Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

[Ken B]

Yes, I like that more (most) too. Ten is just a weird compromise.

Twelve is the right number. The metric system is a bad side effect of a bad radix.

[Jo498]

  Top half a composer.

That's easier than to chose a top 10 where I have to face tough decisions past the first 6 or 7

Beethoven 1809-1827 (or if pressed 1817-1827)

[Sergeant Rock]

Twelve is the right number.

Quite right. And with twelve I get to include Elgar and Shostakovich.

Sarge

[Jo498]

One's got to have something better for an extra slot than Elgar... 

[Ken B]

One's got to have something better for an extra slot than Elgar... 

I'm just thankful he didn't slot a rapper in there!

[Sergeant Rock]

One's got to have something better for an extra slot than Elgar... 

How about Franz Schmidt? ...or LL Cool J 

Sarge

[Jo498]

Sure, one could do much worse! although I admit that a rapper was not in the realm of possibilities I entertained.
I know even less Franz Schmidt than Elgar, although I own two quintets and a symphony and have listened to them. It's your list, so do what you please, but what about Schubert, Schumann, Bartok or Bach?

[Cosi bel do]

I think it would be easier to say which is my one and only favourite composer. Or which are my three favourites. Ten is too much. And after 3 or 4, all the following are really very far and could more easily be replaced in the future. But let's try it.

1. Bach
2. Beethoven (until there, I think I'm really sure)
3. Mahler (ok, that's really tricky, I'm not that sure I really prefer Mahler to Mozart)
4. Mozart
5. Bruckner (probably)
6. Shostakovich (well, that's where I really start to feel names are from a different "league" in my personal ranking, if I have one)
7. Buxtehude
8. Tchaikovsky (does that sound a little too random yet ?)
9. Schumann
10. I have to think...

I love Wagner, or Sibelius, or Liszt, or Brahms, or Chopin, or Debussy, or Berg, or Haydn, or Frescobaldi... But compared to the previous ones, I guess I might be able to live without their music.

[Sergeant Rock]

Sure, one could do much worse! although I admit that a rapper was not in the realm of possibilities I entertained.
I know even less Franz Schmidt than Elgar, although I own two quintets and a symphony and have listened to them. It's your list, so do what you please, but what about Schubert, Schumann, Bartok or Bach?

Well, we're talking about favorites. Bach is God. No question. And yet I rarely listen to him. I've been trying to become a Bartok fan for 50 years...it hasn't happened yet so I doubt it ever will. Not that I dislike everything, but little of his music moves me. Schubert should probably be in the Top 10 (he was for years)...but who would I kick out of my current list? (No, not Havergal. He's sancrosanct.) Schumann, once a strong favorite, has lost his luster after these many years. Perhaps a victim of familiarity. The composers I really regret not including are Prokofiev and R. Strauss.

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

Twelve is the right number. The metric system is a bad side effect of a bad radix.

When will we see your list of 12?

Sarge

[Ken B]

When will we see your list of 12?

Sarge

I thought I posted a list once ... It's hard to distinguish right now from lifetime, from the past few years. I listen to Mozart a lot less than when I was younger, and usually enjoy it less, but largely that's familiarity. I know so much of his music backwards.  Over the long haul a few are clear

Bach
Mozart
Stravinsky
Brahms
Schubert
Beethoven
Palestrina
Schutz
Josquin

The guys sniffing around the final three spots are Nyman, Glass, Chopin, Bruckner, Handel, Haydn.  Virgil Thomson has two pieces in my top 10, but not a large body of stuff I love. Sibelius wrote my favourite piece.

These days Haydn, Nyman, Bruckner would make the cut.

The most significant, in terms of their effect on me and my involvement with music are Tchaikovsky, by a lot, and then Glass.

[EigenUser]

My current top 12:
1. Bartok
2. Ravel
3. Ligeti
4. Messiaen
5. Haydn
6. Debussy
7. Mendelssohn
8. Gershwin
9. Schumann
10. Feldman
11. Mahler
12. Stravinsky, perhaps...

I feel like Feldman should be higher since I listen to him on a near-daily basis, but I like Schumann and Gershwin too much to raise him. 13 would probably be Webern, but I'd have to think about it.

Mendelssohn was my first favorite composer.

[Moonfish]

Twelve is the right number. The metric system is a bad side effect of a bad radix.

Copycat! 

[Ken B]

Copycat! 

Note to self: beware of agreeing with Moonfish.

[Moonfish]

Note to self: beware of agreeing with Moonfish.

[Karl Henning]

Twelve? Let's see . . .

Stravinsky
Schoenberg
Prokofiev
Shostakovich
Chopin
Berlioz
JS Bach
Rakhmaninov
Sibelius
Nielsen
Brahms
D. Scarlatti

Getting the first ten is easy ... and then I wonder, whom am I leaving out, and I'll kick myself (figuratively) for the omission?...

[Mirror Image]

Twelve? Let's see . . .

Stravinsky
Schoenberg
Prokofiev
Shostakovich
Chopin
Berlioz
JS Bach
Rakhmaninov
Sibelius
Nielsen
Brahms
D. Scarlatti

Getting the first ten is easy ... and then I wonder, whom am I leaving out, and I'll kick myself (figuratively) for the omission?...

I didn't know Nielsen was so high on your list, Karl. That's excellent. I really do need to spend more time with his music. He was actually one of the first composers I explored.

[Karl Henning]

I played the Clarinet Concerto for my senior recital at Wooster, and I was hooked.

[Mirror Image]

I played the Clarinet Concerto for my senior recital at Wooster, and I was hooked.

'That's all she wrote..." as the old saying goes. That's certainly a fine work. I love the Flute Concerto as well. I haven't really spent a great deal of time with the Violin Concerto. I need to remedy this soon.

[PaulR]

I played the Clarinet Concerto for my senior recital at Wooster, and I was hooked.

One of my friends is playing that in the concerto competition at bgsu today.