Five important pre-1980 composers that you easily could live without

[Madiel]

I don't find it sad that people find certain composers uninteresting, because it is incredibly unlikely to have any impact on the availability of those composers' music for those who want to hear it.

I'm sad when certain foodstuffs I personally like disappear of the shelves because they aren't selling well enough.  But much as I'm surprised when someone says they can live without Dvorak, I don't particularly fear that my own access to Dvorak will be compromised.

[Karl Henning]

Ouch!!!

At the moment, I don't really feel compelled to make a list. It's more fun (and sometimes slightly infuriating ) to read other members'!

(* chortle *)

[Karl Henning]

Sounds like Wagner, whom I'd far sooner recommend to you.

Or like a phrase of my late pal Bob Z: "A good wallow."

[Florestan]

I don't find it sad that people find certain composers uninteresting, because it is incredibly unlikely to have any impact on the availability of those composers' music for those who want to hear it.

I'm sad when certain foodstuffs I personally like disappear of the shelves because they aren't selling well enough.  But much as I'm surprised when someone says they can live without Dvorak, I don't particularly fear that my own access to Dvorak will be compromised.

Yeah. A few of my favorite composers have been nominated but I couldn't care less, I have nominated myself a few favorites of others, so we're even. 

[Daverz]

For me; if I had a couple of Ockeghem masses, a couple of Handel operas, a small collection of Bach cantatas, 2 opuses of Haydn quartets, a couple of Mozart piano concertos, the late Beethoven quartets, some Brahms chamber music, some Schubertl lieder, a couple of Shostakovich concertos, one symphony each by Nielsen, Sibelius and Pettersson, a couple of discs each with select works of Debussy and Ravel, I think I would have a varied collection that would satisfy me.

It's not really a hypothetical.  Most of us started out something like this in our collecting career.  And did we stop collecting? 

[The new erato]

I try. Time and space as Einstein would postulate.

[Mandryka]

Beethoven
Liszt
Scarlatti
Francois Couperin
Palestrina

[(poco) Sforzando]

I concur with your feelings about Bax and Havergal Brian, although I probably wouldn't have put it as harshly as you did. And, yes, I dislike Kapustin, too. If I want to listen to jazz, I'll listen to it. Ellington eats Kapustin for breakfast.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I've weighed in here with my list, but since Bax, Brian and Kapustin are out of the way thanks to the axe swung from Sforzando, I think I'll offer some picks of my own. Let's see...I absolutely would die a happy man if I never heard another note from Nørgård, Xenakis, almost any Baroque Era composer, Verdi, Pettersson, Satie, Pfitzner, Bacewicz and most British composers (w/ the exception of Vaughan Williams, Britten, Elgar, Walton and Arnold).

I have to be a bit harsh. After all, my name is Sforzando, not Dolce. Not a great fan of Arnold, either. (I actually saw a performance of Pfitzner's Palestrina by the Royal Opera here in NY. At the time I thought, well I'm glad I experienced this, but I absolutely never want to hear any of it ever again.)

But I would hope you don't give up on Verdi or for that matter Bach. Verdi wrote reams of dull, conventional stuff in his early years; however, when he developed into the composer of Don Carlo, the Requiem, and Falstaff, I think he became one of the greats.

[Mirror Image]

I have to be a bit harsh. After all, my name is Sforzando, not Dolce. Not a great fan of Arnold, either. (I actually saw a performance of Pfitzner's Palestrina by the Royal Opera here in NY. At the time I thought, well I'm glad I experienced this, but I absolutely never want to hear any of it ever again.)

But I would hope you don't give up on Verdi or for that matter Bach. Verdi wrote reams of dull, conventional stuff in his early years; however, when he developed into the composer of Don Carlo, the Requiem, and Falstaff, I think he became one of the greats.

Yes, indeed. I'll definitely keep trying with Verdi. As for Bach, I think I could learn to like his music more if I didn't want to listen to another composer instead.

[Daverz]

I don't find it sad that people find certain composers uninteresting, because it is incredibly unlikely to have any impact on the availability of those composers' music for those who want to hear it.

But disliking Dvorak demonstrates a louche character.   

[(poco) Sforzando]

Sheesh, man, what did Bax ever do to you?

He wrote music.

[Florestan]

He wrote music.

I can think of far worse offenders than Bax in this respect.

[Daverz]

Composers I enjoy from time to time, but wouldn't worry too much if I was told I could never listen to them again:

• Alan Hovhaness (he died in June 2000, so I'm claiming he counts!)
• Jón Leifs
• Dmitry Bortnyansky
• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
• Manuel de Falla

Honourable mention to, ahem, Franz Schubert.

I couldn't live without Nights in the Gardens of Spain.

[JBS]

Beethoven
Liszt
Scarlatti
Francois Couperin
Palestrina

Now that's a unique list.

I am a bit suprised about Liszt. I thought he would appeal to you quite a bit. He did after all write plenty of stuff that's not just flashy showpieces. (Of course he wrote a bunch of flashy showpieces too.  But there's other stuff.)

[prémont]

Beethoven
Liszt
Scarlatti
Francois Couperin
Palestrina

Now that's a unique list.

I am a bit suprised about Liszt. I thought he would appeal to you quite a bit. He did after all write plenty of stuff that's not just flashy showpieces. (Of course he wrote a bunch of flashy showpieces too.  But there's other stuff.)

I'm more surprised about Beethoven, whom I wouldn't want to be without.
Scarlatti's 555 sonatas are a mixed bag, and in the end I think I could live without them.
And as to Palestrina, Francois Couperin and Liszt they have done less than nothing for me, so here I am quite in accordance with Mandryka.

[André]

But disliking Dvorak demonstrates a louche character.   

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My list:

Boulez and Stockhausen are obvious targets. But really, early Renaissance and Medieval composers are my own musical Oort Cloud, and they are too numerous to list. Okay, here's 3 of them: Machaut, Pérotin and Dufay.

[Karl Henning]

He wrote music.

[snark]
He tried, anyway
[/snark]

[JBS]

I'm more surprised about Beethoven, whom I wouldn't want to be without.
Scarlatti's 555 sonatas are a mixed bag, and in the end I think I could live without them.
And as to Palestrina, Francois Couperin and Liszt they have done less than nothing for me, so here I am quite in accordance with Mandryka.

Mandryka has said before that he's not very keen about LvB, so I wasn't surprised he put him on the list. I can understand putting Scarlatti and Couperin on the list--but how important are they in truth (as opposed to how well known they are)?

[Symphonic Addict]

So the message board as a whole is quite tilted towards British music. If someone were to break into my house and steal all my British music, I wouldn't bat an eyelash as long as they left the RVW (264 pages on him though, more than doubling Beethoven!). But if they were to nab my 20+ years of carefully collected Chopin Nocturnes I'd be pretty depressed.

For real?

[prémont]

Mandryka has said before that he's not very keen about LvB, so I wasn't surprised he put him on the list. I can understand putting Scarlatti and Couperin on the list--but how important are they in truth (as opposed to how well known they are)?

Both were rather important and influential upon their own and the following generation.