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Favorite Composers

bigred said:
Mozart
Beethoven
Vivaldi
Grieg
Tchaikovsky
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plumjam said:
Placed:
Mozart
Shostakovich
Brahms

Also rans:
Mahler, JS Bach, Stravinsky, Elgar, Purcell, Faure, Vivaldi
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Francesca R said:
W.A. Mozart
P.I. Tchaikovsky
P. Mascagni
G. Rossini
S. Rachmaninov
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Only 3 votes for Mozart?

In approximate descending order, the classical dudes:

Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, ]Don Henley, Tyler Durden

Mahler, Schubert, Stravinsky, Bartok, Chopin, Debussy, Shostakovich

Schoenberg, Charles Ives, Berg, Copland

Handel, Haydn, Walter Piston, Johann Strauss--the waltz guy

Contemporary and jazz:

Davidovsky, Elliott Carter, Ligeti,

Duke Ellington,

Miscellanious and Film-Scoring:

Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone, Carter Burwell, some John Williams

Pop:

Paul Simon, Steely Dan, The Beatles,

Secular Excrementalists: Long Brown, Tirden Flohter,

Camille Jentgen, the coolest chick in the world

and of course, the great Calebprime
 
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calebprime: didn't Tyler Durden make soap and not music? (not saying he's not a classical dude though...)

Anyway, not quite my favourites (those have been mentioned already, i.e. W.A.M) but two that I enjoy yet don't see on anybody's list:
Berlioz
Mussorgsky
 
figarot said:
calebprime: didn't Tyler Durden make soap and not music? (not saying he's not a classical dude though...)

Anyway, not quite my favourites (those have been mentioned already, i.e. W.A.M) but two that I enjoy yet don't see on anybody's list:
Berlioz
Mussorgsky
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Have you met Tyler Durden? I've heard he's a great composer, like L. Ron Hubbard or Sri Chimnoy. He can do anything.

Berlioz and Mussorgsky are two really interesting choices, because opinions differ so much--i.e. could Mussorgsky orchestrate, etc.

Berlioz was either idolized or ignored in music school...

What are the Berlioz pieces you like that I should check out? He's been on one of my back burners for a long time...
 
calebprime said:
Have you met Tyler Durden? I've heard he's a great composer, like L. Ron Hubbard or Sri Chimnoy. He can do anything.

Berlioz and Mussorgsky are two really interesting choices, because opinions differ so much--i.e. could Mussorgsky orchestrate, etc.

Berlioz was either idolized or ignored in music school...

What are the Berlioz pieces you like that I should check out? He's been on one of my back burners for a long time...
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No, never met Mr Durden but I believe my lovely ex-wife still uses his soap. Thankfully she wouldn't think to read Mr Hubbard's drivel so not all is lost.

I doubt Mussorgsky orchestrated, didn't even like composing much and there was the problem of his nonexistent musical education, but when I have some merlot and close my eyes whilst listening to Hopak I envision epic movies play behind my eyes and in my poor head.

I enjoy waking up to Berlioz' Hungarian March (The Damnation of Faust), gets me out of bed and in the day's face better than the breakfast radio shows can. I can understand he's not many a music lover's bottle of gin, but I'd give Roman Carnival and Symphonie Fantastique a try. Sorry I can't supply any links, my classical collection comes out of the bargain bin at the local hypermarket's cd and dvd sections and thus I don't know where to link to...
 
figarot said:
wait, think I found something, even if it's only the fifth movement...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrezpUWIY98
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my first response: Wow, did Berlioz write those pitch-bends?

well, it appears he did:

"All the demons creep out howling in Berlioz’ finale. The woodwind glissandos are unearthly here, much better than the note-by-note glissandos Davis let the Concertgebouw winds get away with in his recording. Here the players correctly achieve the glissando by slowly depressing their keys so that the pitch bends down to the new pitch. ..."

(from a review of another performance)

second response: ah, Hector was a stalker, too. Like Dante.:D

third: Beethoven, one of the first to work with interruptions and discontinuities?

Here, it's especially striking at 2:41

Then Berlioz, then Mahler?

fourth: random thought: Dies Irae used in The Shining...cornily

damn, the brass sounds good at 4:14, the whole band sounds good

more Beethoven influence in the persistent off-beats, I'm thinking, maybe, like 5:59

love the um fughetto thingy at 7:10-ish--violas, man! gnarly diminished chords!

