Legends of Classical Music – Who? And, more importantly, why?

By Chris Billingham 

Throughout his lifetime Alexander Borodin produced a number of memorable works that have stood the test of time. My personal favourite is Symphony No. 2; from the alternations between major and minor thirds in the first movement to the use of F major in the second, the piece joyfully wanders into a number of unique directions, complemented by wonderful pacing. As well as my praise for this particular work, Borodin is held in high regard because of his powerful string quartets, and acclaimed opera ‘Prince Igor’. In a letter of 1877, Tchaikovsky stated that “Borodin possesses talent, a very great talent” and a number of other composers, academics and more have complimented the Russian composer.

Does this make him one of the greatest composers of all time? Could you attach the word ‘legendary’ to his name? Presumably it would depend on what you think the term means. One of the most common descriptions of the term is “Extremely well known; famous or renowned”. To test whether or not Borodin fits this definition, I asked a number of friends who don’t listen to or engage with classical music if they recognised the name; none of them did. They were however, familiar with Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Tchaikovsky, names that constantly appear at the top of lists of ‘the greatest composers of all time’. 

Image by buckleysoreal

Why do these names frequently top these lists? In 2011, The New York Times ran a detailed campaign to find the Top 10 composers of all time. The project opened a discussion through online videos, multiple articles and blog posts. Eventually there were more than 1500 comments, all passionately arguing the case for various composers and debating the winner. The paper’s chief music critic, Anthony Tommasini, concluded that Bach would top the list “for his matchless combination of masterly musical engineering [as one reader put it] and profound expressivity”. Is this a fair judgement? On the one hand, the sheer volume and range of art would suggest audiences connect to different things. There is a reason that we can keep segmenting art, from pastoral paintings to horror films; one expressive form cannot necessarily be compared to the other. Despite this, we attempt to do so constantly in modern popular culture, judging a singer against an acrobat on shows like ‘Britain’s Got Talent’. 

Speaking of popular culture, it could be argued that death is a factor when labelling modern artists as ‘legendary’. In my opinion this is because society is left to wonder how they would have increased their body of work. Analysing what has been can take hours, but wondering what could have been can last for an infinite amount of time. ‘Grace’ by Jeff Buckley is an incredible album and his tragic death at a young age means people will always wonder what could have been, which sounds ‘legendary’ to me. 

Despite its importance when considering other forms of art like mainstream music and film, death doesn’t seem to be an important factor when considering the greatest classical composers. Potentially because Western classical music dates back to the 11^th century, with so many composers thus historical perhaps people don’t consider how long their lifetime was. Combined with the fact that life expectancy has increased, any composer living before this period could be expected to have lived a shorter life. Henry Purcell, for example, lived to only 36 years old with an unclear cause of death, while Mozart famously died young with a huge creative output of 600 works (and the story of his poisoning by Salieri, made famous by the film ‘Amadeus’, has been disproved).

Speaking of Mozart, therefore, is status in the classical music world therefore determined by a composer’s body of work? It is estimated that Bach wrote over 1000 compositions; an incredible amount by anyone’s estimation. This said, I’m sure that most would argue that quality is more important than quality. As Tommasini explains, “though Bach never wrote an opera, he demonstrated visceral flair for drama in his sacred choral works, as in the crowd scenes in the Passions where people cry out with chilling vehemence for Jesus to be crucified.” 

Perhaps it as simple as that; skill, and a high quality of work, can make you a legend. As discussed above and in previous articles, I would still argue to an extent that every listener has their own view on what is and isn’t the highest quality. However, numerous lists of the greatest composers of all time would suggest that if the masses feel that an artist’s work is powerful and engaging, they will be referred to as ‘legendary’. I may well try and convince more people to consider Alexander Borodin…

Who would you describe as legendary? To get in touch and share your thoughts, comment below or join in the discussion on Facebook or Twitter. 

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