2006-10-14 12:57:29 · 9 answers · asked by dmaf81 1 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Music
Considering they were both born in the same year (1685), the clear winner is J.S Bach. Compare 'The Messiah' to 'The St. Matthew Passion' and Bach wins hands down. Handel is predictable, harmonically unimaginative, forever 'stately', and has been over-rated for decades.
Bach gave us the 48 Preludes and Fugues, the Goldberg Variations, 20 volumes of organ music, a years worth of Cantatas, The Suites for Cello, The Brandendurg Concertos, the St. Matthew and the St. John Passions, the Mass in B minor... to name but a few. That the collection of chorales which he harmonised (the Riemenschneider) still stands today as a benchmark in the study of harmony and harmonic progression speaks for itself. The man was an innovator beyond compare; a genius.
Handel, on the other hand, was very good at going from the tonic to the dominant, to the subdominant, and back to the tonic; nothing anyone studying Grade 3 theory couldn't achieve (something he shares with Status Quo and most of the boringly predictable pop music of today)
I am an organist, and one of the great pleasures in playing Bach is seeing how superbly he crafts 4 or 5 part fugues, sometimes with the most complicated motifs imaginable, and yet it all fits together seamlessly, almost effortlessly. I do not see the same ability in Handel.
Admittedly Bach writes for the voice in the same way he writes for an instrument, and that is very demanding for a singer. I suppose that is why choirs would rather sing the Messiah than the B minor Mass. For sheer mastery of the contrapuntle, and laying down the gauntlet for future generations to come up with anything near the inventiveness he displayed, he remains the hero of his time. Not until Debussy or Ravel did anyone come close to re-inventing the harmonic landscape of classical music. There may be many geniuses along the way (Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Berlioz, Wagner, to name a few) but, frankly, J.S.Bach stands head and shoulders above the lot of them.
A true genius.
2006-10-14 13:42:03 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
BACH!!! Bach is the King of Classical music! Bach because his music is simply better than Handel's....i don't know why but I have played a lot of Bach and hardly any Handel so I would automatically choose him! Good Question though.
2006-10-14 14:31:47 · answer #2 · answered by Seriously Though 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Totally Bach, Handel was simply a pop star using the format to crank out the hits and fulfill the contracts.
2006-10-14 13:44:21 · answer #3 · answered by Emee 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I also like Baroque music. It makes you focus on the combination of different melodies. Beautiful. Bach, Vivaldi, Handel.
2016-05-22 02:20:40 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I do like the Hallelujah chorus from Messiah but Jetthro Tull sold me Bach long ago wit their jazz version of Bouree.
2006-10-14 13:01:25 · answer #5 · answered by monkeymanelvis 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
JS Bach! Why??? Just listen!! Worlds apart!
2006-10-14 13:00:59 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
3 geniuses in music; Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.
Handel doesn't figure, sorry
2006-10-14 13:07:34 · answer #7 · answered by Mart 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Hendel's work is very good, but J.S. Bach blows him out of ze wasser. (har har)
Seriously, Bach is better.
2006-10-14 13:04:49 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
both very good. impossible to say.
brandenberg concertos are excellent, but then so is the music for the royal fireworks.
baroque rocks.
2006-10-14 13:00:27 · answer #9 · answered by Wing commander 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