Composers That Are Linked To Your Soul

[Mirror Image]

MI (and anyone else) - further to our little exchange on Tippett yesterday:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?rxt2jtmoyam - Piano Concerto
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?j0gro7ttdvy - Triple Concerto

I think I saw on the Tippett thread that you have these already, perhaps, but feel free to download if you wish.

Thanks, Luke, but I bought a lot of Tippett yesterday. Both box sets on Decca, the symphony box set with Hickox on Chandos, The Rose Lake recording with Sir Colin Davis on RCA, and a recording of various orchestral works, which includes the Piano Concerto with Hickox on Chandos.

[Florestan]

Baroque lover, Classicism fan, Romantic at heart... I thought to change the order of the list, but Romantic lover sounded a bit sexual. 

Well, now that you put it this way, even "Baroque lover"  sounds rather ambiguous.

[prémont]

Well, now that you put it this way, even "Baroque lover"  sounds rather ambiguous.

Yes, only "medieval lover" would be sufficiently courtly and asexual.

Consider me one.

[Que]

Desprez
Bach
Froberger
Mozart
Brahms

Q

[Sergeant Rock]

Mahler
Bruckner
Elgar
Sibelius
Vaughan Williams

[71 dB]

Elgar is the only composer that is strongly and clearly linked.

Other composers that make me feel some kind of link: J.S. Bach, Granados, Finzi, Bruhns and Villa-Lobos. Maybe Taneyev too.

[PaulSC]

"Linked to my soul" -- you mean so I secretly feel their music is addressed directly to me?

J.S. Bach
D. Scarlatti
Mel Powell
R. Schumann
Elliott Carter
Morton Feldman

(That's sort of an ordered list.)

[karlhenning]

Great to see a Feldman fan!

[DavidRoss]

Great to see a Feldman fan!

From my perspective: especially since Feldman "got" my man Sibelius!

Which makes me think of another composer who might qualify:  Arvo Pärt, in some works at least, though I know his ouvre less well than that of many others.  Of course I love Beethoven and Bach and Mozart and Mahler and many others who engage me emotionally or intellectually, but few speak so directly to that core of my being that precedes personality.

[jowcol]

"Linked to my soul" -- you mean so I secretly feel their music is addressed directly to me?

This is a great summation of a thread that has been running through the responses-- and that is that it's not so much being an "expert", but  feeling a secret bond with a composer.   

I'd also need to have a few others on the list-- I don't listen to the whole Satie catalog, but I swear when I listen to him, it's like meeting up with an old friend.

[Luke]

Well, indeed - for some reason I limited myself to 5, (Janacek, Ravel, Brahms, Tippett, Chopin) but a slightly expanded list would certainly include Satie, and Brian (a strange pairing that...perhaps not so much, if you know Brian's piano music) too. And that's still being extremely parsimonious with my choices.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Well, indeed - for some reason I limited myself to 5, (Janacek, Ravel, Brahms, Tippett, Chopin) but a slightly expanded list would certainly include Satie, and Brian (a strange pairing that...perhaps not so much, if you know Brian's piano music) too. And that's still being extremely parsimonious with my choices.

I limited myself to 5, too (Beethoven, Wagner, Mahler, Delius, Brian). But this is not to say I couldn't have added another 5! (Chopin, Bruckner, Berlioz, Langgaard, Sibelius...)

[Lethevich]

I tried and failed to come up with a serious contender on the basis of music alone - I suppose I like a little bit of too many composers to narrow it down.

In terms of the temperament of a composer as a person, the more I read about them, the more I feel a considerable connection with the personalities of Berlioz and Vaughan Williams.

[vandermolen]

Miaskovsky

Vaughan Williams

Sibelius

Bax/Moeran

Copland/Diamond

Tubin/Braga Santos (too many I know!)

[greg]

I'm sure that this idea been done before, but what are five composers you know a ton about and have researched, studied, are passionate about, and listen to on a regular basis that by all respects your knowledge would make you, more or less, an "expert" on them?

Can't say I'm an expert on any composer, but if I had to make a list...

Mahler
Prokofiev
Brahms
Xenakis
Takemitsu

although I've probably read the most about Prokofiev. I include these five basically all (except for Mahler) have a considerably large output, and I've collected waaaaaaaaaay more of each than most fans of them would- all intentionally because I like all of them and am interested in everything that they write.

[Mirror Image]

If I had to extend my original list to 5 more, it would include:

Bartok
Part
Tchaikovsky
Bruckner
Rubbra

The honest truth is that so many composers have accessed my soul on more than one occasion. Narrowing it down to five is impossible the more I think about it. So here's what my list looks like so far:

Bruckner
Berg
Bartok
Villa-Lobos
Vaughan Williams
Delius
Tchaikovsky
Ravel
Rubbra

To add more: Sibelius, Shostakovich, Alwyn, Mysakovsky, Lyadov, Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, Mahler, Bloch, Martinu, Milhaud, Pettersson, Rachmaninov, Nielsen, Braga Santos, Revueltas, Ginastera, Debussy, Szymanowski, Honegger, Berlioz, Respighi, Barber, Piston, Diamond, Copland, Langgaard, Finzi, Reich, Arnold, Sculthorpe, Vine, Schmidt, Vivaldi, Hindemith, Bernstein, among others.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

If I had to extend my original list to 5 more, it would include:

Bartok
Part
Tchaikovsky
Bruckner
Rubbra

The honest truth is that so many composers have accessed my soul on more than one occasion. Narrowing it down to five is impossible the more I think about it. So here's what my list looks like so far:

Bruckner
Berg
Bartok
Villa-Lobos
Vaughan Williams
Delius
Tchaikovsky
Ravel
Rubbra

To add more: Sibelius, Shostakovich, Alwyn, Mysakovsky, Lyadov, Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, Mahler, Bloch, Martinu, Milhaud, Pettersson, Rachmaninov, Braga Santos, Revueltas, Ginastera, Debussy, Szymanowski, Honegger, Berlioz, Respighi, Barber, Piston, Diamond, Copland, Langgaard, Finzi, Reich, Arnold, Sculthorpe, Vine, Schmidt, Vivaldi, Hindemith, Bernstein, among others.

That's some soul... Mine is just as capacious, though!

[Mirror Image]

That's some soul... Mine is just as capacious, though!

I'm still working on Havergal Brian, although The Gothic had some absolutely heartbreaking moments in it.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I'm still working on Havergal Brian, although The Gothic had some absolutely heartbreaking moments in it.

Interesting you should use the word 'heartbreaking'. I would use words like 'shattering', 'frightening', 'uplifting', 'mind-blowing'. The Gothic is so elemental, 'heartbreaking' seems too small and human. To me, at least.

[Mirror Image]

Interesting you should use the word 'heartbreaking'. I would use words like 'shattering', 'frightening', 'uplifting', 'mind-blowing'. The Gothic is so elemental, 'heartbreaking' seems too small and human. To me, at least.

Lol...maybe that was the wrong adjective to use.