Top 25 Favorite Composers

[foxandpeng]

Always encouraging to see someone who has such a great appreciation for the wide variety of fine music written during the 20th and 21st centuries. The 20th century - well, the first 60 or so years of it, anyway - is my "desert island" period of classical music. Though, I certainly wouldn't want to be without the music of the Classical and Romantic eras!

I do love it. My entry point to classical music was the same as most people of my generation and social background for whom such music wasn't usual or particularly encouraged ... Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, Vivaldi, and later, Bruckner, Schubert, Dvorak, and their ilk. I guess in the same way that lots of people who read poetry are initially introduced to Romantic era poets before finding that others also exist.

Although these were the gateway for me, it's the last century or so where I find almost all my current listening. Same is probably true of preferred poetry, actually, but less exclusively.

[Karl Henning]

Though, I certainly wouldn't want to be without the music of the Classical and Romantic eras!

Zero risk of that

[Lisztianwagner]

I'll revise my old list a little:

1. Wagner
2. Mahler
3. Liszt
4. Beethoven
5. Rachmaninov
6. Tchaikovsky
7. R. Strauss
8. J. Strauss II
9. Ravel
10. Holst
11. Shostakovich
12. Mozart
13. Chopin
14. Debussy
15. Nielsen
16. Sibelius
17. Prokofiev
18. Schoenberg
19. Zemlinsky
20. Bruckner
21. Dvořák
22. Brahms
23. Respighi
24. Janáček
25. Stravinsky

[Mirror Image]

I'll revise my old list a little:

1. Wagner
2. Mahler
3. Liszt
4. Beethoven
5. Rachmaninov
6. Tchaikovsky
7. R. Strauss
8. J. Strauss II
9. Ravel
10. Holst
11. Shostakovich
12. Mozart
13. Chopin
14. Debussy
15. Nielsen
16. Sibelius
17. Prokofiev
18. Bruckner
19. Schoenberg
20. Zemlinsky
21. Dvořák
22. Brahms
23. Respighi
24. Janáček
25. Stravinsky

A good idea, Ilaria. I'll do the same:

1. Debussy
2. Mahler
3. Strauss
4. Sibelius
5. Bartók
6. Ravel
7. Stravinsky
8. Martinů
9. Berlioz
10. Shostakovich
11. Vaughan Williams
12. Saint-Saëns
13. Schoenberg
14. Berg
15. Ives
16. Dvořák
17. Tchaikovsky
18. Janáček
19. Prokofiev
20. Britten
21. Rachmaninov
22. Schnittke
23. Szymanowski
24. Weinberg
25. Copland

[Lisztianwagner]

A good idea, Ilaria. I'll do the same:

1. Debussy
2. Mahler
3. Strauss
4. Sibelius
5. Bartók
6. Ravel
7. Stravinsky
8. Martinů
9. Berlioz
10. Shostakovich
11. Vaughan Williams
12. Saint-Saëns
13. Schoenberg
14. Berg
15. Ives
16. Dvořák
17. Tchaikovsky
18. Janáček
19. Prokofiev
20. Britten
21. Rachmaninov
22. Schnittke
23. Szymanowski
24. Weinberg
25. Copland

Very good choices! But why do I never see Wagner on your lists? 

[Mirror Image]

Very good choices! But why do I never see Wagner on your lists? 

Thanks, Ilaria. I love Wagner, but I don't listen to him too often because of time constraints and the fact there are so many other composers I enjoy listening to in addition to his own music. I feel bad, now that I'm thinking about it, as I left off Bruckner, Liszt and, of course, Wagner.

[Lisztianwagner]

Thanks, Ilaria. I love Wagner, but I don't listen to him too often because of time constraints and the fact there are so many other composers I enjoy listening to in addition to his own music. I feel bad, now that I'm thinking about it, as I left off Bruckner, Liszt and, of course, Wagner.

No problem, I was only joking; I perfectly understand and I can share the feeling, there would be so many composers who are worth exploring, but a lifetime is not enough for music. That's the downside of writing top lists, that other great composers are left off.

[classicalgeek]

No problem, I was only joking; I perfectly understand and I can share the feeling, there would be so many composers who are worth exploring, but a lifetime is not enough for music. That's the downside of writing top lists, that other great composers are left off.

Isn't that the truth, Ilaria? I could easily do a top 50, even a top 100, and I would love each and every composer on the list!

