Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

[Christo]

Yes.

Ohno! #onewordposts 

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Ohno! #onewordposts 

I need Karl to be here so he can ( *chortle* ) at that..........

Well I certainly chortled anyway.

[Karl Henning]

I need Karl to be here so he can ( *chortle* ) at that..........

Well I certainly chortled anyway.

Thanks for serving as back-up!

[Florestan]

Today's list, arranged chronologically

1-3    Mozart, Schubert, Chopin

4-5    Haydn, Beethoven

6-10  Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff

Didn't compare it with my previous list but I think Mendelssohn displaced JS Bach.

[Christo]

Mendelssohn displaced JS Bach.

Sibelius

You chopped off Bach!?

Yes.

Bach chopped off twice, and being replaced by Mendelssohn & Sibelius. Sic transit gloria mundi. 

[Florestan]

Bach chopped off twice, and being replaced by Mendelssohn & Sibelius. Sic transit gloria mundi. 

Nothing personal from my part, though. He's on my top 11-25 together with two of his sons. 

[LKB]

Yet another worthwhile thread discovered! 

The result has been somewhat unexpected. Rather than ruminating over my personal" top ten ", l've been sitting here in my favorite cafe thinking about how my musical preferences and priorities have changed over the last forty years or so.

Should the list reflect my estimation of a given composer's technical prowess, or his/her overall contribution to the advancement or evolution of serious Western music?

Or perhaps the parameters should be widened to encompass the artistic contributions to society in general, compositional efforts to move our species forward: Alle Menschen werden Brueder...

But the simple fact is that I'm not qualified to measure any artist's value to society at large, since my personal expertise is strictly limited to composing, performing and enjoying music. That makes things much simpler, and the question becomes, " Which composers have the greatest value for me today? "

On that basis, the list for today is:

Mahler
Beethoven
Bruckner
Tchaikovsky
J.S. Bach
Vaughan Williams
Schubert
Haydn
Shostakovich
Prokofiev

With an apologetic nod to Mozart, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, Vivaldi and Handel,

LKB

[André]

Yet another worthwhile thread discovered! 

The result has been somewhat unexpected. Rather than ruminating over my personal" top ten ", l've been sitting here in my favorite cafe thinking about how my musical preferences and priorities have changed over the last forty years or so.

Should the list reflect my estimation of a given composer's technical prowess, or his/her overall contribution to the advancement or evolution of serious Western music?

Or perhaps the parameters should be widened to encompass the artistic contributions to society in general, compositional efforts to move our species forward: Alle Menschen werden Brueder...

But the simple fact is that I'm not qualified to measure any artist's value to society at large, since my personal expertise is strictly limited to composing, performing and enjoying music. That makes things much simpler, and the question becomes, " Which composers have the greatest value for me today? "

On that basis, the list for today is:

Mahler
Beethoven
Bruckner
Tchaikovsky
J.S. Bach
Vaughan Williams
Schubert
Haydn
Shostakovich
Prokofiev

With an apologetic nod to Mozart, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, Vivaldi and Handel,

LKB

Beautiful !

Now, regarding Mozart, don't forget he was Tchaikovsky's favourite composer...

[Madiel]

Bach chopped off twice, and being replaced by Mendelssohn & Sibelius. Sic transit gloria mundi. 

I had two changes, not one. Don't go blaming Sibelius, I expect Schumann was the real culprit.

[LKB]

Beautiful !

Now, regarding Mozart, don't forget he was Tchaikovsky's favourite composer...

My respect for WAM is very great. In terms of sheer talent, only J.S. Bach ( imho ) seems to be at the same level.

So why does Bach have more value for me? Maybe it's the accessibility of his artistic process. You can hear the math in Bach, and while his use of sequences makes for short-term predictability, his structural planning is so mighty that by the time l reach the end of one of his major works, l experience the same sort of fulfillment which is provided by  Bruckner.

As for Mozart ( with whom l have spent a fair amount of time both performing and listening ), the music flows so naturally and beautifully, that l have trouble connecting. I need struggle, tension and a sense of victory or defeat in my music; with Mozart it just isn't there, at least not in the amounts required to keep me engaged.

LKB

[Mirror Image]

Guillaume de Machaut (1300)
Guillaume Dufay (1397)
Johannes Ockeghem (1425)
Josquin des Prez (1450)
Matthaeus Pipelare (1450)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525)
Tomás Luis de Victoria, (1548)
Maurice Duruflé (1902)
John Cage (1912)
Morton Feldman (1926)
Arvo Pärt (1935)

Nice to see Arvo on your list, David. He wasn't on there previously was he?

[André]

My respect for WAM is very great. In terms of sheer talent, only J.S. Bach ( imho ) seems to be at the same level.

So why does Bach have more value for me? Maybe it's the accessibility of his artistic process. You can hear the math in Bach, and while his use of sequences makes for short-term predictability, his structural planning is so mighty that by the time l reach the end of one of his major works, l experience the same sort of fulfillment which is provided by  Bruckner.

As for Mozart ( with whom l have spent a fair amount of time both performing and listening ), the music flows so naturally and beautifully, that l have trouble connecting. I need struggle, tension and a sense of victory or defeat in my music; with Mozart it just isn't there, at least not in the amounts required to keep me engaged.

LKB

Very good arguments, sensibly reasoned. So we share 7 out of 10 composers. Not bad !

[Papy Oli]

Top Tier

Mahler
Beethoven
Bruckner
Haydn (new addition to that tier)
Vivaldi (new addition to that tier)

Second tier

D. Scarlatti
Chopin
Rameau
Pärt
Bach

[Undersea]

Haven't listened to Arvo Pärt in a long time - he was actually one of the first Composers of Classical Music I was interested in and this was the first Disc of his I bought for myself:

[asin]B000024HL1[/asin]

I think I am a bit tired of the minimalist/ambient aesthetic these days though.

[Christo]

I had two changes, not one. Don't go blaming Sibelius, I expect Schumann was the real culprit.

Barter Bach for Schumann?!?? 

[Mirror Image]

My previous list:

Shostakovich
Sibelius
Bartók
Stravinsky
Nielsen
Vaughan Williams
Ravel
Ives
Martinů
Szymanowski

Now, let's see if I can actually put my list in some kind of order:

Ravel
Bartók
Sibelius
Nielsen
Shostakovich
Vaughan Williams
Stravinsky
Ives
Martinů
Szymanowski

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Boulez
Wagner
Strauss
Neuwirth
Ferneyhough
Hölszky
Elgar
Risset
Mozart
L. Boulanger


I think that basically sums up my interests in music at the moment.

[Ken B]

Didn't compare it with my previous list but I think Mendelssohn displaced JS Bach.

Jeez Louise! How about a trigger warning before you say anything so terrifying?

[Baron Scarpia]

Boulez
Wagner
Strauss
Neuwirth
Ferneyhough
Hölszky
Elgar
Risset
Mozart
L. Boulanger


I think that basically sums up my interests in music at the moment.

Which Strauss?

Half of your list I've never heard a note of.

[bwv 1080]

almost all Germans at the moment

Bach
Mozart
Beethoven
Sor
Schumann
Mahler
Webern
Hindemith
Henze
Carter