William Shakespeare vs J. S. Bach

I am not too much of a fan of either. Shakespeare is often hackneyed and Bach is overly academic. However, when it comes to raw talent, there's no denying that Bach is way ahead. Have you ever tried to write a fugue? It's insanely hard, and this man could improvise them on command. I'd like to see Shakespeare improvise a play off the top of his head.

Having spent a semester attempting it, I believe that writing a good fugue is much harder than writing a good monologue, but obviously it's a matter of opinion.

thellama73 wrote: Having spent a semester attempting it, I believe that writing a good fugue is much harder than writing a good monologue, but obviously it's a matter of opinion.

Bach is a musical genius.

Shakespeare is a genius of playwrite.

Those points are both undeniable. It simply boils down to personal taste, and for me, it's got to be Johann Sebastian on this one.

As much as I love Shakespeare, Bach is perhaps the most prolific composer in history (although I prefer Vivaldi).  Both Shakespeare and Bach revolutionized their respective fields but I much prefer music to literature.

One way to piss off a classical music connoisseur:

Refer to Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D minor as "that Halloween song."
Absolute masterpiece.

I see what you mean. Of course sitting through all 48 prelude and fugues of Das Well Tempered Klavier is quite an undertaking, but when he writes beautiful music, he can't be touched. And as irreligious as I am, the only moments when I doubt my doubts occur when I listen to the kind of unearthly sounds that this man composed for a higher power that he only saw in his heart... No academicism there... Just art of the highest kind.

The Pessimist wrote: That is exactly what I like to see By the way topofsm, are you going to produce any metal collages while you're here? I'd love to see a few

Since this is a music forum, it's not surprising that Bach is running away with this poll. In my personal opinion, it's very much an 'apples and oranges' question - comparing a writer with a composer (or a painter, for that matter) is next to impossible. Anyway, being more familiar with Shakespeare's work than Bach's (I have a degree in English Literature, after all), I'll give my vote to the Bard, who wrote some of the most beautiful (and true) words on the human condition that I have ever happened to read.

I can't even begin to compare them, so I haven't voted. They were geniuses within two very different spheres of art. I think that Shakespeare may be more important in the sense that more people are exposed to his works - I mean Shakespeare is typically a compulsory topic in secondary and university level courses. But of course, that's poopular opinion, and it doesn't say much about the genius of Shakespeare or Bach, but about the importance/accessibility of the media they worked within.

Like Raff, I have a degree in English language and literature, so I've read my share of Shakespeare, and I've found that I actually do not like to read Shakespeare's plays. I prefer to watch theatrical or cinematic interpretations. And that's how the plays were intended to be experienced - in some form of stage drama. I feel that it's when you see how his plays can be interpreted over and over again in very different way that you see what his genius really was.