Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

[Mirror Image]

Newly revised list:

1. Elgar
2. RVW
3. Shostakovich
4. Ravel
5. Bartok
6. Stravinsky
7. Britten
8. Schnittke
9. Berg
10. Martinu

[ibanezmonster]

Pretty sure my list has been the same for the last five years, but I will take a futile attempt at trying to remember the bottom half...


1. Mahler
2. Prokofiev
3. Brahms
4. Bruckner
5. Shostakovich
6. Stravinsky
7. Xenakis
8. Penderecki
9. Schnittke
10. Schoenberg

...

11. Berg/Rachmaninoff
12. Takemitsu

1. Elgar

New #1, huh? Whatever gets you through the tedium of everyday life...

[Ken B]

Newly revised [top 10] list:

The man who invented 10 sided dice has a lot to answer for.

[Mirror Image]

Pretty sure my list has been the same for the last five years, but I will take a futile attempt at trying to remember the bottom half...


1. Mahler
2. Prokofiev
3. Brahms
4. Bruckner
5. Shostakovich
6. Stravinsky
7. Xenakis
8. Penderecki
9. Schnittke
10. Schoenberg

...

11. Berg/Rachmaninoff
12. Takemitsu



New #1, huh? Whatever gets you through the tedium of everyday life...

Well, these kinds of lists are just for laughs mainly, but I'm quite serious about Elgar being my #1. It seems I always return to his music with an even greater appreciation than I had the last time. I'm continuing to 'grow' with his music to where it's as natural to me as breathing. I can't say this has happened many times...oh...wait a minute yes I can! You see what I mean about the laughing?

[Mirror Image]

The man who invented 10 sided dice has a lot to answer for.

[not edward]

I've never been able to get conclusively beyond:

1. Beethoven
2. Mahler

For a top 5, I suspect I'd add a triad of Brahms, Sibelius and Ligeti, in that order.

What fills out the top 10 is mostly defined by what I've been listening to of late (late Liszt last night means he's on the list, for example).

There's so much good music out there and sometimes it takes a relistening to remind myself just how good it is.

[EigenUser]

I've never been able to get conclusively beyond:

1. Beethoven
2. Mahler

For a top 5, I suspect I'd add a triad of Brahms, Sibelius and Ligeti, in that order.

What fills out the top 10 is mostly defined by what I've been listening to of late (late Liszt last night means he's on the list, for example).

There's so much good music out there and sometimes it takes a relistening to remind myself just how good it is.

Are we the only two people on GMG with Ligeti as a top 5?

Mine, currently (in rough order, but Ligeti and Ravel are tied):
1. Bartok
2. Ligeti
3. Ravel
4. Messiaen
5. Haydn
6. Mahler (I've been listening to a ton of Mahler recently)
7. Feldman
8. Gershwin
9. Debussy (guess what I'm listening to right now! 0:))
10. Mendelssohn

After that would probably be Schumann, Stravinsky, Webern, Ohana, maybe Bruckner, maybe even late Boulez (i.e. not the strict serial stuff).

[vandermolen]

Today's list 

Vaughan Williams
Bruckner
Moeran
Miaskovsky
Shostakovich
Diamond
Bloch
Sibelius
Tubin
Copland

[André]

Show me yours, I'll show you mine  .

My definition first : a composer whose works when heard impromptu stop me in my tracks. Have to find out who is playing. For it might lead to a future purchase. Because I can't get enough of his music !

Sibelius
Elgar
Wagner
Bruckner
Mahler
Brahms
Schubert
Vaughan-Williams
Verdi
Haydn

[Elgarian]

I'm not sure I can do this! Certainly if I did it would change from month to month, maybe day to day ... and the whole business of deciding who's above whom feels like nightmare. And what does one do with composers who have written one work that is a lifetime favourite, but nothing else has quite caught on?
But I'm going to just do it, no revisions, letting the intuition take charge. Here goes.

1. Elgar
2. Wagner
3. Mozart
4. Puccini
5. Handel
6. Sibelius
7. Beethoven
8. Vaughan Williams
9. Haydn
10. Chopin

Listed among the One-Hit Wonders: Rimsky Korsakov, Holst (not that they ARE one hit wonders, but they are in terms of [personal favourites.

That looks like a stodgy list. Doesn't feel stodgy to me, but I think it might seem so to anyone else. And why isn't Massenet in that list? That's what I want to know. Or Rameau, for pity's sake? Or Lully?

I think I should declare this list invalid, as the outpourings of an unsound mind.

[vandermolen]

Show me yours, I'll show you mine  .

My definition first : a composer whose works when heard impromptu stop me in my tracks. Have to find out who is playing. For it might lead to a future purchase. Because I can't get enough of his music !

Sibelius
Elgar
Wagner
Bruckner
Mahler
Brahms
Schubert
Vaughan-Williams
Verdi
Haydn

Am just discovering Schubert 

Really enjoy the Unfinished Symphony.

[Sergeant Rock]

1. Elgar
2. Wagner
3. Mozart
4. Puccini
5. Handel
6. Sibelius
7. Beethoven
8. Vaughan Williams
9. Haydn
10. Chopin

That looks like a stodgy list. Doesn't feel stodgy to me, but I think it might seem so to anyone else.

Six of those composers are on my list too....I don't think it stodgy at all. And I always regret not having room for Elgar 

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

Chopin is the perfect antidote for stodgy, anyway.   

[André]

I could have added Chopin, Puccini and esp. Mozart, but if limited to 10, those will suffice. We have many things in common !

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

This is as of the minute and it could change in the next second (without notice) :

Brahms
Stravinsky
Debussy
Martinů
Janáček
Sibelius
Berg
Wagner
Mahler
Messiaen

A (digital) embroidery of the ones most special to me (fairly complete):

[Elgarian]

Six of those composers are on my list too....I don't think it stodgy at all. And I always regret not having room for Elgar 

Sarge

Thanks Sarge. That's reassuring enough for me to cancel my order for a My classical tastes are stodgy T-shirt.

[Sammy]

Okay, I'll do this in terms of which composers I listen to the most:

1.  JS Bach (about half my listening time).
2.  Shostakovich
3.  Schumann
4.  Weinberg
5.  Scriabin
6.  Mozart
7.  Haydn
8.  Ligeti
9.  Mahler
10.Scheidemann
11.Dvorak
12.Myaskovsky

[Linus]

I'm in awe of all the Top 10 lists here.

I think I'll have come a long way once I actually have a Top 10 of my own to refer to.

Right about now, I think I've listened to just enough Beethoven to be able to say, with some confidence, that, "Yeah, that Ludwig fellow certainly is among the best for me". Heh.

[ibanezmonster]

Here's a few questions...

is there a #1 favorite composer thread that doesn't have a pre-defined poll, but just people keeping track of a count #1 favorite composers? (Pretty sure there was years back, but don't remember...)

I believe Beethoven was the most favorited, so... I'm curious what was the most liked work of his? The 9th symphony? I just never understood how he could be anyone's top favorite... top 10, certainly, but his music just isn't extreme in any way... or is not everyone looking for something extreme?  Even after spending so much time a few years ago (finally) listening to his music, I found a lot of music I absolutely love, but none of it reaches those extreme heights that other music can, for me. What exactly is the appeal of his music to be a #1 favorite?...

[Jaakko Keskinen]

I believe Beethoven was the most favorited, so... I'm curious what was the most liked work of his?

Not sure about his most liked one but the greatest one to me keeps changing. I guess today I lean towards C sharp minor string quartet.