# Do you think Mozart would like modern music? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 20, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577 "2012-11-20T03:13:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/21 "2012-11-20T20:14:25Z")
I think Mozart would have been a popular musician in any era he was dropped into. The man was a natural born genius. ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/22 "2012-11-20T20:42:59Z")
> [@tullsterx](#): > > He might regard most modern music to be trivial. I doubt that he would hate it. In that sense, no different than his own era. The vast majority of music from _any_ era (or art, literature, etc.) pales when compared to the very best of that same era. I think, given time, he would be able to discern from the dreck the examples of genius that exist in any of the modern genres. ---
**Author:** ![Charles\_Peterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Charles\_Peterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charles_Peterman)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/23 "2012-11-21T04:07:08Z")
Good question, but not the right question IMHO. Are you asking about technology or advances in harmonic theory and practice? Will wait until clarification. ---
**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/24 "2012-11-21T04:59:19Z")
> [@Charles\_Peterman](#): > > Good question, but not the right question IMHO. Are you asking about technology or advances in harmonic theory and practice? The latter. I think he’ll understand the ipod fairly quickly as a small device that runs on electricity, which produces an endless supply of sounds. Some sounds will be familiar, having developed in part as a result of his own influence on music. But, some will be alien. I wonder what if anything he’d like, and how he’d feel about the progression of music. ---
**Author:** ![JCorre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3da27b/32.png) [@JCorre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JCorre)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/25 "2012-11-21T07:05:58Z")
I’d be most interested on what he’d think of dubstep. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/26 "2012-11-21T07:26:09Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > …I would also suspect he would really, really like the idea of a sound studio where he could go back in and micro manage every single note and instrument to get exactly what he wants, and have it recorded for posterity. That would impress him. I almost started a similar thread to the OP’s, but my idea was to bring in great composers from the past and show them the musicians and the toys and tools used to create music now. I think many, including Mozart, would be ecstatic over the possibilities and the freedom they would have, and would just boil with new ideas. But just shoving an iPod at them in their own time – they’d probably go at you with their anti-witch pitchforks. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/27 "2012-11-21T07:26:15Z")
> [@JCorre](#): > > I’d be most interested on what he’d think of dubstep. ‘This concept of “wub” confuses and infuriates me!’ ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/28 "2012-11-21T07:46:44Z")
I’d like to think Mozart would’ve LOVED modern music. If the technology had existed in his day, I imagine him electrifying his instruments and rocking out with his cock out. Once upon a time, I had a boyfriend who was a classical musician (cello) and came from a family of classical musicians. While not ignorant of modern music, he hadn’t really been raised listening to a lot of it, and knew almost nothing about metal, my favorite genre. I played a bunch of different metal bands for him, none of which interested him at all (too simplistic) until I played some Dream Theater. He \*loved \*Dream Theater. ---
**Author:** ![Charles\_Peterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Charles\_Peterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charles_Peterman)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/29 "2012-11-21T20:21:15Z")
> [@cainxinth](#): > > Some sounds will be familiar, having developed in part as a result of his own influence on music. But, some will be alien. I wonder what if anything he’d like, and how he’d feel about the progression of music. I think he’d be upset by Wagner – say, _Tristan und Isolde_ – to say nothing of Webern or Stockhausen or even Terry Riley or Rzewski. I’d think he really just wouldn’t “get” the loosening of the bonds of major-minor harmony in the late 19th century, except maybe after years of getting hip to it. I don’t think he’d care about pop music – he knew folk songs. Same thing, pretty much. Advances in piano technique – Alkan, Liszt and the sheer sound of the modern piano would no doubt turn his head, I’m thinking. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/30 "2012-11-21T20:45:14Z")
> [@Charles\_Peterman](#): > > Advances in piano technique – Alkan, Liszt and the sheer sound of the modern piano would no doubt turn his head, I’m thinking. I wonder how he’d react, after being brought forward to our time, to a performance of one of his works by a first rate orchestra, in a modern venue with fantastic acoustics. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/31 "2012-11-21T20:57:25Z")
I think he’d enjoy it, especially stuff he couldn’t do with the instruments of his day. In a similar vein, when I hear a new pop song, I ask myself, “Would John Lennon enjoy this?” If the answer is no (in most cases), I easily dismiss it, but there are some songs I think Lennon would like - none of which I can name from the top of my head… ---
