Top 25 Favorite Composers

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I'll pick 25 from your list for you if that'd be easier for you.

It will be

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I wasn't aware it was a criminal offence to resurrect polls. Go on, sue me. One would think that these polls would have been removed out of existence if it really were so wrong to bring them back.

Nothing at all wrong with resurrecting this - or any - dormant thread. I think it's kinda fun looking at some of the old names/posters who've faded away and into the sunset. Sometimes I even see an old post of mine that I'd completely forgotten.

Keep resurrecting I say!

[nathanb]

Let me see if I can narrow things down to 25

Boulez
Ligeti
Lim
Dean
Birtwistle
Sibelius
Cage
Feldman
Neuwirth
Pateras
Manoury
Hildegard
Furrer
Mozart
Xenakis
Sciarrino
Ferneyhough
Debussy
Monteverdi
Takemitsu
Berio
Grisey
Ginastera
Carter
Oliveros

Here you go COAG. It is not my list, but I have tried to trim your list within reason by using four guiding principles:

(1) you have always been faithful to The Motherland (in your case, Australia), so Lim/Dean/Pateras must stay.

(2) composers may be removed based on fundamental similarity (for instance, I painfully removed Dufourt in hopes that one early French spectralist might suffice.

(3) quality over quantity, but quality was already here... so QUANTITY OF QUALITY it is... sorry Isabel :/

(4) choosing from these... this hurts me more than it hurts you.

You're welcome.

Yes, I know and like every name on your original list.

[kishnevi]

Jessop happened to list Mozart next to Furrer. Maybe one of the few times that will ever happen, perhaps.

My contribution, in no real order
Bach
Mahler
Beethoven
Vivaldi
Mozart
Wagner
Brahms
Elgar
Handel
Schumann
Shostakovich
Bartok
Ligeti
Boulez
Schubert
Holmboe
Skalkottas
Stravinsky
Schutz
Tallis
Monteverdi
Vaughn Williams
Richard Strauss
Byrd
Liszt

[vandermolen]

Jessop happened to list Mozart next to Furrer. Maybe one of the few times that will ever happen, perhaps.

My contribution, in no real order
Bach
Mahler
Beethoven
Vivaldi
Mozart
Wagner
Brahms
Elgar
Handel
Schumann
Shostakovich
Bartok
Ligeti
Boulez
Schubert
Holmboe
Skalkottas
Stravinsky
Schutz
Tallis
Monteverdi
Vaughn Williams
Richard Strauss
Byrd
Liszt

What Ligetinwould you recommend? He's a composer whom I would like to explore further. I only really know 'Atmospheres' and 'Lux Aeterna' from '2001: A Space Odyssey' and have his Violin Concerto on Chandos.

[Mirror Image]

What Ligetinwould you recommend? He's a composer whom I would like to explore further. I only really know 'Atmospheres' and 'Lux Aeterna' from '2001: A Space Odyssey' and have his Violin Concerto on Chandos.

I know you didn't ask me but I highly suggest Lontano, the Piano Concerto, San Francisco Polyphony, Clocks & Clouds, Melodien, and the Requiem.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

What Ligetinwould you recommend? He's a composer whom I would like to explore further. I only really know 'Atmospheres' and 'Lux Aeterna' from '2001: A Space Odyssey' and have his Violin Concerto on Chandos.

Ligeti's music ranges from the ethereal to the downright quirky and bizarre. MI lists some great works mostly from his middle period, and to add to that you might like to listen to 'Sippal Dobbhal Navhsbdjddkkekdifod (I can't spell it)' from his late period, Nonsense Madrigals (late period), Cello Sonata (early) and 6 Bagatelles for Wind Quintet (early).

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Here you go COAG. It is not my list, but I have tried to trim your list within reason by using four guiding principles:

(1) you have always been faithful to The Motherland (in your case, Australia), so Lim/Dean/Pateras must stay.

(2) composers may be removed based on fundamental similarity (for instance, I painfully removed Dufourt in hopes that one early French spectralist might suffice.

(3) quality over quantity, but quality was already here... so QUANTITY OF QUALITY it is... sorry Isabel :/

(4) choosing from these... this hurts me more than it hurts you.

