and the sublime, sometimes in
the same works.  That juxtaposition also, in my mind, gives Mahler much of
his emotional richness.  Mozart, in the Magic Flute, gives us (to our
eternal enrichment) both the profundity of Sarastro and the idiocy (and
ultimately profundity?) of Papageno. Even Beethoven, in his most profound
late string quartets, gives us a wonderfully whimsical and humorous
conclusion to Op. 135.

Drew M. Capuder
Fairmont, West Virginia USA
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