**Author:** ![Labor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Labor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labor)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/32 "2012-11-23T18:06:16Z")
I think that Mozart would have mixed reactions to what he hears. 1. I believe he would be fascinated by the instruments that are now available that were not in existence in his day. The piano was pretty new during Mozart’s day, the idea of a piano vituoso was non-existent, trumpts and horns did not have valves and there were lots of developments in clarinets and flutes that I believe he would find great interest. Tubas did not exist but I’m not convinced that he would use them. 2. Of course there were no electronic musical instruments or electonic sound amplification. So, he’d have a lot more sounds to work with. 3. I think he’d be appaled by most of the pop music of today. Most of it is uninteresting, harmonically retarded and totally lacking in musical form. I do think he’d have a great time re-writing some of the better pop, rock, blues, jazz, rap, atonal, bluegrass, dixieland tues and making them very interesting. Finally, I wonder what he would make of synthesizers and all the mixers and other electronic gadgetry that would allow him to produce a perfect representation of what is in his mind’s ear. That would be awesome. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/33 "2012-11-23T20:10:15Z")
I think he’d consider “country music” an oxymoron. I do. ---
**Author:** ![Charles\_Peterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Charles\_Peterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charles_Peterman)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/34 "2012-11-23T21:25:59Z")
> [@Labor](#): > > 1. I think he’d be appaled by most of the pop music of today. Most of it is uninteresting, harmonically retarded and totally lacking in musical form. True, but most of the music of Mozart’s day and most of Mozart’s own music was of no interest harmonically – to the extent that Mozart eschewed contrapuntal writing, the poverty is plain to see. > [@Labor](#): > > Finally, I wonder what he would make of synthesizers and all the mixers and other electronic gadgetry that would allow him to produce a perfect representation of what is in his mind’s ear. That would be awesome. Probably correct – obviously, the gigasamplers and high-processing-powered models of instruments require an immense array of reproductive equipment to be appreciated. It’s of some doubt whether a musician used to hearing an acoustic instrument – and to hear an acoustic instrument, when played, reverberate sui spono (or whatever SUA SPONTE – thanks, edit!) – would take well to hearing alien reproductive techniques. I.e., speakers or headphones. Obviously, there is no sampled acoustic piano – including Ivory – that can do without the requisite fakery of providing feedback to the ear of the performer, in real time. Maybe Beethoven would have been happy, but who could say?!:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/35 "2012-11-23T21:26:58Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > I’m surprised if these are so integral to his appreciation of music that he would literally fail to recognize the sound as music. Can you provide some support for the idea? Sorry. My time machine is broken. My point is that the experience of hearing non-vibrating sound come out of something the size of a pack of playing cards would be a much more radical change in the way Mozart was conditioned to listen to music than any modern music you might play for him. I think a live performance of modern music (or at least writen in the tabulature of the day) is the only way someone of his era could place those sounds into a context that he could really appreciate. ---
**Author:** ![Charles\_Peterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Charles\_Peterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charles_Peterman)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/36 "2012-11-23T22:10:54Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > I think he’d consider “country music” an oxymoron. I do. Do you think “he”'d consider ABBA a palindrome? I sure do. Yep, I surely do. Cause and when you’re right you’re wrong and when you’re wrong you know when to do the right thing. And go away. Hargus knew nothing about music, nor did Levon Helm, nor did Garth Hudson, nor did Richard Manuel. Yep, I like to think they had a better class of music back in them days. FTR, Mozart’s music was harmonically unsophisticted, his technology poor, and his manner unsound. And I don’t even like Mozart. Just imagine what they’d say about you? Hell, I like you. You can even come over to my house and meet my sister. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/37 "2012-11-23T23:01:36Z")
The stuff I’ve heard from Mozart sounded so boring that I wonder if he’d just think anything more complicated would sound dissonant, kinda like really extreme jazz does to us. (This would be more interesting if you’d go earlier, back when the third was dissonant. Yikes!) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/38 "2012-11-23T23:54:50Z")
> [@Charles\_Peterman](#): > > Do you think “he”'d consider ABBA a palindrome? I sure do. Yep, I surely do. Cause and when you’re right you’re wrong and when you’re wrong you know when to do the right thing. And go away. > > Hargus knew nothing about music, nor did Levon Helm, nor did Garth Hudson, nor did Richard Manuel. > > Yep, I like to think they had a better class of music back in them days. FTR, Mozart’s music was harmonically unsophisticted, his technology poor, and his manner unsound. > > And I don’t even like Mozart. Just imagine what they’d say about you? Hell, I like you. You can even come over to my house and meet my sister. You seem upset. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/39 "2012-11-24T00:38:36Z")
> [@Charles\_Peterman](#): > > nor did Garth Hudson, Now, now - Garth Hudson did in fact have some [formal training](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Hudson#Early_life) ;). ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/40 "2012-11-24T01:01:32Z")
First, he’d give the iPod a listen and say, “That’s cool, but could they make it sound better?” Second, he’d hire a team of lawyers to work out his royalty problems. I recommend the guys who made Mickey Mouse immortal. Third, he’s get a piano that didn’t keep going out of tune. Fourth, he’d get the bitchin’est synthesizer setup he could find and go back to composing. The sounds he could make and how he could modify them would keep him busy forever. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577.md?page=3)