Who is the Greatest (Not Favourite) Composer

Actually, I know someone who would vote for Mendelssohn without a second thought. And I would consider him far more significant than either Chopin, Schubert, or Grieg. Not only as a composer, but as the conductor who revived Baroque music.

Actually, I know someone who would vote for Mendelssohn without a second thought. And I would consider him far more significant than either Chopin, Schubert, or Grieg. Not only as a composer, but as the conductor who revived Baroque music.

Yes , Ofcourse. My apologies. It did slip my mind. The all important Premire of Bach's St.Matthew's Passion under Mendelssohn's direction.

Akhil G.

Does Anyone Care to Vote furthur ? Or should we just accept Beethoven as " The Greatest Composer " ?

ok, bach was the father, mozart did so much and so did beethoven... but to me the greatest is the one who actually discovered "a view" in music, poems, lieders... that one would be Schubert.. who by the way died when he was 31 years old... and didn´t start that early compared to mozart... and he did so much for the development of the song, and he also influenced Liszt so much to the point of writing his symphonic poems, the "view" in music, the sight of art in music, thanks to that, mahler came to the world to give us not poems, or music based on novels, books or poems, but from nature... mahler heard the music from the world, what god actually gave him... so if mahler was on that list, you would know really who I voted for

Sadly, only two individuals have succesfully completed the test. Obviously, the correct answer was Bach.

Beethoven, hands down. Even many of the other composers on that list (Brahms, Schubert) would even agree with that.

I'm surprised that Brahms hasn't even gotten a single vote, he's definitely a top 5 on my mind.

Not really... Brahms is by far my favorite composer, but Beethoven was easily more influntial. That said, a case could be made for Brahms.

I'm surprised that people voted for Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and Grieg over him. Tchaikovsky is notable for his orchestration, but otherwise wasn't especially creative; Schubert was a very good composer but almost entirely derivative; and none of Grieg's works are really considered great masterpieces.

I'm surprised that people voted for Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and Grieg over him..... (Brahms)

Well, to tell you the truth, he is the one composer on the list i've never heard a single work from. Maybe I don't count though, i'm pretty narrow minded when it comes to pre-modern music and mostly just listen to Grieg, Mozart and Prokofiev.

none of Grieg's works are really considered great masterpieces.

I guess it depends on how you define ''masterpiece''.

I see some problems, for example, the people nominated aren't even in the same cabliber, for example, Chopin only composed piano music, a few concertos, he had no Symphonies or Operas, how can you put him in the same category as Beethoven or Mozart? He should be taken off, Gustav Mahler should be added instead, because he influenced the second vienese school, and initiated hte Modern movement.

Bach- Master of Baroque
Haydn/mozart Masters of Classicism
Beethoven (Master of early Romanticism)
Tchakovsky, Schubert, Wagner, Mahler (Masters of Late Romanticism)
Shostakovich
Stravinsky

they should be rated instead

Schubert was an early romantic. He died shortly after Beethoven.