Dies Irae never sounded so happy as at 8:00

How do orchestras follow conductors when they conduct ahead of the beat? I never figured that out...it's miraculous...Doing film-scoring and working with a computer all the time taught me to distinguish timings down to the frame (1/30 sec) and it's a hard habit to break...I couldn't follow a conductor like this! Or maybe you listen with your ears, get cues for entrances and dynamics with your eyes....?

Great stuff. Excellent performance.
 
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calebprime said:
How do orchestras follow conductors when they conduct ahead of the beat? I never figured that out...it's miraculous...Doing film-scoring and working with a computer all the time taught me to distinguish timings down to the frame (1/30 sec) and it's a hard habit to break...I couldn't follow a conductor like this! Or maybe you listen with your ears, get cues for entrances and dynamics with your eyes....?

Great stuff. Excellent performance.
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How they follow the conductors beats me. Glad you like Berlioz, thought I might be the only one (which doesn't do his genius justice at all).
 
I guess it's been mentioned many times. I've reduced my very very favorite composers to a few:

Bach

Prokofiev

Shostakovich

Mussorgsky

Wayne Shorter

Charles Mingus
 
Ron_Tomkins said:
I guess it's been mentioned many times. I've reduced my very very favorite composers to a few:

Bach

Prokofiev

Shostakovich

Mussorgsky

Wayne Shorter

Charles Mingus
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Mingus, Shorter, good calls! I knew I was forgetting some favorite jazz composers...

Used to play Nefertiti and Fall (without great results) all the time, Footprints,
 
calebprime said:
Mingus, Shorter, good calls! I knew I was forgetting some favorite jazz composers...

Used to play Nefertiti and Fall (without great results) all the time, Footprints,
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Cool, what instrument do you play?


By the way, I recently discovered this Jewel in the realm of pop music. I rate it next to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody as the most complete and elaborate pop "piece":



(And a hell of a video clip they made for it! I actually like it)
 
I've just been introduced to Richard Strauss. Love em. Great passion, excellent music.

Not to be confused with YOHAN Strauss. Can't stand that Vieneese crap (with precious few exceptions).

Ron_Tomkins said:
Cool, what instrument do you play?
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As long as we're exchanging musical information, I play percussion :)
 
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Not a composer, but recently been really getting into sacred music (Vivaldi, Hildegard von Bingen etc). Which is odd because:

1. Can't stand opera* ('specially so-called bel-canto) and lieder etc.
2. Am generally classified as atheist.

Oh well, if Dawkins can enjoy singing Christmas Carols...

* Don't mind operetta (G&S) though.
 
Don Grolnick sounds like on odd choice for favorite composer,

but his great summing-up album on Blue Note called NightTown has been a real favorite. Great mournful sound, 4-horn and rhythm section featuring Bill Stewart. with Joe Levano, Steve Turre, Dave Holland. Beautiful charts, great solos. Autumnal, maybe.
 
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Richard Wagner
Richard Strauss
G F Handel
W A Mozart
Gerald Finzi

(amongst others)
 
Baroque:
J.S. Bach
Handel

Classical:
Mozart
Beethoven

Romantic:
Liszt
Chopin
Rachmaninov
Scriabine
Brahms
Prokofiev
Paganini

Mostly piano based though (I'm a pianist), and a bit boring a suppose. I have just learnt the Dudley Moore Beethoven Sonata Parody, which, on its own, puts the him on the list somewhere. Danny Elfman and John Williams are great film composers.

It is suprising to see all the 20th C composers here.
 
Ok, I am going to add my two bits here (in no particular order):

Howard Shore
John Williams
Jerry Goldsmith
Basil Poledouris
Danny Elfman
Eric Whitacre
Gustav Holst
Johann Sebastian Bach
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Franz Schubert
Edward Elgar
Gustav Mahler
Frederic Chopin
Felix Mendelssohn
Richard Wagner
Modest Mussorgsky
Camille Saint-Saëns
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Giacomo Puccini
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Prokofiev
Johan de Meij
Ludovico Einaudi

Wow. I didn't know I was such a fan until I started listing them all. I am sure I missed some too. :eek:
 
Dvorak, J.S. Bach, Hayden, Purcell

I'm sure I could think of others if I tried.

ETA: and Berlioz. Can't believe I forgot him.
 
Bach, J.S.
Mozart, W. A.
Bogle, E.
Beethoven, L.v.
Mahler, G.

In no particular order.
 
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