And your favorite composer is...

Rebecca St. James does compose. And the songs that she writes are becoming more original.

Not all of the songs she sings are written by her though.

Since everyone is putting more than one favorite, I guess I'll post again...

Guo Wenjing - Riding on the Wind
Joseph Curiale - anything he's ever written.
Karl Jenkins - Adiemus I - IV, The Armed Man
Jerry Goldsmith - score to The Mummy, and especially The Ghost and the Darkness
Stravinsky - Firebird & Rite of Spring (obvious...)
John Adams - Chairman Dances, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Harmonium, Meister Eckhardt, Christian Zeal and Activity
Ticheli - Sun Dance, Vesuvius, Postcard, and anything similar he will write in the future.
Steve Reich - Eight Lines, Music for 18 Musicians; still checking out his work.

Hm... favorite composers.

Of all time? It's Dvorak. As for composer's that are close seconds:

Bach
Mozart
Hindemith
Beethoven
Haydn
Mahler
Brahms

Man, the list really goes on, too.

Jeez. You ask that kinda of a question you are not guarenteed an answer. Hmmmm...a few that come to mind are Prokofiev, Tschaikowsky, Korsakow, Stravinsky, Bruns and quite possibly Schoenberg. Prokofiev mainly because of the Dance of the Knights, the Gambler, Scythian Suite, 3rd and 7th Symphonies, and War & Peace. Tschaikowsky because of his love of the bassoon and the complexity of his music. Korsakow because of the Flight of the Bumblebee (good show off piece to the uneducated crowd) and Scheherazade as well as Procession of the Nobles (I think). Bruns because of his sonatas for bassoon & Piano as well as his concerti for bassoons and contra. Stravinsky because of the Firebird, Petrushka, Rite and Symphony of Psalms. He's also a goddamn genius. Now Schoenberg is also a genius, but I can only listen to Pierrot Lunaire (which I have garnered a huge respect for) and his first chamber symphony while I'm moping about. I must say when you listen to it, it makes one feel a tad bit better. lol.

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi

Beethoven of course

Originally Posted by gollum69

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi

GAGH! DIE VIVALDI! **heart attack** yea i know he's already dead.

I despise vivaldi for the same reason I hate Danzi and Hummel-multiple concerti and chamber music for the bassoon that all sound EXACTLY THE SAME. I also can't stand the Mozart Concerto for the fact its so overplayed.
But on a lighter note, anyone else a fan of Edward Elgar? Love his cello concerto with a passion-one piece of cello literature i refuse to try on the bassoon (it would butcher it).

Personally, I really love Vivaldi too. It's one of my earliest musical loves, which may be part of the reason his music has always remained something special to me. You may be right that he wrote lots of pieces that sound somehow similar, but that's what mass production of a certain musical form automatically brings along. This guy wrote more than 500 concertos. (Also many operas, sonatas, etc.)

Bach chorals sound quite similar too, as do many Haydn symphonies. Before Beethoven the concept of writing "big, unique, important" pieces simply was less important (with exceptions of course).

In that huge mass of Vivaldi concertos there are some true gems however. There are particularly some bassoon concertos I really adore. Vivaldi's music always has this constant forward moving stream, these steady pulses under ornamental sequences, which manage to keep the music flowing with a minimum amount of effort. It's certainly not an overly complex music, but it contains innovative elements and a great sense of form nontheless.

I'm more of a fan of 20th century classical, and I'm not sure I can pick a favorite. Shostakovich, Penderecki, Simpson, Dubois and Creston would all be right up there. But I also like Pettersson, Holmboe, Stravinsky, Berg, Schoenberg, Ligeti, Webern, Bax, Francaix, Prokofiev, Ravel, Debussy and Rouse.

But then again, I also like Mahler, Beethoven, Mussorgsky, Richard Strauss, and some Bach, Brahms and Haydn.

It's just too hard to choose a favorite!

Hmm, I listen to a lot of composers and musicians but I guess I could limit my list of most favorite composers as follows:

J. S. Bach
Georg Philip Telemann
Franz Liszt
Claude Debussy
Igor Stravinsky
Bela Bartok
Iannis Xenakis
Edgard Varese