Your soul mate composers...

[Greta]

I am a generally very cheery person, bursting with ideas that I don't always remember or draw into the overall structure of my life. Whether the products of my work have one common 'goal' is debatable. And occasionally I can have some emotional outbursts. But really another composer could describe me well, except that I might be subject to ridicule if I were to say that Khachaturian is a potential soul mate. His mixture of introspective quieter moments and totally rambunctious folk-style dancing are also partially me.

Boy does that sound shockingly like me, Brian, especially the first line... 

Has only person mentioned Ravel?? He jumped to mind first when I realized I had forgotten someone. I have always been in awe of his orchestration, and somehow his music has always "clicked" for me, there is just that inexorable sense of everything being right. Like Sibelius, you couldn't possibly add or subtract a note.

They both seem to achieve this perfect balance which attracts me, another that fits in there is Hindemith.  Also in that category, recently I have come to love Lutoslawski, there is something very special about the construction of his music.

So, what exactly describes a "soulmate composer"? I'm curious, for those in this thread, what qualities bring these specific names to mind for you? Does their music describe a part of your personality, do you just love listening, do you admire the writing? I find it so interesting how some composers click totally for some people but not for others.

Like for me, there are many composers I like immensely, or even love, but just couldn't count as soulmates. Stravinsky and Shostakovich are two examples. I absolutely love their works, but somehow have found them hard to "get close" to. Ives is another.

[Ephemerid]

Debussy. 

I didn't hear his music until I was 15? 16?  There's a certain magic & childlike innocence about his work about his music, and a love of nature (which is not imitated in his music, rather what is hear is an emotional response TO nature).  There's an emphasis on tonal colour that I find spellbinding.  I never tire of listening to his works. 

That being said, I find Bach irresistible-- he was my first love as an early teenager and more than anything, I adore his cello suites.  Probably more than anything else, if push came to shove and I could only have one cycle of *anything* by any composer, it would be his cello suites.  Wow...

[paulb]

Mahler and Bruckner have a whole lot more in common than you think,

OOO, Mahler-ians just cringe whenever they read something like that
no don't explain, as you say i can't tell the diff from old prussia than austria. Books on prussia wait reading on the shelf.....
anyway both composers strike me as "the old world", whatever that configures in your imaginations, Wagner shows sparks of the new world in parts of his 3 great late operas, Debussy sets sail away from the old world, but never lets us forget the  fond memories of a  world long gone.

[Brian]

Has only person mentioned Ravel?? He jumped to mind first when I realized I had forgotten someone. I have always been in awe of his orchestration, and somehow his music has always "clicked" for me, there is just that inexorable sense of everything being right. Like Sibelius, you couldn't possibly add or subtract a note.

Sometimes Ravel's complete Daphnis just hits me in a truly wondrous way, holds me in awe and keeps me riveted to my headphones. Other times I turn it off for five minutes. Which suggests that a "soul mate composer" is not just a composer who merely "hits" your moods and your character and seems to connect with you in a very profound way - but does so consistently. Dvorak has been a favorite of mine for so long that his music seems to have merged into my persona - I just feel like I understand everything he wrote. (Certainly an illusion!) And when I amuse myself by composing in my head ... well, it sounds a lot like Dvorak.   

Tchaikovsky seems to go in cycles - his compositions really "connect" with me for about six months, then not as much as before, and then I come back round to them again like old friends.

[lukeottevanger]

Has only person mentioned Ravel?? He jumped to mind first when I realized I had forgotten someone. I have always been in awe of his orchestration, and somehow his music has always "clicked" for me, there is just that inexorable sense of everything being right. Like Sibelius, you couldn't possibly add or subtract a note.

I may have mentioned Ravel, and if I didn't, he is included in the list of 'others' I supplied - he was certainly the first composer who I truly fell head over heels for as a teenager. I've been known to take detours whilst driving through France just to be able to drive past the house at Montfort l'Amaury, though I don't dare to go in again as I worry I will spoil the deeply-felt childhood impressions of my only proper visit. My connection to Ravel, however, has nothing to do with his orchestration, which is part of his craft but not part of his 'soul', for want of another word (actually, as with most composers to whom the distinction is applicable, I prefer Ravel's chamber/solo/vocal music, with the exception of the two concerti). What connects with me in Ravel is his 'passionate dignity', the endless ways he finds of making a phrase infinitely expressive but without letting things become the least histrionic. I could go on endlessly about this.... Note - I'm sure I don't share this quality, but I do connect to it.

[Varg]

Pettersson for the music; and also Pettersson as a being, sadly, for we both had a childhood that kids should never have.

[greg]

wow, two Pettersson avatars on the same page- not something you see every day 

[paulb]

I may have mentioned Ravel, and if I didn't, he is included in the list of 'others' I supplied - he was certainly the first composer who I truly fell head over heels for as a teenager. I've been known to take detours whilst driving through France just to be able to drive past the house at Montfort l'Amaury, though I don't dare to go in again as I worry I will spoil the deeply-felt childhood impressions of my only proper visit. My connection to Ravel, however, has nothing to do with his orchestration, which is part of his craft but not part of his 'soul', for want of another word (actually, as with most composers to whom the distinction is applicable, I prefer Ravel's chamber/solo/vocal music, with the exception of the two concerti). What connects with me in Ravel is his 'passionate dignity', the endless ways he finds of making a phrase infinitely expressive but without letting things become the least histrionic. I could go on endlessly about this.... Note - I'm sure I don't share this quality, but I do connect to it.

Ravel for me goes deep. Yeah i know its too late to alter my picks as soul mates, I guess there's different levels of soul, whatever that means. I mean take Mozart's 20 cds worth of sacred music as presented on the 2 Philips releases, thats soul too.
Ravel for me goes even deeper than Debussy, but both are inter-twined into the fabric of my soul. Ravel''s muisc  piano solo / orch/concerto/chamber, all has this mystical religious sense. The man was really ofa   mystery as was his comrade Debussy.  Both in my mind repesent the full fruit and flowering of the romantic tradition, yet neither remained  as as luke succintly puts it, histrionic. (gotta look that word up). Both , moreso ravel, transcended the romantic tradition, yet each pays hommage by allowing that style to remain a  part of their art.
its like they looked at was before, and totally emblished these idaes with gorgous brilliant colors and textures.
I think that Ravel and Debussy are from that line of composers descended from Mozart. (neither "cared much"  for the Beethovenian line of compositional stylings)
Both were highly impressed with some of Wagner's  novo stylings   in the late operas, especially Tristan and Parsifal.

So yes i have to say Ravel is one of those composers who has been a  part of me from the very beginnings and will no doubt remain a   powerful force in my life. None of my late 20th C music has  weaken  Ravel's position as a  unique composer in my listenings.
And its for Ravel's masterpieces which stand in the way of my not being impressed with most late 20th C music.

[M forever]

But really another composer could describe me well, except that I might be subject to ridicule if I were to say that Khachaturian is a potential soul mate. His mixture of introspective quieter moments and totally rambunctious folk-style dancing are also partially me.

Have you ever posted a picture of yourself here? I don't remember seeing one. You need to do that anyway since basically everyone who participates here on a regular basis has - it is just really nicer to "talk" to people when you at least have idea what they look like. But now we need a pic of you so we can picture you doing the sabre dance.

[The fatgoat]

Perhaps Shostakovich or Tchaikovsky. They're probably the closest.