Your soul mate composers...

Started by Guido, January 16, 2008, 08:01:23 AM

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Guido

#20
Others that very possibly may make the list for me are Faure, Dvorak, Bridge, Szymanowski, Bartok, Walton, Goldschmidt, Feldman, Carter and Adams - the main reason for my reticence being that I haven't heard all of any of their works (though I have my initial three.)

Some very interesting choices so far.
Geologist.

The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away


not edward

For me, the obvious choices would be Janacek and Martinu, probably backed up with Ligeti and Webern.

I can see a case for some others: I feel very much at one with the later, austere Busoni, for example. Similarly with Denisov, though I don't rate him as highly as the others I've mentioned.

(I won't mention the really big names, as they almost go without saying.)
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

Guido

Quote(I won't mention the really big names, as they almost go without saying.)

Maybe but possibly not. Although I love very many of Beethoven's works I still wouldnt call him a 'soul mate' composer. Just as an example.
Geologist.

The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

(poco) Sforzando

Quote from: Guido on January 16, 2008, 05:01:19 PM
Maybe but possibly not. Although I love very many of Beethoven's works I still wouldnt call him a 'soul mate' composer. Just as an example.

When I was a kid and just learning about music, I would walk around scowling, pretending I was Beethoven.

But to explain at least one of my choices (especially as your question allows for all kinds of responses), I might choose Berlioz as my one soul-mate. I love the man for his wild imagination, his sarcastic wit, his courage and integrity. Reading the David Cairns 2-volume biography, I often find myself very moved. Few moments in musical biography have affected me like Berlioz's deep grief on hearing of the death of his sailor son Louis.
"I don't know what sforzando means, though it clearly means something."

Greta

Yeah, Sibelius here too. :)

Wagner, Mahler. Much of Tchaikovsky. Much of John Adams.

A few others that can really grab me by the heart: Bruckner, Brahms, Elgar.

Symphonien


Bogey

There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

val

Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Bruckner, Debussy.

Florestan

Pretty much everything by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Rachmaninov struck special chords of my soul.

I'm also particularly fond of the piano music of Faure and Granados, of the Arriaga's SQs and Kalinnikov's symphonies.



"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part. ." — Claude Debussy

M forever

#30
Quote from: hornteacher on January 16, 2008, 04:27:52 PM
Dvorak, both in his life and his music.

?
What do you have in common with Dvořák?

Florestan

Quote from: M forever on January 17, 2008, 12:12:06 AM
?
What do you have in common with Dvořák?

A distaste for pedantry, perhaps.
"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part. ." — Claude Debussy

Sergeant Rock

Quote from: Greta on January 16, 2008, 06:03:57 PM
Yeah, Sibelius here too. :)
Wagner, Mahler. Much of Tchaikovsky.
A few others that can really grab me by the heart: Bruckner, Brahms, Elgar.

What she said.

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

springrite

Feldman comes to mind first and foremost, followed by Mahler. Mahler is my favorite composer, but there is a difference between that and soul mate. Feldman's music represent a state of mind that best represents me.

mikkeljs

Man, if I think about one composer, it is so easy for me to feel a soulmate in some way.

But I think: Stockhausen, Langgård and Scriabin.

paulb

Quote from: Guido on January 16, 2008, 08:01:23 AM


If any one can articulate better what I am trying to say please feel free to!

That certain composers reflect back to us something that deepest within us, the music gives us meaning, our past/present/future life essense, perhaps. A strong inner bond is felt between you and the music, where the "between" vanishes.
This could apply to a  few composers i feel connected with, but will mention Pettersson and Schnittke, as the deepest sense.

gomro

Quote from: Guido on January 16, 2008, 08:01:23 AM
Though I love many works by many of the great composers, there are some composers where virtually every work of theirs moves, interests and/or excites me. It's not just that I think their individual ideas are beautiful, but rather the very idiom and language that they compose with.

Three come to mind immediately:

Stockhausen
Wuorinen
Hanson

Brian

Quote from: M forever on January 17, 2008, 12:12:06 AM
?
What do you have in common with Dvořák?
Maybe he breeds pigeons? I had the same question.  ;D

My musical soul mate is probably Dvořák as well, though; 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.

paulb

Quote from: Bogey on January 16, 2008, 08:20:56 PM
Beethoven

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'?
as of 5 or 6 yrs ago, i don't think i could have honestly, sincerely answer the OP.


Marcel