Who is the best composer of all time? Look inside please!

Ok.

What the subject says!

Now what are the rules (cause, yes there are rules).

* You will only name 1 composer/name. No other
* You will give your reasons why (s)he is the best composer of all times!
* This is ONLY subjective so there is no reason to reply to other people.
* BY ALL MEANS. You will not bother to what other people say, or their opinion. You will not quote any other post about this one. This is not a debate. This is "give me your opinion"! All opinions matter. I will ask that you remain calm, and unflamatory through this thread please!
* Everyone would appreciate a based opinion, not only "I like his/her music". Stories, goes, technique, ideas, originality issues, (s)he was your parent, whatever...

So...

Who is No. 1?




You know that I love contemporary music but in this case I'll go to Beethoven. Although Bach and Mozart came close second.

Beethoven was deaf! That is bloody amazing on it's own!

He wrote lots of music! Much more than most composers do, and spent months to writing a single piece.

He had NO idea how to write a good melody. Most (ok not most, but anyhow) melodies are simple argpeges. Appasionata, Moonlight, 3rd piano concerto, etc... STILL he managed to create long works, of great beauty.

He had some pretty contempoary ideas, for his time, and even for our own.

He was a democrat, he believed in Napoleans' revolution, but then hated him for becoming an emperor! He believed in large crouds and commerciality of music (as opposed to Mozart who, most of his time, was employed by the aristocrats). His music is filled with jazz elements, which came in his mind alone (being deaf in died in 1827!) (look at 2nd movement 32nd Sonata for piano).

He introduced the choir in a symphony (the 9th), along with 4 solo voices.
He was GRAND in the full sense of the word.

He's written in most genres (ensembles), excluding of course music concrete, for example, since it is way ahead his time: 9 Symphonies, 5 piano concertos, 1 violin concerto, 1 opera (only one! He did not like operas at all! Opera means singing and he was BAD at making melodies. Already told you that), 10 violin sonatas, viola sonatas, trios, quartets, phew... and more...

I can listen to Beethoven music, any time really. I can stand all his music, and enjoy every bit of his output. If I was to order the full catalogue of 1 composer, Beethoven would be that one!

I do enjoy his works very much, without saying that my most loved music is written by him, though! The same goes for Bach, Mozart, Schnittke, Stravinksy, and another 30+ names more or less... But the above and all of the above only come with Beethoven!


See? Highly subjective and there is no reason to discuss, or debate that I rank No 1 Beethoven. There is no right or wrong! It's all about personal opinion! Even Mendelson would be fine, had Saul be here still... Anybody really! But with some reasoning please...








To the mods: The main difference of this thread to all other top 10 threads is that this one shoud not be a debate at all. It's about learning about each other and learning about our No.1 (although it's damn difficult to pick just one). It's about opinion and to project what other people think of someone "special". I think that this does not exist in YC thus far.

Claude Achille Debussy

Yep. Before Debussy, music was pretty much centered around Germany and Austria. Debussy broke the barrier, opening the doors to the 20th century and bringing with it French music and impressionism. He added a "light touch" to what came before him, every bit of his mastery involved only "a little bit", never too much. Every feeling was subtle.

Debussy's music was as much based on nature as dream and imagination, and that can be seen in his most famous works, Claire de Lune (where moonlight dances across a placid stream, which delicately splashes about), L'après-midi d'un faune (based on the erotic monologue of Mallarmé), and the opera Pelléas et Mélisande (based in Middle Ages). Debussy even drew on the Oriental arts for his inspiration.

Debussy also began (quite) young, I believe he was ten when he entered the Paris Conservatory (and people thought his piano playing was new and wierd!). He was never the weathiest around, either, along with Beethoven I guess, so he was as much a starving artist as some.

Debussy also was one of the early composers to work with a whole tone scale (I think). The whole tone scale, lacking any tone center, would later develop into atonalism.

Ok So I'm going to say Puccini.

I think Puccini's music always gets me, he draws me into the scene or whatever and really makes me feel whatever he wanted. I think that is really important.
Also, he uses these musical ideas, that you just don't see anywhere else.
In addition, he has written the best opera like ever, he is the best operatic composer.
And....... Im a sucker for the late romantic muisc. lol

Originally Posted by nikolas

Ok.

Beethoven was deaf! That is bloody amazing on it's own!

