Margaret Mikulska steps in, responding to Jon GallanT:

>>Steve Schwartz eliminated Bach because he did not write operas, and
>>therefore failed criterion #2: "Be proficient in all genres of his day".
>
>Mozart wasn't proficient in the oratorio/cantata genre, Beethoven in
>many vocal genres, Chopin in most genres -- it's awfully difficult to
>find a composer who doesn't fail this criterion.

Ah, but that's why the Very Greatest Composer Ever satisfies the criterion
-- so you can winnow the chaff (like Bach, Mozart, Josquin, Byrd,
Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Boulez, Carter, Haydn,
Handel, and so on).

Besides, no one said it would be easy (Sheryl Crow).

Steve Schwartz