Greatest Influences on Your Music

Which five composers do you think have had the most influence on your work? (Yes, I realize there's already a favorite composer thread, but our favorites aren't always the ones that influence us most.)

For me, it's:

1) Johannes Brahms

2) Felix Mendelssohn - mostly for use of counterpoint in a Romantic context in orchestral and chamber music.

3) Ralph Vaughan Williams

4) Alexander Borodin - almost as much for his career choice as for his music, but I do try to draw rhythmic ideas from him.

5) Ernest Bloch - inspired some counterpoint and some harmonic experimentation; the fourth movement of my horn concerto was to some extent a homage to Bloch.


Honorable mention: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - I don't even like his work all that much, but I learned most of my orchestration from his book.

1) Igor Stravinksy - Extended tonality

2) Modest Mussogsky - Melody and Harmony flow

3) John Williams - Instruments and overall arranging

4) Sergei Prokofiev

5) Beethoven

Interesting.

I have no idea how to answer this question. I've never actually been able to point to any direct influences - nor have I really studied any harmony. That said, I suppose I could get a pretty good idea from what I've spent the most time and effort listening to.

1. Corelli - I've really enjoyed listening to his Concerti Grossi for years, have played a couple of movements from one and finally got a chance to purchase the scores last year when I was in Oregon. And one of the movements of one of them is my favourite piece ever (the Allemanda from #10 in C, as I've mentioned far too many times). So that's probably been a big influence.

2. Vaughan Williams - We played the middle movement, the Intermezzo, of his 'English Folk Songs Suite' in tenth grade and I was astonished to discover how much it appealed to me (which I wasn't at all expecting, considering I usually prefer fast, upbeat things). Later on we performed a couple of movements from the 'Charterhouse Suite' as well as his 'Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis' and that got me really interested in Vaughan Williams' work. I routinely come across little things in it that surprise and delight me, and this is something I've been trying to work towards in my own composition, so...

3. Bach - Probably, considering I've been surrounded by his music since I was a baby.

4. Beethoven - Ditto.

5. Probably quite a few of you guys, too. Sounds a little overly sentimental, but really. I mean, I was only fifteen when I joined YC, and I've been so inspired being amongst you guys since. I doubt I'd've made as much progress as I had without your work, your feedback on my work, and just your constant enthusiasm for all things musical.

1. Popular Music - I've been surrounded by this since birth, so it has certainly had some effect on me. Believe it or not, rock music (and presumably pop and the other genres) has a harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic style which is much different from music from the common practice period (disproving the belief that popular music is just a watered-down continuation of Romantic music)

2. Video Game Music - In particular Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda. I played these games a lot as a kid, and once again this type of music has its own unique elements which come through.

3. Film and Television Music - Obviously a very important influence - heard it all of my life. Same as previous two.

4. Ravel - His use of form, instrumentation, melody have had profound influence on me - his attention to detail has affected me greatly.

5. Late Debussy - for harmony, moreso than Ravel anyway

6. Neo-Romantics/Classicists, Minimalists

The list could go on. Of these Ravel probably has the strongest influence.

Hmm... I don't really know....

That could be a bad thing, rigth?

In no particular order...

John Williams
Sergei Prokofiev
Joe Hisaishi
James Horner
Ron Nelson

Anyone who i've heard previously that i've liked...

um...

it's a big list.

most favored all around is Ravel, Griffes, and Prokofiev.

Originally posted by Jeff Ball@Jul 29 2005, 03:48 AM
[b]Anyone who i've heard previously that i've liked...

um...

it's a big list.

most favored all around is Ravel, Griffes, and Prokofiev.

Ditto. My influences are so diluted that it's really hard to pick out specific ones, as usually I am (immediately) influenced by "fellow composers" like Mr. Ball here. Curse you for getting me in this 7th chord happy mode that I can't seem to get out of !!

Hrm...I know a couple of composers that have greatly influenced my music, and then I know tons more who have in some way or another changed my music for the better. I'll list them starting with the biggest influences.

Masashi Hamauzu - His light lyric style really changed my music about a year ago. He showed me the beauty of creatin light, crisp scores and shone new light on compound chords and light dissonance. I love his music and I really do think I'm a better composer for him.

Philip Glass - He made me really think about texture, and because of him I know how to create different textures, or at least I'm better at it now that I've listened to his music. John Adams belongs in here, as I have tons of minimal influences.

Danny Elfman - My music has been described like his numerous times, and I've found our music has some in common. Or I just delirious? He tends to write with a lot of things going on, and I have done such in numerous pieces of mine that are equally quirky and complex. Also, his stuff for Oingo Boingo helps motivate my inspiration for the more creative, as some of their songs are the most creative I've ever heard in my life!

Leonard Bernstein - I love how versatile this man is. I also love how he's not afraid to do something atonal once in a while, and he's also not afraid to put pop songs in the middle of his works! I'm talking mainly about his Mass. The opening, with the Kyrie, is atonal and chaotic, with four pre-recorded trios or quartets playing on top of each other, then suddenly in comes this very mellow and pop-y Simple Song. This is a man whos creativity kept flowing right to the end. I learned a lot from his Mass, like ways to add in colorful bits of atonal influences and how to reflect different moods, etc.

Giacomo Puccini - I'm not the biggest opera fan, but I did Madama Butterfly(I was Uncle Yakuside/Prince Yamadori), and I learned a lot about the relationship between the orchestra and the singer's voice from this man.

Some other influences - John Adams, Carl Orff, Thomas Newman, Charles Ives, Bartok, Debussy, and a slew of others.

Giacomo Puccini - I'm not the biggest opera fan, but I did Madama Butterfly(I was Uncle Yakuside/Prince Yamadori), and I learned a lot about the relationship between the orchestra and the singer's voice from this man.

Same here... I have come to love Puccini beyond any other operatic composer's works. Turnadot and Boheme are such unbelievable pieces, I still can't believe my ears when I hear them.

But my biggest influences are:

Concerto Writing: Mozart. He is the master of the concerto... his piano concertos are masterpieces, while his clarinet and bassoon concerto are unbelievably beautiful. I saw the TSO play one of his horn concertos and was very impressed, then of course, there is the immortal Flute and Harp Concerto. All such masterpieces.

Symphonic Writing: Beethoven. Do I really need to comment on his symphonies?

Opera: Puccini... see above.

Piano Writing: Chopin/Beethoven. Mostly Chopin, although it was Beethoven's moonlight sonata that got me interested in Classical music at a young age. But Chopin's etudes are such delights, and his Em Prelude, well... that and Moonlight are the two most beautiful pieces ever written for the piano... The Em Prelude, in one form other another, can be heard in almost all of my piano music... meaning a simple melody in the right hand and a harmonic progression of block chords in the left.

Other influences:
Mahler: This is a love/hate relationship. His 1st and 2nd symphonies are great influences on my symphonic compositions, but I have never truly enjoyed some of his other works, such as the Symphony of a 1000, so the influence stops at Sym 1 + 2.

Grieg: His Piano Concerto is only matched by Beethoven's 5th and one or 2 of Mozart's. I know some of you may want to jump in with "What about Tchaikovsky?"... well it is nice, and I am listening to it right now (!), but it is no grieg and no beethoven. Tchaikovsky himself was in love with Grieg's concerto... so.

I'm dragging on here... there are others to be sure, but I'll stop with this post and spare you the reading.