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Results from the Schubert Wagner competition!

For about a year visitors to these pages have told me their thoughts about the difference between Schubert and Wagner, two of the most famous German-speaking composers. They have also been asked about who they think is the greatest composer ever lived. A total of 200+ answers are the basis of these statistics.

114 of these people thought, that "Schubert was a greater composer than Wagner".

26 of these people thought, that "I like Schubert as much as Wagner".

4 of these people thought that "Wagner is a greater composer than Schubert".

Some of these people have also answered to some questions, regarding who they believe is the greatest composer. As these pages are dedicated to Schubert, I have excluded him.

35 of these people thought that Beethoven is the greatest composer.

28 of these people thought that Mozart is the greatest composer.

12 of these people thought that Bach is the greatest composer.

5 of these people thought that Dvorak is the greatest composer.

4 of these people thought that Chopin is the greatest composer.

4 of these people thought that Stravinskij is the greatest composer.

3 of these people thought that Händel is the greatest composer.

Also, Schumann, Grieg, Mahler, Wagner, Haydn, Mendelsson and Liszt received two votes.

Finally, Paganini, Tschaijkovskij, Shostakovitj, Vivaldi and Rachmanichoff received one vote each.

What are your comments on the following statistics? I know that these pages are often visited by Schubertlovers, and not by Wagnerlovers. That makes the statistics more interesting. I will let you do the comment on these figures. I'll start with what you have written to me. Remember that if you want me to add any additional information, you can always mail me.

If anyone are offended because I publish their opinions her, please mail me and I will remove it as soon as possible. Thanks to all of you who have helped me in collecting all these very interesting opinions about Schubert. Thanks a lot!

Schubert seems to have loved his friends, and they him. Wagner used people; he could not write music with the ease of Schubert. If Wagner had died at the age of Schubert, Tannhauser would have been his last work. He would probably have been as popular today as Marschner is. But both composers have contributed much to my life.
(This is the comment I like most. Unfortunately, I don't have the authors e-mail. If you read this, feel free to mail me)

Of course I think Schubert is a greater composer than Wagner. I would say that in another 50 years Wagner's music will have declined to a small corner of musical history. However I believe that Schubert's music will remain one of the greatest body of work because it is so richly appealing to the sensibilities of ordinary people.

While Mozart's passion was heaven-bound and Beethoven's music was earth-bound and anguished, Schubert wrote music which combined the essence of unearthly beauty with the torment of real life; that is why I think he is the most ingenious composer who ever lived.

Schubert is probably my favorite composer. However, I like Beethoven equally, as well. Other favorites: Prokofiev, Mozart, Stravinsky, Tchaikowsky, Schumann, Puccini, Verdi, Bach, Vivaldi....but, I think noone comes close to his particular genius. His melodies are impossible to match. Yes, Schubert stands alone.

Schubert is the best, his music are very different, so lovely. Some are powerful, sad, love. I just like him more.

I like Schubert, because his music are very strong, and lovely, his music are just wonderful. I can't see why anyone would dislike him and his music. I feel bad because he died at the age of 31. He could of written more beautiful songs if he did not died.

You have a universe very limited!!!! (Please, I would appreciate if the author of these lines would mail me! You can't compare feelings, but yet, I think you can compare composers!)

You cannot compare Schubert wiv Wagner coz they have their own styles and perception sifferently in music..I like Schubert's radical way of putting classical music sprayed in a roamntic scent..on the other hand.. wagner's music has that pure german military charisma that doesn't exsist in Schubert.

I love schubert because the familiarity of his work is astouding! I can hear a schubert piece for the first time and recognize it as though i've listened to it a thousand times before....I do not like Wagner...especially as a singer and a mezzo-soprano.....

I love Wagner for opera and Schuber for piano!

Both Chopin (1) and Brahms (2), Chopin because of his technical brilliance, and Brahms because of his music passion and emotion. For these reasons unfortunately, they both outdo Schubert. (He comes a close third)
To comment on your final statement I strongly agree, if a composer is to have any emotion or feeling in his music, ofcourse it must reflect what he is experiencing in his own life.

