Bach

as it is said, everything in music that comes ater Bach is merely a footnote…

honestly, nobody even comes close. not even Motzart.

I can never understand his brain! His music is everlasting.

I could write for pages as to why he is hands down the best ever, or ever will be.  No composer has been more studied nor more revered by those that came after him.  As Brahms said, "Study Bach. There you will find eveyrthing."  His compositional skill and mastery of counterpoint has never been matched- it never will be.  The more a musician is trained, the more they revere Bach.  The more you listen to Bach, the more you hear.  There have been many musical geniuses: Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, Brahms, Schumann, and on and on and on… But none of them are in the same world as Bach.  Through all of his unreal skill, there is an intangible quality that comes out of his music that sadly, not all are equipped to hear.  Bach takes work to fully undertsand.  But once you make the effort, the pleasure is limitless.  As William F. Buckley famously said about heaven; "If Bach's not there, I'm not going".

I think that Bach is the most important and crucial player to the development of music. He basically took ideas, or forms which are styles that were set in stone and pushed and pushed the boundaries of music. This created some of the most complex and beautiful compositions I have ever heard. An example of how he pushed the boundaries are with how he manipulated and expanded upon the fugue. I also have include the fact that he mastered counterpoint to such levels that haven't been witnessed prior to his time.