Why do you like your favorite composers?

[Jay F]

Does lack of Wagner cause drug addiction and suicide?

Not for me.

[marvinbrown]

e.g.  Does lack of Wagner cause drug addiction and suicide?

  If you can't tolerate the withdrawal symptoms then yes! 

[Pat B]

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that any preference (musical, literary, philosophical, political even) cannot be explained except as a post factum rationalization. We like X and dislike Y because we were built that way. Struggling with a composer's music and going all the way from "I hate it" to "He's now one of my favorites" (not an infrequent occurrence, it seems, although personally I have never experienced it) is like struggling to find one's way home.

For me, Mahler was an acquired taste (I told that story in some other thread). And I have lots of acquired tastes in rock music.

But I think you do have a point. How much has this thread already become "What are the attributes of your favorite composers?" which is a different (and less interesting) question than "Why do you like your favorite composers?" I'm not sure I can answer the latter question without diluting it into the former.

[Cato]

Not unlike listening to one's favorite composers!     e.g.  Does lack of Wagner cause drug addiction and suicide?

Not for me.

  If you can't tolerate the withdrawal symptoms then yes! 

Opinions are divided!  But we expected that!   

Anyway, here is a variation on our theme: do you like your favorite composer because of when you first heard them?  i.e. Do you have an event that you associate with listening to Composer X for the first time, and that is (one reason) why you like your favorite composer? 

[jochanaan]

...Anyway, here is a variation on our theme: do you like your favorite composer because of when you first heard them?  i.e. Do you have an event that you associate with listening to Composer X for the first time, and that is (one reason) why you like your favorite composer?

I don't think so.  Such an event might evoke a momentary fascination, but it's not enough to explain my continuing fascination with e.g. J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Mahler, Varèse...

[DavidW]

I didn't like Haydn, Mozart or Bach when I first heard them.  It took time.  Beethoven is the only composer out of my favorites that I immediately liked.

[Moonfish]

I didn't like Haydn, Mozart or Bach when I first heard them.  It took time.  Beethoven is the only composer out of my favorites that I immediately liked.

I think Beethoven's 5th lured me into classical music when I was about 13. In contrast the sound of a harpsichord made me run away....   

[Karl Henning]

I think Beethoven's 5th lured me into classical music when I was about 13. In contrast the sound of a harpsichord made me run away....   

While I rather thought it cool when this TV character sat down to the harpsichord!

[Florestan]

But I think you do have a point. How much has this thread already become "What are the attributes of your favorite composers?" which is a different (and less interesting) question than "Why do you like your favorite composers?" I'm not sure I can answer the latter question without diluting it into the former.

Well, exactly. Most answers have been of the type "I like music to have these attributes, therefore I like the music of X". But, as it was also pointed out, the music of Y, Z or W too presents those attributes, yet its effect is felt much less, if at all, than X. Why is that?

[Moonfish]

While I rather thought it cool when this TV character sat down to the harpsichord!

Yeah, I don't think they rarely showed the Adams Family on TV where I grew up in Europe. I did think it was pretty cool when I first saw it though. For some reason I do not relate it to music in my mind - rather some type of horror slapstick!   

[Florestan]

Anyway, here is a variation on our theme: do you like your favorite composer because of when you first heard them?  i.e. Do you have an event that you associate with listening to Composer X for the first time, and that is (one reason) why you like your favorite composer?

I do have this type of association for some specific works of a composer, but not for the composer as such.

[Jay F]

Anyway, here is a variation on our theme: do you like your favorite composer because of when you first heard them?  i.e. Do you have an event that you associate with listening to Composer X for the first time, and that is (one reason) why you like your favorite composer?

Other than reading about Mahler, and going shopping for my first Mahler CDs, there is no event or circumstance surrounding the first time I listened to him. I'd been buying classical CDs since December, 1986, mostly Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Schubert. About a year later, I read about Tennstedt's Mahler 8 and Rattle's Mahler 2 in Gramophone. I went to the local classical music specialist, where I ran into two friends, one a piano teacher at a local university, the other a music reviewer. Rather than "immersing" myself in the Eighth and the Second, I was advised to start with more basic Mahler, the First and the Fourth. So, I went home with the Bernstein CBS M1 and HvK's M4. I thought this was the most joyous noise ever made.

I liked Mahler instantly. There was no thinking that needed to be done (a third friend had suggested that I "get to know" Brahms first; only after I knew Brahms could I "begin to appreciate" Mahler). I bought a Brahms Piano Concerto, which I found stultifying. What horse's ass had this guy been born in who threw this "advice" in my listening path?

I've been a Mahlerholic ever since. I think the imprint concept worked me over but good. My favorites are nearly all by Bernstein, including that M1 on CBS. The only one I liked better than Bernstein was that first HvK disc of the M4. No matter how many different versions I've owned, I come back to Lenny B's Mahler.

My favorites (CBS = LB on CBS; DG = LB on DG)
1 CBS
2 DG (I also like Klemperer and Solti/LSO)
3 CBS (I'm more open to other interpretations here than in many of the symphonies)
4 HvK (the only one I like better than a LB version)
5 DG
6 CBS (the most perfect recording of the most perfect music that ever existed in the history of the world)
7 CBS/DG tie (I'm very open, however to alternate versions; I like MTT and Barenboim a lot.)
8 CBS
9/10 CBS

I don't think I like Mahler because of associations; I think it's just the music.

