Most Intelligent Composers

[Scarpia]

Pretty much. In many ways, it is similar to the present state of Latin. You can still hear it being chanted during sacred Hindu rituals (including weddings and such), as lyrics in some Carnatic compositions, but nowhere else beyond that. It was never really a "native language" as you said earlier, not in the recent past anyway. Different regions of India have (more or less) different languages of their own, and although influenced by Sanskrit they are not as rigorous. Sanskrit classes in school rarely dealt with using it for practical purposes. I remember there was letter-writing in Sanskrit , but otherwise it was usually stories and couplets (with concatenated words as a long as a sentence -- and it's usually a pleasure to listen to someone who can read those flawlessly), along with grammar.

I see.  Glad you could clarify the matter.   

[ibanezmonster]

Like many intellectuals, Greg, you are conflating intellectualism with intelligence.  They are no more necessarily related than brown eyes and a fondness for foot massages.  But, happily, you recognize something fishy about this, as indicated by your qualifier, "in the scholarly sense."

That's consistent with the "logical/mathematical" and "linguistic" intelligences identified by Howard Gardner as the dimensions of intelligence most rewarded in traditional schools and measured on traditional IQ tests.  (see http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm ) 

Charles Ives comes to mind of the top of my head as an unusually gifted man who wrote notable music.

Yeah, I guess you could say, "Most Intellectual Composers." In other words, people who may know much about several very complex fields of study, other than composing.

[artoffugue]

1. JSB
2. WAG
3. LvB

Brahma? Overrated. Don't judge a genius by one work. Quality + Quantity counts.