You're welcome.

Yes, I know and like every name on your original list.

I can't argue with any of this, apart from maybe the deletion of Perotin, you know me really well!!!!!

[vandermolen]

Many thanks John and jessop for Ligeti recommendations - very helpful. 

[Reckoner]

An attempt here, in no particular order. Omissions are tough though!

LvB
WAM
PIT
Felix
Schubert

DSCH
Rachmaninov
Glass
Rautavaara
Sibelius

Mahler
Bruckner
Brahms
RVW
Dvorak

Bach
Schumann
Liszt
Smetana
Fauré

Prokofiev
Schnittke
Adams
Reich
Messiaen

[Florestan]

In chronological order

Bach
D. Scarlatti
Vivaldi
Haydn
Boccherini
Mozart
Beethoven
von Weber
Schubert
Berlioz
Mendelssohn
Schumann
Chopin
Liszt
Brahms
Tchaikovsky
Dvorak
Mahler
Debussy
Rachmaninoff
Ravel
Medtner
Enescu
Bartok
Villa-Lobos
Prokofiev
Shostakovich

That´s 27 but really couldn´t decide which one to exclude --- actually, I could have added at least 25 more. 

[Madiel]

Meh. Somewhere on one of these threads I've got a list of 17. I could probably scrounge around and add another 8...

[nathanb]

I can't argue with any of this, apart from maybe the deletion of Perotin, you know me really well!!!!!

Perotin was another victim of the "Quantity Of Quality" metric, unfortunately.

[vandermolen]

An attempt here, in no particular order. Omissions are tough though!

LvB
WAM
PIT
Felix
Schubert

DSCH
Rachmaninov
Glass
Rautavaara
Sibelius

Mahler
Bruckner
Brahms
RVW
Dvorak

Bach
Schumann
Liszt
Smetana
Fauré

Prokofiev
Schnittke
Adams
Reich
Messiaen

BBC Music Magazine has as their freebie CD this month 'Desert Music' by Reich and 'Shaker Loops' by Adams which I greatly enjoyed earlier today.

[kishnevi]

What Ligetinwould you recommend? He's a composer whom I would like to explore further. I only really know 'Atmospheres' and 'Lux Aeterna' from '2001: A Space Odyssey' and have his Violin Concerto on Chandos.

Not sure what would work for you.  I had an easier time with his solo piano and chamber music than with his larger scale work, and liked the DG box more than the competing Warner box.

BTW, in a true brain fart, I forgot to include Haydn in my list.

[vandermolen]

Not sure what would work for you.  I had an easier time with his solo piano and chamber music than with his larger scale work, and liked the DG box more than the competing Warner box.

BTW, in a true brain fart, I forgot to include Haydn in my list.

Many thanks.

[San Antone]

I probably posted a list back when this thread was new, but my listening has changed this year, so here's my current list, roughly chronologically, of the composers I have been listening to more than others - but it doesn't amount to 25.

Machaut
Dufay
Ockeghem
Josquin des Prez
Gesualdo
Beethoven
Schubert
Schumann
Liszt
Brahms
Faure
Debussy
Mahler
Schoenberg
Berg
Ives
Ravel
Stravinsky
Poulenc
Durufle
Shostakovich
M. Weinberg
K. Meyer

Can't believe I forgot my two "most favorite":  Morton Feldman and John Cage.  So, I made it to 25 after all.

[Madiel]

Nope. Can't do it. I just had a look at how many composers I thought I had a decent-sized collection of, and I didn't reach 25 names.

[Florestan]

Nope. Can't do it. I just had a look at how many composers I thought I had a decent-sized collection of, and I didn't reach 25 names.

Doesn´t matter, post them anyway, it´s just for fun.

[Karl Henning]

BBC Music Magazine has as their freebie CD this month 'Desert Music' by Reich and 'Shaker Loops' by Adams which I greatly enjoyed earlier today.

Both of them perhaps the best each composer has done IMO.  Though (forgive me if I make myself at all tiresome on this point) I greatly prefer the sextet version of the Loops.