Liszt adored Schubert - consider his remarkable and many transcriptions of Schubert's songs..they are as magnificent as the songs in the original, and did much to make Schubert's name known outside of Vienna. (Yap, you're right. But he still thought that his own genious was enormous compared to Schubert's!)

For me, Paganini was also a great musician and figure in classical music. Schubert had seen him perform the year before he died, and was very impressed with his playing. (Thanks for that info!)

Liszt may not have liked Schubert but he made many transcriptions of his works. As for Wagner I personally HATE him, because he acted like Mendelssohn's friend and after he died he said that no one of Jewish descent could fill any musical expression. The truth is he was jelous and all other composers are above him even Stravinsky! (Please, why hate? That will not make things better!)

Wagner is Evil - He's Hitler's inspiration. (Wabla! I don't think he is evil. Just not a great composer.)

I hate no composer more than Wagner... (hm… Noone forces you to listen at him these days…)

As for me, I do not like Wagneer at all, think Schubert is far better. Schubert anticipates Scriabin, even Shoenberg in some respects in his relentless use of any combination of notes to achieve an effect. (Very interesting… thanks!)

By the way.... how could possibly forget to include Chopin in more list??? He's my all-time favorite (Yap, you may be right, check the statistics)

As a singer, I like both Schubert and Wagner. Each appeals in a different way. They do have one element in common. The music of both reaches great psychological depth. Neither write trivial music. The exploration of the darker side of the human psyche in "Die Winterreise" is Wagnerian in its scope! Also, in Schubert we find the beginnings of the use of piano accompaniment to make psychological comments on the text, apart from the singer's vocal line. In it, one can see the roots of what eventually led to Wagner's development of the lietmotiv. (This is interesting, I admit. I have read it before, and I think it is strongly possible you're right.)

I like Franz Peter Schubert pretty much, and I chose him for my famous
musician for my music class...!!
The other reason I chose him is because I am playing one of his great piano pieces, and I think his music works are great and very neat,so you have to care about some articulations, kind of hard to practice thought!
Anyway, do enjoy the pieces...^^... Well...I don't have any favorite musician, I like them all!!

I think that Wagner's music must not be played at all. I say that for
two reasons. 1) Wagner was a white supremacist and 2) His music had great influence on Hitler. Probably the most horrible man born on the face of the earth to commit greatest crime against humanity. I admire Schubert and all his other foes also like Mendelsson and Liszt except Wagner for his personality and character flaws.

Beethoven is the only one I like as much or nearly as much as Schubert. (Well, many people share your opinion. That is now even statistically proven).

It is difficult to understand how anyone could like Wagner more than Schubert. In the '20's, there grew a group of musicians ( Poulenc et al.) who styled themselves as Les Six. The great Six are, however, J.S. Bach, Haendel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven &.... Schubert. All others are in comparison first, second, third etc. second, third or worse, raters. Specifically, nothing of Wagner is as revolutionary as Schubert's B minor symphony, his quintet in C or his Winterreise, to name only three. I do not rate Schubert above the other five, but he stands on the highest pinnacle with them.

Why hate, why COMPARE! (Yes, I agree. There is no good in hating even Wagner.)

I am also a Schubert fan and a Wagner foe, but I have a question for you: Why do you say that Mendelssohn disliked Schubert's music? I am suprised by that, since both composers had the same musical ideals. Can you point me to some reference that shows Mendelssohn's disliking of Schubert's work? (Yap, check the reference list. It was written in a swedish book, unfortunatelly. Honestly, I agree that I have been a bit unfair to Mendelsson. He was positive to many of his symphonies. Thanks for the remark.)