A good idea, Ilaria. I'll do the same:

1. Debussy
2. Mahler
3. Strauss
4. Sibelius
5. Bartók
6. Ravel
7. Stravinsky
8. Martinů
9. Berlioz
10. Shostakovich
11. Vaughan Williams
12. Saint-Saëns
13. Schoenberg
14. Berg
15. Ives
16. Dvořák
17. Tchaikovsky
18. Janáček
19. Prokofiev
20. Britten
21. Rachmaninov
22. Schnittke
23. Szymanowski
24. Weinberg
25. Copland

A rock solid list, John! Here's an updated one from me (looking at my one from nearly 10 years ago, there are some changes, but the core is the same!)

1. Mahler
2. Beethoven
3. Dvorak
4. Brahms
5. Shostakovich
6. Chopin
7. Rachmaninov
8. Stravinsky
9. Sibelius
10. Ravel
11. Poulenc
12. Martinu
13. Schubert
14. Haydn
15. Koechlin
16. Bartok
17. Bruckner
18. Villa-Lobos
19. Barber
20. Mendelssohn
21. Bernstein
22. Janacek
23. Dutilleux
24. Saint-Saens
25. Hindemith

Next five who just missed the cut:
26. Berg
27. Messiaen
28. Vaughan Williams
29. Arnold
30. Debussy

[Mirror Image]

No problem, I was only joking; I perfectly understand and I can share the feeling, there would be so many composers who are worth exploring, but a lifetime is not enough for music. That's the downside of writing top lists, that other great composers are left off.

Certainly true, Ilaria.

[Mirror Image]

Isn't that the truth, Ilaria? I could easily do a top 50, even a top 100, and I would love each and every composer on the list!

A rock solid list, John! Here's an updated one from me (looking at my one from nearly 10 years ago, there are some changes, but the core is the same!)

1. Mahler
2. Beethoven
3. Dvorak
4. Brahms
5. Shostakovich
6. Chopin
7. Rachmaninov
8. Stravinsky
9. Sibelius
10. Ravel
11. Poulenc
12. Martinu
13. Schubert
14. Haydn
15. Koechlin
16. Bartok
17. Bruckner
18. Villa-Lobos
19. Barber
20. Mendelssohn
21. Bernstein
22. Janacek
23. Dutilleux
24. Saint-Saens
25. Hindemith

Next five who just missed the cut:
26. Berg
27. Messiaen
28. Vaughan Williams
29. Arnold
30. Debussy

Thanks, James! I like your list, too and I forgot Villa-Lobos! What in the world was I thinking leaving off such a huge favorite of mine? Okay, I'm going to have to re-think my list now...

[vandermolen]

VW
Bax
Miaskovsky
Shostakovich
Walton
Copland
Bruckner
Bloch
Bate
Moeran
Gliere
Glazunov
Rawsthorne
Arnold
Tubin
Rosenberg
Atterberg
Lilburn
Braga-Santos
Alwyn
Rubbra
Arnell
Diamond
Kabalevsky
Bliss

[San Antone]

There have been some changes since the list I posted in 2018:

Chronological list:

Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)
Giovanni Perluigi Palestrina (1525 - 1594)
J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Erik Satie (1866-1925)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Othmar Schoeck (1886-1957)
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Elliott Carter (1908-2012)
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996)
Krzysztof Meyer (1943)
Osvaldo Golijov (1960)

[Mirror Image]

Okay, I made another revision:

1. Debussy
2. Mahler
3. Strauss
4. Sibelius
5. Bartók
6. Ravel
7. Stravinsky
8. Martinů
9. Berlioz
10. Shostakovich
11. Vaughan Williams
12. Saint-Saëns
13. Schoenberg
14. Berg
15. Villa-Lobos
16. Dvořák
17. Tchaikovsky
18. Janáček
19. Prokofiev
20. Britten
21. Rachmaninov
22. Schnittke
23. Szymanowski
24. Ives
25. Weinberg

[Madiel]

01. Tine Surel Lange (living)
02. William Grant Still
03. Anton Webern
04. Liza Lim (living)
05. Joseph Haydn
06. Sergei Prokofiev
07. Jeffrey Mumford (living)
08. John Cage
09. Ludwig Van Beethoven
10. Marc/Mark Andre (living)
11.  Wojtek Blecharz (living)
12. Marc Lohr (living)
13. Holland Andrews (living)
14. Dorothee Munyaneza/Alain Mahe (living)
15. Harry Partch
16. Florence Price
17. Iannis Xenakis
18. Julius Eastman
19. Luigi Nono
20. Pascal Dusapin (living)
21. Frederic Rzewski
22. Gyorgy Kurtag (living)
23. George Walker
24. Ivan Wyschnegradsky
25. Johann Ludwig Krebs

This list is going to be my motivation to listen to even more living composers, as only 10, if I counted correctly, have cracked into my top 25.

