Your Top 10 Favorite Composers

[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]

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]

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

[Ken B]

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

Sarge

[Brian]

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]

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]

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 

[Sergeant Rock]

I wish you would share your 15 favorite Cage pieces.

And cross-post to the Stockhausen thread 

Wicked Karl 

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

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

Sarge

Умирают в Россий страхи . . . .

[André]

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 

[nathanb]

I wish you would share your 15 favorite Cage pieces.

And cross-post to the Stockhausen thread 

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

[North Star]

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.

[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]

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?

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Not many changes, but thought I should post this anyway:

Wagner
Beethoven
Debussy
R. Strauss
Sibelius
Puccini
Rachmaninoff
Saint-Saëns
Berlioz
Verdi

[Mirror Image]

Mine has gone through another metamorphosis:

Nielsen
Sibelius
Dvořák
Vaughan Williams
Bartók
Shostakovich
Elgar
R. Strauss
Rachmaninov
Brahms

[Madiel]

Alas! Poor Ravel. From being close to your heart straight to being booted off the list.

[amw]

Since apparently this just means "your top 10 composers over the past few days/weeks/hours" now, I will say the composers I've been listening to most lately include Dvořák, Schubert and Martinů, plus occasionally Beethoven (András Schiff's 2x Diabellis, several recordings of Op. 130, and much more of the Sixth Symphony than I've ever usually listened to) and way more Japanese gagaku music than usual. At the moment I have minimal interest in Brahms apart from the string sextets & the first two violin sonatas, find Chopin and Mendelssohn ok in the quieter kitschier pieces but less interested in their big works at the moment, prefer Mozart to Haydn, and have little time for Bartók, Stravinsky, Cage, etc—maybe too "objective", but I am pretty into Jo Kondo, who's even more so, so idk. Sciarrino and Nono make up most of my modernist listening, plus Sørensen, who's not a modernist but has a similar calming effect. I also opened the Parmegiani Box, but he's no Luc Ferrari *cough* er, yeah. I have not listened to any pre-1780 music in what feels like forever.

I guess that's a good list of current favourites plus unfavourites-that-are-normally-favourites.