Which of these composers do you struggle with the most and why?

[Brian]

Where's some guy when you need him?

[Sergeant Rock]

Where's some guy when you need him?

  ...I'm sure he sensed a disturbance in the force and will be here shortly 

Sarge

[jochanaan]

None of the above.  I enjoy all of them, and several are among my lifelong favorites. But you neglected to include Varese.

[Scion7]

Britten. Unlistenable, even if he wasn't a pedophile.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Britten.

He's another one whose high reputation puzzles me. I can think of maybe 8-10 modern British composers I like better. But I haven't delved into his operas, which appear to be his main thing.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Ives. His music is often all over the place to me and the diverse elementes don't always jell.

It's supposed to be that way!

[The new erato]

Britten. Unlistenable, even if he wasn't a pedophile.

I could say the same about Ives being an insurance agent.

Re Britten; He writes in so many styles that I cannot imagine there not being something somewhere for most. His string quartets for example. And I love his Paul Bunyan operetta.

[Rinaldo]

But I haven't delved into his operas, which appear to be his main thing.

I'm not much of a Britten fan but Gloriana really opened my ears to his music. One of my favourite operas.

[Karl Henning]

I should advise just listening, and not watching the . . . "film" . . . .

http://www.youtube.com/v/r-2fnwlfThs


Played (I think) by Ophélie Gaillard.

[CRMS]

Ives as I have yet to find anything by him which registers with me.  For all the others there are at least a few of their works which I appreciate and in some cases, a lot.

[Mirror Image]

Would be curious to see who voted for Mahler besides me. REVEAL YOURSELVES!!!

[Bogey]

Mahler.  But I have not given up the ship.  Before him it was Bach.  Stuck with him and now he is a favorite.  I do not worry much about it though.  Heck, I think Martin Denny is a genius and not too many threads on boards about him.  I just know what I like when I like it.   

[Mirror Image]

Mahler.  But I have not given up the ship.  Before him it was Bach.  Stuck with him and now he is a favorite.  I do not worry much about it though.  Heck, I think Martin Denny is a genius and not too many threads on boards about him.  I just know what I like when I like it.   

I hear ya, Bill. I'm not giving up on Mahler either. There are still many works of his that I do like. I just have to head for the shed and listen more attentively.

[Bogey]

I hear ya, Bill. I'm not giving up on Mahler either. There are still many works of his that I do like. I just have to head for the shed and listen more attentively.

Too many people on this board that enjoy him that I respect their opinion.  So I figure he has something that I just have not connected with. 

[Mirror Image]

Too many people on this board that enjoy him that I respect their opinion.  So I figure he has something that I just have not connected with.

But surely even you can find beauty in that heartbreakingly beautiful Adagietto from his Symphony No. 5?

[Bogey]

But surely even you can find beauty in that heartbreakingly beautiful Adagietto from his Symphony No. 5?

There are moments.  Though for the specific one you referred to I would have to revisit it.  But that's the thing.  For LvB, Haydn, Miles Davis, The Beatles, Les Baxter, etc., I do not have to skim off moments.  They play and I enjoy almost all of what they have to offer.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Ask me this time last year and I would have said Elgar, but I find a lot of his music quite attractive now.

One composer I don't 'struggle' with (I only struggle in learning music on an instrument! Certainly not listening to music!) but I haven't yet come around to enjoy a huge amount of is Rachmaninov. Many of his orchestral pieces I've heard (and a chamber work or two and a couple of piano pieces) were at times I had a certain aesthetic in mind which I wanted to discover in a new composer; I had certain expectations in my mind and a biased imagination. I should never take this approach when discovering a new composer because many times I often don't enjoy the music as much as if I would have come to it with no expectations of style or anything like that. With an open mind, really, and I my mind wasn't quite open enough to listen to Rachmaninov and it has unfortunately tainted my appreciation of his music.

I hope to fix that soon!

One more thing though...how did you come up with this list? What were your reasons for these composers in particular, Mirror Image? It doesn't seem quite so 'random' as you say.. 

[Rinaldo]

Would be curious to see who voted for Mahler besides me. REVEAL YOURSELVES!!!

Guilty as charged. At times, I hear tremendous beauty (the last movement of the 4th, most of Das Lied von Der Erde..), at many other times, I hear a guy totally confused about what he's trying to achieve. Mahler's a puzzle, but one that I enjoy returning to.

[Florestan]

Of those in the list whose music I have heard, it must be Stravinsky.

Stravinsky.
Beyond the big three early ballets (Firebird, Rite, Petrushka) there is very little of his music that I feel any connection to,  meaning anything that makes me feel I need to hear it again.

My feelings exactly.

[Mirror Image]

Ask me this time last year and I would have said Elgar, but I find a lot of his music quite attractive now.

One composer I don't 'struggle' with (I only struggle in learning music on an instrument! Certainly not listening to music!) but I haven't yet come around to enjoy a huge amount of is Rachmaninov. Many of his orchestral pieces I've heard (and a chamber work or two and a couple of piano pieces) were at times I had a certain aesthetic in mind which I wanted to discover in a new composer; I had certain expectations in my mind and a biased imagination. I should never take this approach when discovering a new composer because many times I often don't enjoy the music as much as if I would have come to it with no expectations of style or anything like that. With an open mind, really, and I my mind wasn't quite open enough to listen to Rachmaninov and it has unfortunately tainted my appreciation of his music.

I hope to fix that soon!

One more thing though...how did you come up with this list? What were your reasons for these composers in particular, Mirror Image? It doesn't seem quite so 'random' as you say.. 

Rachmaninov was a composer I avoided for years (for whatever reason) and have only come to fully appreciate this year. He's one of my favorites now. I used to think his music was the syrupy, sugary sweet Romantic musings of a sentimentalist, but, now, that couldn't be any further from the truth. There's a reason why his music sounds the way it does. As my buddy Karlo (North Star) said before, "He's the most nostalgic composer I know." The feeling of longing, yearning for something lost are strong elements in his music. For me, the music is so undeniably anguished at times that I can barely listen to it as I feel all kinds of emotional pain. When I really heard the melodies that permeate the slower music in his masterful Symphony No. 2 in E minor, for example, I just melted in my chair. Such sorrow and heartfelt beauty.

As for my list, it really was random and didn't require much thinking on my part. With the exception of Mahler, these are some of my favorite composers and most of them are the greatest of the early 20th Century and since the early 20th C is my favorite period of music, why not make a list?