Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

Started by Mirror Image, March 08, 2014, 06:24:13 PM

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Mirror Image

Quote from: Spineur on June 12, 2016, 04:45:11 PM
You are not the only one !  To illustrate the point, my favorite Berio piece is the ending he composed for Puccini Turandot !!
I do listen to Ligeti occasionally also, but not often.

I do want to say that it is my own failings as a listener that I do not connect with but one composer on nathanb's list. My comments aren't meant to ridicule or belittle his choices. My hats are off to him. He's a much more adventurous listener than I am. Gosh...I'm really turning into an old fuddy-duddy. ;D But, at the end of the day, we certainly can't help what we enjoy.

The new erato

Quote from: Mirror Image on June 12, 2016, 04:49:54 PM
I do want to say that it is my own failings as a listener that I do not connect with but one composer on nathanb's list.
Very wise words.

some guy

Quote from: nathanb on June 12, 2016, 04:26:01 PM
See my post in "Composers You Are Currently Exploring" before judging me.

I guess, if I'm totally honest after having a glance at last year's listening habits, I'm feelin' like something along the lines of this haphazardly thrown-together buncha names:

1. Karlheinz Stockhausen
2. John Cage
3. Pierre Boulez
4. Iannis Xenakis
5. György Ligeti
6. Helmut Lachenmann
7. Luciano Berio
8. Luigi Nono
9. Richard Barrett
10. Francisco López
Wow, nice list there nathanb. You know how lists make me break out in hives, but this one is pretty attractive, I have to say.

At the risk of giving myself the old urticaria, I'll offer up my own list of ten to balance out the whole gender thing I noticed here. If I may. :)

Michele Bokanowski
Beatriz Ferreyra
Emmanuelle Gibello
Natasha Barrett
Ana-Maria Avram
Maryanne Amacher
Diane Salazar
Alice Shields
Pauline Oliveros
Sachiko M

No necessary order. And pretty close to actually being a ten favorites list as well, come to think of it.

(poco) Sforzando

Quote from: some guy on June 13, 2016, 12:44:00 AM
Wow, nice list there nathanb. You know how lists make me break out in hives, but this one is pretty attractive, I have to say.

At the risk of giving myself the old urticaria, I'll offer up my own list of ten to balance out the whole gender thing I noticed here. If I may. :)

Michele Bokanowski
Beatriz Ferreyra
Emmanuelle Gibello
Natasha Barrett
Ana-Maria Avram
Maryanne Amacher
Diane Salazar
Alice Shields
Pauline Oliveros
Sachiko M

No necessary order. And pretty close to actually being a ten favorites list as well, come to think of it.

Thank you. I don't think I've heard let alone heard of most of these, but at least I now know what "urticaria" means.
"I don't know what sforzando means, though it clearly means something."

Mirror Image

My current list (the composers in bold are ones that are quite close to my heart):

Nielsen
Sibelius
Vaughan Williams
Bartók
Ravel

Dvořák
Brahms
Martinů
Rachmaninov
Elgar

Ken B

Quote from: Mirror Image on June 13, 2016, 06:03:44 AM
My current list (the composers in bold are ones that are quite close to my heart):

Nielsen
Sibelius
Vaughan Williams
Bartók
Ravel

Dvořák
Brahms
Martinů
Rachmaninov
Elgar

Remember all those times I said Shostakovich would drop out, and you told me "Never!"

Sergeant Rock

Quote from: Ken B on June 13, 2016, 06:06:55 AM
Remember all those times I said Shostakovich would drop out, and you told me "Never!"

The Russians took a big hit this round...with Schnittke and Prokofiev along with Shosty gone.

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

Ken B

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on June 13, 2016, 06:26:48 AM
The Russians took a big hit this round...with Schnittke and Prokofiev along with Shosty gone.

Sarge


Brian

Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on June 13, 2016, 04:30:30 AM
Thank you. I don't think I've heard let alone heard of most of these, but at least I now know what "urticaria" means.
It's a memorably musical word; I must try to remember it.

nathanb

#669
Quote from: some guy on June 13, 2016, 12:44:00 AM
Wow, nice list there nathanb. You know how lists make me break out in hives, but this one is pretty attractive, I have to say.

At the risk of giving myself the old urticaria, I'll offer up my own list of ten to balance out the whole gender thing I noticed here. If I may. :)

Michele Bokanowski
Beatriz Ferreyra
Emmanuelle Gibello
Natasha Barrett
Ana-Maria Avram

Maryanne Amacher
Diane Salazar
Alice Shields
Pauline Oliveros
Sachiko M


No necessary order. And pretty close to actually being a ten favorites list as well, come to think of it.

I have listened a fair bit to the bolded ones (well, not a ton to Beatriz or Emmanuelle yet), and most of these listenings were your fault :)

If I were to list a top ten females, I'm sure Natasha, Ana-Maria, Pauline, and Sachiko would be on there. Along with Olga Neuwirth, Rebecca Saunders, Adriana Holszky, Misato Mochizuki, maybe Jennifer Walshe? All that other stuff, you know, the people that have yet to reach the glorious heights of the pure waves.

