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Is Bach the greatest achiever of all time?

marginalrevolution.com

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Re: Is Bach the greatest achiever of all time?

#41

Post by Jensson »

danielvaughn wrote: post #28

The comment thread on that page gets into Newton and Neumann, but I think artistic/scientific achievements are apples/oranges. Doesn't make sense to compare the two, because the standard of quality is so different. Even within artistic disciplines, how would you compare Bach, Shakespeare, and DaVinci? Shakespeare alone added 1,700 new words to the English language (that we still use today). DaVinci painted so meticul…

> Comparison is the thief of joy

Comparing others is a source of joy, people love gossiping or just talking about who is better etc. Comparison is only a thief of joy when you compare yourself to others, but comparing Newton to Einstein etc is an endless source of fun, many people have enjoyed these discussions over the years.

Re: Is Bach the greatest achiever of all time?

#42

Post by tesdinger »

danielvaughn wrote: post #28

The comment thread on that page gets into Newton and Neumann, but I think artistic/scientific achievements are apples/oranges. Doesn't make sense to compare the two, because the standard of quality is so different. Even within artistic disciplines, how would you compare Bach, Shakespeare, and DaVinci? Shakespeare alone added 1,700 new words to the English language (that we still use today). DaVinci painted so meticul…

How do we know Shakespeare added words and was not the first one to write them down? Or do you mean the latter?

Re: Is Bach the greatest achiever of all time?

#43

Post by ekianjo »

gmuslera wrote: post #19

History is written by the victors. The greatest achiever of which work reached us, by the criteria that we pick, of the things we know today, and the "we" changes from culture to culture. Without dismissing Bach's work (or the others named in the discussion, I would had picked Leonardo with my shallow default knowledge on the topic) we should acknowledge how biased is what we know. Not just because how we select what…

> Not just because how we select what we should focus on, but how partial is the information that managed to reach us today.

Maybe for some really old stuff, but musical production at the time of Bach's is something entirely different. There's no other genius like him out there, and that's a fact.

Re: Is Bach the greatest achiever of all time?

#45

Post by lispm »

tgv wrote: post #23
nathell wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, why on earth would this metric be important? Failure is a fact of life; one needs to experience it many, many times on the road to grandmastery. I’m pretty sure Bach had. It makes more sense to cherish than deplore it.

10 of his 20 children and his first wife died. That's enough setback for most of us. He was imprisoned over quitting his appointment, if you want to add some. It really is a weird criterium.

Father and mother of Bach died before he was ten...

Re: Is Bach the greatest achiever of all time?

#46

Post by throw0101b »

sbrother wrote: post #30
throw0101b wrote: post #8

Around the year 2000, amongst the other things that were going on, it was also the 250th anniversary of Bach's death. Someone at the record label Teldec got the bright idea to release the entirely of Bach's work, and so a 153-disc box set was produced: * https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/the-complete-b... * https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/Apr13/B... * https://www.amazon.com/Bach-2000-…

Deutsche Grammophon produced something similar recently, which I was lucky enough to get for Christmas last year: https://www.bach333.com/en/ It is stunning in every way; I highly recommend it for any Bach fans!

Crikey, they have an unboxing video (and the musical samples they use in it sound so good/atmospheric in my headphones):

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8EuGZk74io

I am so tempted to get this (even at CA$ 800, per amazon.ca), but I'm not sure I have the actual physical space to store it.

Re: Is Bach the greatest achiever of all time?

#47

Post by cesaref »

j7ake wrote: post #37

Bach is definitely the greatest achiever in music of all time. His fame also took a long time to establish. He was well known during his life but nothing like the mythical legend he is now today.

I thought Bach was relatively obscure till Mendelssohn promoted his music to a new generation?

Anyhow, there are many many great composers from different genres, and if you consider the aim to be communication (rather than the quality of the music itself) who would argue against the Beatles, or Taylor Swift as the greatest achievers of all time in music?

Re: Is Bach the greatest achiever of all time?

#50

Post by danielvaughn »

tesdinger wrote: post #42
danielvaughn wrote: post #28

The comment thread on that page gets into Newton and Neumann, but I think artistic/scientific achievements are apples/oranges. Doesn't make sense to compare the two, because the standard of quality is so different. Even within artistic disciplines, how would you compare Bach, Shakespeare, and DaVinci? Shakespeare alone added 1,700 new words to the English language (that we still use today). DaVinci painted so meticul…

How do we know Shakespeare added words and was not the first one to write them down? Or do you mean the latter?

No idea, that’s just something I’ve heard repeated lots of times. I’d always assumed he coined them.
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