Your top 26-50 favorite composers!!!

[Mirror Image]

I'm not surprised that our lists have many composers in common, John! And we do share a lot of common ground with the members you've mentioned (for me, Cesar and Kyle in particular.) I'm still trying to warm up to a lot of contemporary music (and, like you say, music since WWII in general) - not that I don't like it, it just takes a while to "sink in". So far my favorite living composers are unabashedly tonal (Jennifer Higdon, Lowell Liebermann, Ned Rorem, and so on) - the kind of music I'd like to write as a work my way back into composition - though I know my preferences will evolve!

Yes, indeed. There are some post-WWII avant-garde composers that I don't like that much like Carter or Stockhausen for example. But I think Ligeti, Boulez and Berio are just fantastic. There's more depth to these composers than many realize. I suppose I could've included Henze into this list, but his music is all-over-the-place in terms style, so he's quite the chameleon in this regard. He's certainly another favorite of mine from this period. If you don't know his music, do check him out!

[kyjo]

As mentioned in the original post, these are the next five who just "missed the cut":

26. Berg
27. Messiaen
28. Vaughan Williams
29. Arnold
30. Debussy

And now for the rest:

31. Respighi
32. Prokofiev
33. Roussel
34. Copland
35. Strauss, Richard
36. Lloyd
37. Bach, J.S.
38. Lutoslawski
39. Atterberg
40. Britten
41. Korngold
42. Tchaikovsky
43. Milhaud
44. Elgar
45. Bax
46. Franck
47. Englund
48. Varese
49. Glazunov
50. Faure

And, in case we do a "Your 51st through 75th favorite composers" here are my next five:

51. Walton
52. Ives
53. Guarnieri
54. Bliss
55. Telemann

The similarities with mine and Cesar's tastes are just uncanny!

[Symphonic Addict]

The similarities with mine and Cesar's tastes are just uncanny!

Tastes don't lie.