Your Top Five Melodists

[Christo]

Zuccherini

Sweetest of them all! 

[king ubu]

Cole Porter and Wolferl ... not quite sure about the other three (but surely Gershwin is a contender).

[Daverz]

Sweetest of them all! 

Not unless you sautee him in Butterworth.

[kyjo]

Malcolm Arnold
Debussy
Martinu
Glazunov
Tchaikovsky
Allan Pettersson (only joking)

Atterberg (not joking)

Very much agree with these choices. I'd have to say Glazunov is only an intermittently inspired melodist, though. Some of his best works (The Seasons, VC) are chock-full of memorable tunes, while some of his lesser symphonies, for example, contain disappointingly little memorable thematic content. I'd add Dvorak, Schubert, Rachmaninoff, Braga Santos, Borodin, and Kalinnikov to your list.

[kyjo]

As to the Raff debate, he's a pretty uneven composer, but the man could come up with a darn good tune if he wanted to - e.g. the third movement march from the 5th Symphony, the opening of the 9th Symphony, the opening and slow movement of the 4th Piano Trio, and the Gavotte from the Suite for Piano and Orchestra.

[kyjo]

Very much agree with these choices. I'd have to say Glazunov is only an intermittently inspired melodist, though. Some of his best works (The Seasons, VC) are chock-full of memorable tunes, while some of his lesser symphonies, for example, contain disappointingly little memorable thematic content. I'd add Dvorak, Schubert, Rachmaninoff, Braga Santos, Borodin, and Kalinnikov to your list.

Edit: I forgot Saint-Saens...