Karl Henning

Quote from: nathanb on June 12, 2016, 04:26:01 PM
See my post in "Composers You Are Currently Exploring" before judging me.

I guess, if I'm totally honest after having a glance at last year's listening habits, I'm feelin' like something along the lines of this haphazardly thrown-together buncha names:

1. Karlheinz Stockhausen
2. John Cage
3. Pierre Boulez
4. Iannis Xenakis
5. György Ligeti
6. Helmut Lachenmann
7. Luciano Berio
8. Luigi Nono
9. Richard Barrett
10. Francisco López

I wish you would share your 15 favorite Cage pieces.

And cross-post to the Stockhausen thread  8)
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Sergeant Rock

Quote from: karlhenning on June 13, 2016, 09:07:45 AM
I wish you would share your 15 favorite Cage pieces.

And cross-post to the Stockhausen thread  8)

Wicked Karl  ;D

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

Karl Henning

Quote from: Ken B on June 13, 2016, 06:47:10 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on June 13, 2016, 06:26:48 AM
The Russians took a big hit this round...with Schnittke and Prokofiev along with Shosty gone.

Sarge


Умирают в Россий страхи . . . .
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

André

Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on June 13, 2016, 04:30:30 AM
Thank you. I don't think I've heard let alone heard of most of these, but at least I now know what "urticaria" means.

Very common term in French (urticaire), mostly used to indicate a stong dislike of something ("it gives me the urticaire)". Wich is sure to be my reaction to any extended listening of these composers  ;D

nathanb

Quote from: karlhenning on June 13, 2016, 09:07:45 AM
I wish you would share your 15 favorite Cage pieces.

And cross-post to the Stockhausen thread  8)

Cross-post what? And the "Wicked Karl" below makes me think I'm missing something. Am I?

North Star

Quote from: nathanb on June 13, 2016, 01:02:45 PM
Cross-post what? And the "Wicked Karl" below makes me think I'm missing something. Am I?
There's a certain member who's quite active in the Stockhausen thread, and he rather dislikes Cage. I'm sure we'd all be delighted to see your favourite Cage works in the Cage thread at least.
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

nathanb

Funny thing about Cage is that he's a little tougher to map out with a list because his works vary so much more widely between different performances than just about anything short of Stockhausen's intuitive texts or Cardew's most radical works. Exhibit A: Atlas Eclipticalis. You can play this piece with anywhere from, I believe, 1 to 87 instruments. And you have a pretty free range of tempo choices as well. On Mode records, we see three versions, two of which are accompanied by Winter Music. The two accompanied versions are not only played with smaller forces, but also at about half speed. This single piece can therefore be anything from a robust symphonic piece to a sparse meditation. There are some works that I wish would be recorded faster than is even available, or slower. Anyway, I'll try to base a list on what I feel are my favorite interpretations, just as we do with most music we love.

1. Atlas Eclipticalis
2. 108
3. Thirty Pieces For String Quartet
4. Roaratorio
5. Freeman Etudes
6. Music For Piano
7. Cartridge Music
8. Music Of Changes
9. Ryoanji
10. Etudes Australes
11. Some Of "The Harmony Of Maine"
12. Sonatas & Interludes
13. Souvenir
14. Europera 5
15. Bird Cage

Note: I have not listened to some of Cage's little niches and nooks as much as I would like to. Notably missing here are all the Variations pieces and the many percussion masterworks I haven't given enough attention to.

Note 2: Ok. List done for now. That was rough, lol. Pretty much neglect order and do what you want with it. Cage has too many good genres.

some guy

Try the Cinncinatti percussion group's CD, then.

It's a lovely disc and has more than percussion on it.

They don't seem to have followed that thing, which they called "volume 1," with any other volumes, yet. Dunno what's up with that. They got a lot of praise for volume 1. Where's 2???

nathanb

Quote from: some guy on June 14, 2016, 07:23:13 AM
Try the Cinncinatti percussion group's CD, then.

It's a lovely disc and has more than percussion on it.

They don't seem to have followed that thing, which they called "volume 1," with any other volumes, yet. Dunno what's up with that. They got a lot of praise for volume 1. Where's 2???

Well I have the three Mode volumes already, I just haven't listened to them a tenth as much as I have for the other Cage standards (Star Maps, I Ching, Number Pieces, Prepared Piano, Happenings, etc). Honestly the one I can remember most about is the third volume with the plant pieces and the composed improvisations, but I'm woefully unprepared to talk about the constructions, the credo, or the imaginary landscapes. Maybe I'll fix that today if I have time. Going over to a friend's place later. Might bring Birtwistle's The Minotaur.

some guy

Ah, I see what they've done. Three Mode volumes of Cage percussion music. With three different groups of performers.

OK.

And yes, take the Minotaur, why not?