Your soul mate composers...

[M forever]

Maybe he breeds pigeons? I had the same question. 

Or maybe he also used to work as a butcher.

[rubio]

I feel most related emotionally with Bruckner and Shostakovich, but I love the music of Bach and Beethoven at least as much.

[Harry]

Pettersson, no doubt....., and Tchaikovsky naturally.

[Sergeant Rock]

They say in religions that a  unified soul is best. = just one lone composer.

I wonder how much our answers reveal about ourselves. Some choosing like 10 composers. if this a  sign of division, a  spilt personality, or maybe the poster is still in his personality forming stages, that is  has to "find himself'?

Or maybe it's because we are all individuals with unique personalities, very different than any one composer. Therefore we need several composers to satisfy different aspects of ourselves. For example, Mahler and Bruckner are often lumped together but they couldn't be more different. And yet I feel in tune with both; in fact, I couldn't imagine life without these "soulmates."

Sarge

[ChamberNut]

For example, Mahler and Bruckner are often lumped together but they couldn't be more different.

Well said Sarge! I'm not sure why they are often lumped together?  And if someone says the length of their symphonies, think twice....Mahler's symphonies are on average well over 10 minutes longer per symphony.  I think it's about 12 minutes or so actually per symphony.  I had checked it out awhile ago.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Or maybe it's because we are all individuals with unique personalities, very different than any one composer. Therefore we need several composers to satisfy different aspects of ourselves. For example, Mahler and Bruckner are often lumped together but they couldn't be more different. And yet I feel in tune with both; in fact, I couldn't imagine life without these "soulmates."

Sarge

Don't forget the meaning of the word 'composer' - someone who puts things together. Aren't we all 'composite', needing a 'composer' for every 'part'?

[Ten thumbs]

Definitely different parts of the soul but all have something in common:
Scriabin, Chopin, Fanny Mendelssohn, Schubert and Medtner.

[M forever]

Tchaikovsky naturally.

Are you gay?

[Marcel]

Are you gay?

Are you naturally stupid?

[M forever]

No, but thanks for asking. Are you inferring there is something wrong with being gay? Tchaikovsky was.

[Marcel]

No, but thanks for asking. Are you inferring there is something wrong with being gay? Tchaikovsky was.

I know he was. No, there is nothing wrong with being gay. For me Tchaikovsky is number one composer naturally, and I am not a gay. Should I have to be... after that... ? 

[longears]

Are you naturally stupid?

No, but thanks for asking.

Through the nose, M, through the nose. 

[vandermolen]

Myaskovsky and Vaughan Williams

[not edward]

Listening to the Berwald symphony cycle today reminded me that he's probably a composer who belongs here for me.

There's something so wonderfully human about how he keeps doing the wrong thing and making it work (well, perhaps not that horrid transition to the coda in the finale of the Singuliere, but for me his weirdnesses come off way more often than they don't).

[Don]

Listening to the Berwald symphony cycle today reminded me that he's probably a composer who belongs here for me.

There's something so wonderfully human about how he keeps doing the wrong thing and making it work (well, perhaps not that horrid transition to the coda in the finale of the Singuliere, but for me his weirdnesses come off way more often than they don't).

"Doing wrong things and making them work" is an apt description of Berwald's music.  Personally, I prefer to consider the things he does as "alien", but the results are the same.

[paulb]

Or maybe it's because we are all individuals with unique personalities, very different than any one composer. Therefore we need several composers to satisfy different aspects of ourselves. For example, Mahler and Bruckner are often lumped together but they couldn't be more different. And yet I feel in tune with both; in fact, I couldn't imagine life without these "soulmates."

Sarge

Agree, I was just making that comment partly in jest. As we all have our defining composers. We are composites in nature, the ying/yang concept is part of our nature, Jung's contrasexual components in our natures, introversion/extroversion sides to us, 4 functional characteristics to us.So its most unlikely just 1 composer will define our essense.
I think some will notice how their choice in composer today, will be different in the future.
Though Harry seems to be well set in his choices, Pettersson /Tchaikovsky. As i am in mine.

That is funny how Mahler sometimes gets paired with Bruckner. I have done that in the past, "Mahler AND Bruckner"    why i am not sure
. And yes i realize they are quite opposites. I think it has to do with the fact they were contemporaries and both syms are long, and both are of  prussia.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

both are of  prussia.

I think you mean Austria, Paul... I don't know any great Prussian composer (although Frederick the Great played the flute and composed...)

[M forever]

And yes i realize they are quite opposites. I think it has to do with the fact they were contemporaries and both syms are long, and both are of  prussia.

Mahler and Bruckner have a whole lot more in common than you think, but that would probably be too difficult and time-consuming to explain to someone who doesn't know the difference between Prussia and Austria. And Mahler wasn't Austrian either. He was a subject of the Austro-Hungarian double monarchy, but not that much more Austrian than Dvořák or Janáček.

I don't know any great Prussian composer

If you want, you can count Mendelssohn a little since he was born in Hamburg, but grew up and studied in Berlin. Not that it matters much though.

[greg]

Or maybe it's because we are all individuals with unique personalities, very different than any one composer. Therefore we need several composers to satisfy different aspects of ourselves. For example, Mahler and Bruckner are often lumped together but they couldn't be more different. And yet I feel in tune with both; in fact, I couldn't imagine life without these "soulmates."

Sarge

Exactly, i've thought about this, too.....
i think we all have energy to express ourselves in some form(s), emotionally, and it's manifested in music. Listening to music is like fulfilling the desire to express ourselves emotionally in that way, at that moment. Sometimes your favorite composer doesn't exactly cut it for a specific time- for me, i'm more likely to be in the mood for Prokofiev in the morning (lighter, more inspired and imaginative music) and then late Mahler/Shostakovich Symphonies for the evening (deep, expressive music). It's just like having energy to eat at certain times more than others.

And I suppose how we decide our 'soulmate composers' may be a combination of the short term (how satisfying the music is) and long term (how much we go back to it, or how much energy we have for it).

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

If you want, you can count Mendelssohn a little since he was born in Hamburg, but grew up and studied in Berlin. Not that it matters much though.

A shame. I thought you'd care, being a Prussian, M(ark Brandenburg) forever! 

Johan