Would you Rank the composers in the order of difficulty?

Question

of playing... (piano, violin, cello, etc) Piano mainly though.

Bach
Beethoven
Brahms
Chopin
Liszt
Mozart
Rachmaninov
Saint-Saens
Schubert
(and others you'd like to add)

From EASY to DIFFICULT, please.

Answer 1

That is COMPLETELY subjective. Some people find Bach impossible and Liszt easy, because Bach requires absolute precision, wheras Liszt requires vast amounts of interpretation - and of course every composer has easier and harder pieces. If you judged the difficulty of Rachmaninov based on the C# minor prelude alone you'd have a completely biased view of him, most of his music is a lot harder than that. Equally, a lot of Beethoven is easier than the 3rd movement of the moonlight sonata.

VERY generally speaking the earlier music is the less technically demanding it is - until you get to the 20th century that is, when it could go either way. Liszt, Rachmaninov and Chopin are widely believed to be the most challenging of composers for the piano, wheras Beethoven, Mozart and Bach often have pieces which students can learn with relative ease.

It all depends on what individual people find hard - some people find arpeggios easy, some think they're tricky, some people can't play the octave basses in Beethoven without trouble (small hands etc) some people can't play the fiddly fugues of Bach.

Answer 2

1. Romance 2. Trust 3. Sharing 4. Joy 5. Compatibility 6. Tenderness 7. Respect 8. Patience 9. Humor

Answer 3

I dont' understand why it has to be a rank- all were really, really effing difficult. Mozart has his own freaking style (ever hear college professors say play in the "mozart style"?) One I'd add to the list definitely is Shostakovich

Answer 4

Ravel
Rachmaninoff
Liszt
Chopin
Beethoven
Schubert
Bach
Mozart
Brahms
Saint-Saens


It still depends on the pieces you are talking about.
It also depends on your hands and your technique. For instance, the arpeggios and chords that Ravel uses are difficult for me because my hands are not big enough, and I am used to Romantic, Classical, Baroque pieces mostly.

Answer 5

motzart is intermidiate, and bach is pretty easy, those are pretty much the only ones ive played, or looked at, but listen to all the others all the time

Answer 6

I really need a list of songs to answer. Very good question though...

Answer 7

Hmm....actually very poor question, sorry. :-)

Try listing the exact pieces, the diificulties will be easier to judge.

Thanks!