Wagner was far too long winded to appreciate Schubert, friendly and concise. Schubert was far less pretentious...
Comes through strongly in their music, Schubert wrote songs that Beethoven was envious of. Wagner took the attidude it seems of 'size is everything'. Repetition isn't a major hassle...so Schubert definitely remains preferable to Wagner.

It is natural that more respondants will favor Schubert. The fact that they came to this page indicates they are Schubert lovers! (I know…)

Although I love Schubert's music, it's hard to beat Beethoven, and Schubert lived in the shadow of the master and had to be heavily influenced by him.

Gustav Mahler is the best!!!!
His music is just wonderful!
Schubert in m opinion sucks big times. (Hm… I can't agree. Mahler is boring, did two or three good symphonies, that's all. Compare that with the works Schubert did in his extremely short life!)

Schubert's probably the best pre-romantic composer of it's age, more prolific by proportion than Beethoven, but whereas Beethoven enters the new century with works which are further and further moving away from the style imposed by the classicists, Schubert still is influenced by the classical style until later in his short life. His 4th and 5th symphonies are influenced by late Mozart composition style. Yet, there's a romanthic awakening in this little man, the romanthic that we can listen in his 9th symphony (my favourite). I like both Schubert and Wagner... They are quite different composers, and I cannot compare one with the other.

How can you compare the two? How can you compare any two composers? There are Mozart times and Schubert times, and Ravel and Bellini and Gounod and Bizet and Stravinsky (yes, Stravinsky) and Debussy and Haydn and...

When I was younger I tried to be a harpsichord player. At that time I was studing violin and piano, and my passion by baroque made me change both by the bass Viol. But, by the way, sometimes I get very sorry because I have given up studing piano. It occurs mostly when I hear piano music by Schubert, Beethoven and Mendelssohn. It has been a surprise to me the fact that Mendelssohn disliked Schubert. Beside Beethoven, they are, as I think, a kind of 'Holy Trinity' at the trasition age between Classical to Romantic music.

Liszt is a skilled musician without a soul. His virtuoso is in his fingers not his art. Schubert frees your feelings when you listen, Wagner forces and restrict the emotion.

I like the Soviet composer, Dmitri Shostakovich the best. I am starting to really enjoy the music of the 20th century alot. I have to say that I love Schubert alot more than Wagner. But another Austrian composer who deserves more credit is the great symphonist, Anton Bruckner. He is a wonderful composer of the Romantic era. (hm… Bruckner… he is boring isn't he?)

The German-Austrian musical line, from Bach and Handel through Mozart and Beethoven to Richard Strauss and Mahler, is the greatest continuous stream of art in any field and in all of history. Each composer paid homage (whether acknowledged or not) to the masters who proceeded him and influenced those who followed (whether they acknowledged it or not). Who is the greatest in that line? Does it matter? Ranking these giants is less important than seeing the connections, stylistic and formal, that link them into one colossal torrent of immortal music. Schubert has a place of honor in that stream. When I am playing a Schubert quartet, he is the greatest. When I am at a Wagner opera, he is the greatest. When I turn on the radio and hear a Bach cantata, he is the greatest. We who have inherited this amazing musical heritage are especially fortunate because we can feel, when we are in the presence of any one of these greats, that we are in the presence of them all.

Wagner is a serious bore. Schubert is congenial and fun. (Yap, I think you're totally right!)

I know that Mahler is somewhat unpopular these days, but why didn't you put him as a choice below? (That's because Mahler is unpopular, as simple as that!) My favorite by Schubert is his String Quartet in G major, Op. 161.

Schubert's 8th, even unfinished as it is, makes me feel like no other symphony can. Schubert's music is by far my favorite among all other composers, except "perhaps" Beethoven. I always root for the underdog though. Also Schubert's life, for me, seperates him from composers such as Beethoven. I believe his "gypsy" lifestyle accounts for the purity and greatness of his works. I do so love the romantic period, which Schubert helped to begin.

Thanks to all of you! Remember to look for the remaining of the eighth Symphony as described in my page about this symphony!

Kristofer, January 1999.