Why should now have all the best music?

[Mirror Image]

Why should now have all the best music?

It doesn't. This member lives in a fantasy world.

[DavidW]

01. Haydn
02. Bach
03. Mozart
04. Beethoven
05. Brahms
06. Handel
07. Mahler
08. Shostakovich
09. Bartok
10. Dvorak
11. Mendelssohn
12. Tchaikovsky
13. Vivaldi
14. Penderecki
15. Sibelius
16. Bruckner
17. Martinu
18. Nielsen
19. Stravinsky
20. Schubert
21. Berlioz
22. Wagner
23. Schoenberg
24. Chopin
25. Lutoslawski

It is interesting to see how my taste has evolved in the past decade.  I think I should give my favorites from ten years ago a fresh listen.  Some of them have fallen by the wayside.

And btw it is favorites, not best.  I would hate to attract the ire of other posters just because their tastes are different from mine.

[Florestan]

Currently:

Top 3, chronologically

Mozart
Schubert
Chopin

4-10, ditto

Haydn
Beethoven
Mendelssohn
Schumann
Brahms
Tchaikovsky
Rachmaninoff

11-25, ditto

Vivaldi
Telemann
Domenico Scarlatti
CPE Bach
Joh. Chr. Bach
Boccherini
Cimarosa
Auber
Rossini
Donizetti
Bellini
Verdi
Camille Saint-Saens
Massenet
Faure

And 5 runners-up: the (Viennese) Strauss family (cheating, I know, but I can't help it), Offenbach, Sibelius, Medtner,, Bortkiewicz.

Make it 50 and I could probably come up with a definitive list. 

[Madiel]

All that needs to be said.

Fine, then let me rephrase the question: why should now have all your favourite music?

Because there is a value judgement involved in looking at your own list of favourites, observing that "only" 10 out of 25 are living (which is actually a pretty high number), and indicating your desire to increase that number.

So that's what I'm asking about, your apparent desire to "fix" your own music tastes. Because that only makes sense if you're measuring against some standard that indicates a need to maximise the number of living composers in your list. I'm trying to understand why someone would look at a list of the music they enjoy and care in that way about when that music was written.

[Madiel]

Ah! For me, it is really a confluence of factors that has led me to this decision.

First, I am striving to eliminate repetition and redundancy as a major aspect of my nonwork life. My job (I am a professor) consists of lots and lots of repetition in teaching, in research, in reading, in meetings, etc., so if I can eliminate that in the other areas of my life; I view that as a major plus.

Second, I've recently rewatched some George Steiner interviews for work, and they have stuck with me in a radically different way - specifically his ruminations about the music he wouldn't hear, the books he wouldn't read, the places he wouldn't see, and I have taken that as my heart's guiding philosophy in that I will no longer return to what I know and will instead stretch for those things that I don't, and I view this as an overall enrichment of my life.

Third, I like that my money is going to a living artist rather than to an institution (this is a much longer and larger argument that I will not get into on this public forum given the nature of some of the posters here).

Fourth, I love having to search the music (and art) out. I take no pleasure in not having to work.

I think that is enough for now. :-)

Okay, that does make more sense. I guess though I hadn't seen that listening to more recent music would necessarily translate into it actually being favourite. I certainly go through periods of deliberate exploration, and hope to find things that I love, but also encounter plenty of disappointments. I guess if I was more consistent the odds would improve.

Meanwhile, in the last 6-9 months, life circumstances seem to have pushed me to crave reliability and on the classical side of things I seem to have largely stuck with about 5 composers over and over. Which does worry me occasionally, but it's not as if I will run out of Haydn to explore any time soon.

[Madiel]

Seeing and hearing and meeting living composers is great. I just don't tend to do that in "classical" music.

Whereas I've seen Tori Amos perform 14 times and spoken to her 8...