I can listen to Beethoven music, any time really. I can stand all his music, and enjoy every bit of his output. If I was to order the full catalogue of 1 composer, Beethoven would be that one!

I am dumbfounded every time I think about this genious and the fact he went deaf and if I could only listen to one composers work I would probably have to choose him. His 16 string quartets are amazing and the 9th symphony is unnerving for a deaf person.

With that said, the first time I heard the opening of Prokofievs 3rd Piano Concerto, I fell head over heels in love with a style of music I had never heard before. Then I heard his 1st Piano Concerto and knew I was listening to a man who understood music on more levels that I was used to. To top it all off, he was under constant death threats from his own goverment concerning the style of his music. To face that down for music takes a certain character that not many possess.

I have many albums and cd's and tapes of all the great composers. But for these 2, I have gone out of my way to try to collect their entire set of works.

If I was stranded on a deserted island and was only allowed one song, it would be Prokofiev's 3rd.

I didn't break the rules. I named only one composer, I just let you name the other.

I agree with you roller, the no.1 is BEETHOVEN! His Piano Sonata no. 21 (C Major) is awesome

Originally Posted by ME MYSELF AND I

* BY ALL MEANS. You will not bother to what other people say, or their opinion. You will not quote any other post about this one. This is not a debate. This is "give me your opinion"! All opinions matter. I will ask that you remain calm, and unflamatory through this thread please!

I will just repeat that the purpose of this thread is not to discuss with anyone else about their composer of their choice, or whatever. Or to quote other people. Even if you agree and want to say the same thing. The idea is to provide your opinion alone and nothing else. In YC boards there are tons of threads about the "top 10 of composers" where discussing is more than thriving! No need to discuss the same things here. Give you opinions instead. Try to convince us WITHOUT having dialogue! It's taugher than you think

Franz Schubert. I've always liked him. Maybe its our affinity for piano improv, maybe its the fact that he did what he did having never owned a piano. His music is just breathtaking.

I’m not familiar with all that many composers actually. And most of the ones I am familiar with are the famous one’s from the Baroque period. While I like many of them if I had to single out one as the ultimate best it would have to be Bach.

I chose Bach mainly because of his outstanding skill in writing very complex multiple-voice solos, for both the piano and violin. I’m tend to enjoy solo instrumental music, duets and chamber music more so than larger orchestrations. And I feel that Bach was the master of solo instrumentals. His partitas and sonatas for solo violin are really impressive pieces in particular. I’m learning to play them on guitar right now as they are currently out of my reach as a violinist. I’m working on that though too. My dream is to learn to play the Bach partitas and sonatas on the violin. It’s just something that I would like to “conquer”.

Having said that, and breaking all the rules, I just have to add that I think Haydn and Mozart were probably the masters when it came to string quartets, and I also think that Beethoven’s Waldstein for solo piano is one of the greatest piano pieces ever written. Chopin was a master of the piano as well. And of course, there were many other great composers as well.

But I feel that overall, in general, Bach had them all beat in terms of sheer diversity, and because of his mastery of the intricacies of multi-voice solo pieces. So if I had to narrow it down to one composer, it has to be Bach.

Frank Zappa would have to be my all time favourite composer. I suck at explaining things, so I will be brief. He wrote in a ridiculous amount of different styles, not only being a really talented rock and roll writer, but able to compose for orchestra as well. A pretty neat guitarist, and even admirable for his work in politics. He's influenced me a whole lot, and when I think I've had enough of Zappa, I find a whole other side of him I hadn't heard before, he wrote a musical, made two movies, and wrote some of the catchiest riffs and lyrics I've ever heard. In short the man was (imo) a genius. I was going list a few songs I liked but decided there was too many.

Frederic Chopin


How many of us could boast such a nice polonaise (No. 1 in G minor) written we were 7?
What a guy. He invented the ballade as well as other musical styles.

And notice how his work got harder the older he got. I guess we're lucky he died in like his thirties.

Chopin's polonaises brought the musical form to a higher level than anyone had envisioned the musical style to be capable of. The series of seven polonaises published in his lifetime (another nine were published posthumously), beginning with the Op. 26 pair, set a whole new standard for composing and playing the music and were rooted in a passion by Chopin to write something to celebrate Polish culture — after the country had fallen back into the Russian grip. The A major polonaise Op. 40 No. 1, "Military," and the polonaise in A flat major Op. 53, "Heroic," are among Chopin's most beloved and played works.