Your FIVE favorite composers.

[Jacob Royal]

Yes, I did say five.
You do not have to say why.
Just put them in order from favorite to fifth favorite.

1. Beethoven
2. Tchaikovsky
3. Frank *EDIT* Franck (sorry, I never spell his name correctly)
4. Liszt
5. Schubert

If your opinions differ (by that I mean if you hate a composer that someone else loves), please be civil in your arguments. That is more of a reminder for me than a request for you :)

 

Since I can still edit my list (hehehehe) I have a new one

1. Beethoven

2. Tchaikovsky

3. Strauss, R.

4. Shostakovitch

5. Barber for his Adagio (I've only heard that one piece by him)/ Mozart (For Sym. 40, Eine Kleine, violin+viola duets, Mass, and Requiem)

HM Liszt

[Russell Sansom]

1. Mahler

2. Satie

3. Debussy

4. Stravinsky

5. Beethoven

and of course, Gaga

[Santiago Bogacz Morales]

1 - Igor Stravinsky

2 - Steve Reich

3 - Morton Feldman

4 - György Ligeti

5 - Perotin

[Santiago Bogacz Morales]

The best list I saw in the whoel discussion!!!

Caj Ilotuuli said:

Just now : 1  Iancu Dumitrescu

2 Gerard Grisey

3 Allan Pettersson

4  Iannis Xenakis

5 Morton Feldman

[Gavin Brown]

1) Yes

2) Chopin

3) Bach

4) Gershwin

5) Ravel

[Olmnilnlolm]

Santiago Bogacz Morales said:

The best list I saw in the whoel discussion!!!

-------------------------------------

YES,  This is certainly an excellent list.

Just last week, I learned about and began to listen to work by Gerard Grisey, who merits a great deal of attention.   I've been listening to works by Morton Feldman only recently, and I must say I am extremely impressed.

Γιάννης Ξενάκης  !

 Iannis Xenakis is one of the truly great figures of the 20th century avante-garde, and I've been listening to his music, on and off, for decades.   I read some very interesting biographical data, and interviews, just a few months ago.

I don't know Allan Petersen or Dumitrescu.  What works by them do you recommend?  

The list is good, because we can learn from it.

Of course most of us love Bach, Beethoven, and Stravinsky.   But composers like those in this list challenge us  They force us to rethink what it means to compose.  They compel us to think about what music really is, what it can be, and what it may become in the future.

A favorite composer for me is one that challenges me.

I often find myself these days going to http://www.lastfm.com

It's quite inspirational.

There you can type in a modern name, like Henri Pousseur or Gerard Grisey, and generate an entire radio station, that will play works by similar contemporary composers.

One week my favorite composer was:

Salvatore Sciarrino.

http://www.last.fm/listen/artist/Salvatore%2BSciarrino/similarartists

Another it time it was:

Misato Mochizuki

 Si bleu, si calme (Part I) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r66LJ3Rd1mg

The quality of this relatively recent work by Mistato Mochizuki is inestimable.

Caj Ilotuuli said:

Just now : 1  Iancu Dumitrescu

2 Gerard Grisey

3 Allan Pettersson

4  Iannis Xenakis

5 Morton Feldman

[Olmnilnlolm]

Thanks.

I looked up Allan Petersson in the book "The Future of Modern Music: A Philosophical Exploration of Modern Music in the 20th Century and Beyond," by James L. McHard.  I was thinking perhaps I had heard his name before, even if I had not heard any of his music.    I noticed that there was a short passage about him, and that  I had put several marks next to his name (when I first read the book a few years ago) to indicate that he was a composer I would like to hear.  

McHard said, among other things, "his symphonies are highly original, though they do share a quality of dark power with Mahler,  and even somewhat with Shostakovich symphonies."  That was enough for me to put several exclamation points near Petersson's name, since Mahler and Shostakovich are two of the symphonists I admire most.  

I think you will like Mochizuki's "Si bleu, si calme."  I believe it bears up quite well under repeated listenings.   

I'm listening to Allan Pettersson's Sym No. 6 now, the link you gave me.  I like it so far.   Reminds me a great deal of Shostakovich in many ways.

If you thoroughly enjoy Petterson, you might also like the music of:

Mieczysław Weinberg (also Moisey or Moishe Vainberg, Moisey Samuilovich Vaynberg; Russian: Моисей Самуилович Вайнберг; Polish: Mieczysław Wajnberg; December 8, 1919 – February 26, 1996) . . .

a Soviet composer of Polish-Jewish origin. From 1939 he lived in the Soviet Union and Russia and lost most of his family in the Holocaust.

He left a large body of work that included twenty-two symphonies and seventeen string quartets; according to one reviewer he ranked as, "the third great Soviet composer, along with Prokofiev and Shostakovich".^[1]

Caj Ilotuuli said:

Allan Pettersson wrote for instance 16 symphonies , many of them is on you tube ,for ex no. 6 :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf7a4ieeE1g   I think he is one of the greatest synphonic composers of the 20th century .

Iancu Dumitrescu belongs to the romanian spectralists , you can find him on you tube also . One of my favourite compositions by him is Meteors and pulsars : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2bfoVAOb6U  and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y-VsF7DcZM&feature=related  ( two versions ) .Sciarrino is very interesting .

Mochizuki is new for me , will be interesting to hear .

[Clark Nichols]

Mine have changed!!! WAZZAH!!!!!!!!!!

1) Bach
2) Shostakovitch
3) Ravel/Faure
4) Philip Glass
5) John Adams

[Olmnilnlolm]

So here is my list of favorite composers for this year.

I defined my favorite composers as those who have challenged me and inspired me to rethink what music is, and what it should be in the future.

For those who don't know the names or the music of these figures, I have inserted links to some representative works that I like.

 

1.  Karlheinz Stockhausen

Kontakte 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vjofqA2SNY&feature=related

 

 

2.  Misato Mochizuki

Si bleu, si calme 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r66LJ3Rd1mg

 

3.  Bruno Maderna

Syntaxis

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPgYrPgCdus

 

4.  Luigi Nono

Como una Ola de Fuerza y Luz 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7JLUIqaTCE

 

5.  Pierluigi Billone  

1+1=1

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Rmk0zIECk

 

 

 

 

[Ursula Jasovec]

There are so many good composers, but here it goes:

1. Beethoven
2. JS Bach
3. Stravinsky
4. Barber
5. Bernstein

[David Unger]

1. Wilhelm Stenhammar
2. Ralph Vaughan Williams
3. Morten Lauridsen
4. Alban Berg
5. Robert Schumann

and just outside this list

Jake Heggie and Brad Mehldau