Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

[Overtones]

This one is going strong for me:

1st tier
1a) Beethoven
1b) Prokofiev

2nd tier
2a) Mozart
2b) Liszt

3rd tier
3a) Shostakovic
3b) Schubert
3c) Bach

4th tier
4a) Schumann
4b) Bartok
4c) Debussy

[Madiel]

Interesting mix there, Overtones. I'm just beginning to explore Prokofiev more.

[Mirror Image]

This one is going strong for me:

1st tier
1a) Beethoven
1b) Prokofiev

2nd tier
2a) Mozart
2b) Liszt

3rd tier
3a) Shostakovich
3b) Schubert
3c) Bach

4th tier
4a) Schumann
4b) Bartok
4c) Debussy

Great list, Overtones. Love most of those composers.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

most

Mirror Image doesn't like Mozart

[Mirror Image]

Mirror Image doesn't like Mozart

I'm trying to like Mozart. Of course, I don't hate his music at all. It's just not my cup of tea (at the moment). Beethoven I've really come around to and I absolutely love now. He really should be in my 'Top 10' nowadays.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

List today:

Pierre Boulez
Olga Neuwirth
Charlotte Bray
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Witold Lutosławski
Thomas Adès
Pauline Oliveros
Brett Dean
Liza Lim

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I'm trying to like Mozart. Of course, I don't hate his music at all. It's just not my cup of tea (at the moment). Beethoven I've really come around to and I absolutely love now. He really should be in my 'Top 10' nowadays.

I like Mozart a lot, definitely one of my top composers that he sometimes even makes it into my Top 10. But I find his music can sometimes be so...........idk.......academic?

[Mirror Image]

I like Mozart a lot, definitely one of my top composers that he sometimes even makes it into my Top 10. But I find his music can sometimes be so...........idk.......academic?

I'm not sure academic would be the right word here. Perhaps he's a bit too 'dry' sometimes?

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I'm not sure academic would be the right word here. Perhaps he's a bit too 'dry' sometimes?

Oh I wouldn't say dry, at least not the works from his final decade of composition..........

[Mirror Image]

Oh I wouldn't say dry, at least not the works from his final decade of composition..........

Well, you certainly know more about his music than I do, so whatever adjective you choose I'm sure will be good enough.

[springrite]

Some updating: can't know why I left Liszt off this list    he's been almost an obsession for the last three years.  One of these days I will finish my critical discography of the B Minor Sonata.  Anyway ...

Machaut
Bach
Liszt
Debussy
Webern
Stravinsky
Cage
Feldman
Carter
Boulez

Awesome list!

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Im gonna have to make a new list since I had an early music day recently and rediscovered a whole heap of things I forgot I love

Boulez
Helen Grime
Machaut
Pauline Oliveros
Charlotte Bray
Olga Neuwirth
Ockeghem
eRikm
Dufay
Perotin

[SymphonicAddict]

1. Beethoven
2. Brahms
3. Tchaikovsky
4. Dvorák
5. Sibelius
6. Schubert
7. Prokofiev
8. Nielsen
9. Saint-Saëns
10. Vaughan Williams

Too hard question!

[Mirror Image]

A little bit of an update:

1. Sibelius
2. Nielsen
3. Ravel
4. Bartók
5. Vaughan Williams
6. Mahler
7. Stravinsky
8. Prokofiev
9. Martinů
10. Janáček

Edit: Mahler's losing a bit of steam amongst my list, so he'll probably be substituted for Elgar in due time.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

An update for me as well

Boulez
Ligeti
Cage
Helen Grime
Adam de la Halle
Kagel
Schumann
Soper
Neuwirth
Berg

[Brian]

I suppose a bit of editing is needed for mine:

Mahler
Shostakovich
Sibelius
Nielsen
Vaughan Williams
Bartók
Prokofiev
Rachmaninov
Dvořák
Martinů

For the first time, in a long time, I'm actually still completely satisfied with these choices.

Just one month later, three changes on this list...

[Madiel]

Just one month later, three changes on this list...

The sheer amount of listening that Mirror Image does creates significant evolutionary pressure on the list.

EDIT: It's worth noting, though, that the era his preferred composers come from tends to be highly consistent. The late 19th into the 20th century has a significant gravitational pull.

[Mirror Image]

Just one month later, three changes on this list...

Yep and expect another change next month!

The sheer amount of listening that Mirror Image does creates significant evolutionary pressure on the list.

EDIT: It's worth noting, though, that the era his preferred composers come from tends to be highly consistent. The late 19th into the 20th century has a significant gravitational pull.

You're absolutely right about my preferences. There's no hiding there. That's where my heart is or so it feels that way.

[Florestan]

I like Mozart a lot, definitely one of my top composers that he sometimes even makes it into my Top 10. But I find his music can sometimes be so...........idk.......academic?

I'm not sure academic would be the right word here. Perhaps he's a bit too 'dry' sometimes?

You guys are hopeless! 

Mozart, dry and academic? Really? And which works of his display these traits, pray tell?

[ritter]

You guys are hopeless! 

Mozart, dry and academic? Really? And which works of his display these traits, pray tell?

+1
Bună ziua, Andrei. Our friends really, really could profit from seriously listening to Don Giovanni, for instance...