[North Star]

I liked Mahler instantly. There was no thinking that needed to be done (a third friend had suggested that I "get to know" Brahms first; only after I knew Brahms could I "begin to appreciate" Mahler). I bought a Brahms Piano Concerto, which I found stultifying. What horse's ass had this guy been born in who threw this "advice" in my listening path?

Brahms and Mahler are certainly rather different composers, and that advice should have come with a salt sprinkler. I trust you have listened to more Brahms since, though?

[Jay F]

Brahms and Mahler are certainly rather different composers, and that advice should have come with a salt sprinkler. I trust you have listened to more Brahms since, though?

Yes, but mainly his chamber music. There are moments in his symphonies, even movements, that I enjoy, but overall, I like Brahms just enough to have voted for him in the Brahms v. Wagner poll.

[North Star]

Yes, but mainly his chamber music. There are moments in his symphonies, even movements, that I enjoy, but overall, I like Brahms just enough to have voted for him in the Brahms v. Wagner poll.

A great way to make both the Brahmsians and the Wagnerians grind their teeth 
Anyway, the chamber music certainly contains some of Brahms's best music.

[NJ Joe]

Anyway, here is a variation on our theme: do you like your favorite composer because of when you first heard them?  i.e. Do you have an event that you associate with listening to Composer X for the first time, and that is (one reason) why you like your favorite composer?

The first three composers I liked above all others were Beethoven, Ravel, and Stravinsky, and the event associated with listening to them for the first time was that what I heard (the Eroica, the orchestral Alborada del gracioso, and The Rite) knocked my socks off in a way that nothing else did. This prompted me to explore their other works more than any other composers.

[San Antone]

John Cage:  Because his music is magic; it opened my mind to possibilities; his boundless creativity; enlightening us that music includes sounds not usually thought of as music.  Because of his study of Zen and how it enhanced his music with a wonder and freedom that also excites my imagination.

Claude Debussy:  His pristine textures and melodic gifts.  His restraint despite the music's sensuousness.  His mastery of setting text.  The dynamic static quality of all his music, but especially evident in Pelleas et Melisande.

Igor Stravinsky:  The manner in which he handles form; his rhythmic sense, the variety of his works, all of which contain wit, imagination and absolute beauty.

Guillaume de Machaut:  His command of language and knowledge of human nature, which is almost Shakespearean in scope.  His book-making in which he used allusion in his music and poetry to connect ideas and emotional content which I see as a 14th century version of hyperlinking.  His belief in hope.  The intricacies of his delicate polyphony.

That's four of my favorites.  But to the extent other composers also have these traits, their music will find its way to be among my favorites.

[TheGSMoeller]

John Cage:  Because his music is magic; it opened my mind to possibilities; his boundless creativity; enlightening us that music includes sounds not usually thought of as music.  Because of his study of Zen and how it enhanced his music with a wonder and freedom that also excites my imagination.

Claude Debussy:  His pristine textures and melodic gifts.  His restraint despite the music's sensuousness.  His mastery of setting text.  The dynamic static quality of all his music, but especially evident in Pelleas et Melisande.

Igor Stravinsky:  The manner in which he handles form; his rhythmic sense, the variety of his works, all of which contain wit, imagination and absolute beauty.

Guillaume de Machaut:  His command of language and knowledge of human nature, which is almost Shakespearean in scope.  His book-making in which he used allusion in his music and poetry to connect ideas and emotional content which I see as a 14th century version of hyperlinking.  His belief in hope.  The intricacies of his delicate polyphony.

That's four of my favorites.  But to the extent other composers also have these traits, their music will find its way to be among my favorites.

Very nice, sanantonio. Any recs for Machaut?

I have these two, with the latter only featuring 5 works from Machaut, but would love to expand it...

[asin]B000000R3S[/asin]
[asin]B000002ZRX[/asin]

[San Antone]

Very nice, sanantonio. Any recs for Machaut?

Your Project Ars Nova recording is excellent!  But I haven't heard the Gothic Voices disc.  They were a pioneering gruop in Early Music and are considered good, but there are more recent recordings worth investigating.

Because Machaut was a court secretary for kings, he had the wherewithal to preserve all of his compositions and poetry.  We have at least six nearly complete sources, two of which were probably created by Machaut or under his close supervision.  So it has been possible for almost all of this music to be performed and recorded.  In other words, there is no lack of good recordings.

A good place to start is with this Brilliant collection excellently performed by the Ensemble Gilles Binchois

[asin]B004QRUJJ0[/asin]

The Naxos Early Music series is very good as well and these are worth hearing as well.

[asin]B0000014AN[/asin]

Le Voir Dit is his masterwork and has rcently been done here by the Orlando Consort

[asin]B00E0IZ0IA[/asin]

Orlando Consort also has another Machaut disc:

[asin]B00QKYTS58[/asin]

Those are all among my favorites but as I said, there are hundreds of choices.

[Artem]

Do you enjoy Machaut on ECM?