Favourite Composer(s)?

I have to agree with jacob and J. Lee about classical methods of composing. Its allways good to know them, but allways experiment with as much new ones as possible.

As for the favorite composer, i'd have to say Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak are my biggest infuences. Thats and i'll put them as my favorites, mostly because they composed for everything - the orchestra, chamber ansamble, solo etc....(not like bach who motly composed for keybord intruments).

I also like Chopin, Prokofiev, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov (well most of the russian school guys anyway...)

Couldn't have chosen a better list in my opinion ;)

Prokofiev is my favorite, as well as Stravinsky, Kabalevsky, Khachaturian, Chopin, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Smetana, Glinka, and Shostakovich.

I'm a big fan of the romantic and nationalist movements. I particularly like Russian operas.

As to the above poster, would that be Alessandro Rolla?

Finally someone asnwered that correctly

Did you know that as a fact, or did you look it up online (Either way you got it right)

Being a guy that loves Paganini and his music, I know a good bit about his bio

Paganini, for me, is second.

Scott Joplin is a true master.

Whoo hoo!

Somebody besides me likes Paganini!

I wouldn't like PLAYING Paganini :P

Who would? But it really sounds awesome when you can (if you've got, like, 84 hours to practice it)

Favourite composer? There are too many.

Maybe Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Ravel, Beethoven? I don't know. Those are some of my favourites.

Finally someone asnwered that correctly

Did you know that as a fact, or did you look it up online (Either way you got it right)

Being a guy that loves Paganini and his music, I know a good bit about his bio

I knew his last name, I looked up his first.

My piano teacher last year knew a lot of history (my favorite subject besides music theory). We talked a lot about classical pianists. Schumann desperately wanted to be a concert pianist, but his hands weren't big enough. He played in a lot of bars, and started resenting Paganini and his unnatural gift. He ended up inventing a device which he thought would stretch his hand out so he could become a concert pianist, but it ended up crippling him.

I like Paganini's music, but it's not my favorite.

I have to say my absolute favourite composer at the moment is Michael Nyman, in particular the piece MGV (musique à grande vitesse) for Michael Nyman band and orchestra. I also like 'An eye for optical theory' from The Draughtsman's Contract and his 'Water Dances'.

First of all, Koji Kondo is one of the most amazing composers ever!!! His music for LoZ is just amazing (go link!). (I'm thinking of writing a medley of LoZ for concert band btw, but I have too many songs I like, anyone wanna suggest their favorite song from LoZ (other than the main theme or Zelda's Lullaby)?)

Also, I'm a band geek, I think band is the way of the future, and orchestra is slowly dying in the depths of the past. I know this because from what I've heard from fellow composers and people is that band likes new music way more than orchestras. So, right now, I think John Mackey is one of the best band composers of our time. Also, Frank Tichelli, Ogren's Symphonies of Gaia is such a masterpiece that I must include him. Erick Whitacre is one of the most beautiful, and closest to my kind of music. uhm...who else? As far as the past is concerned, Beethoven is number 1, and then there's Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Chopin, Bartok, Holst, and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

..

Favourite composer would be Schumann; nobody, in my opinion, can get quite the depth of emotion across that he does.

Sibelius, Stravinsky, Scriabin! The 3 Ss :)

I worship Tchaikovsky above anyone. I think he's one of the most underrated musical creators in history, crafted in orchestration and with an unsurpassed gift for tunefulness. In terms of lasting success, Tchaikovsky has brought far more people to like classical music than any of the 'major' composers not named Beethoven and Mozart.

Mahler took a little bit longer for me, but now I revere him as the greatest symphonist ever, easily in the same league as Beethoven if not above him. None but Mahler can express so many emotions and thoughts in a single work. Mahler is to music what Tolstoi is to literature: grandiloquent and expansive, yet attentive to detail and even austere at times.

Shostakovich is next. Not least because he was a Mahlerian, but also because of his versatilty and for being honest in his art despite the oppression. Same for Prokofiev.

Puccini absolutely owns the opera. He's not as hard to swallow as Wagner, yet emotionally more powerful than Verdi.

I'm still coming to terms with the mid-to-late 20th century crowd. Perhaps because I'm still a staunch tonalist.

I listen to mostly Japanese composers so here's the list:

• Joe Hisaishi: He comes with incredibly memorable themes. Every theme sounds so different, it's hard to imagine how they could all come from the same person.
  
• Shiro Sagisu: I love his distinctly chromatic and dark style.
  
• Nobuo Uematsu: Like Hisaishi, he comes up with wonderful themes that are beloved in the Japanese video game world (Final Fantasy).
  

Hmmmm…

I've been listening to some of Joe Hisaishi's soundtracks recently. He's one of my favourite film composers.

What about Toru Takemitsu? He is one of my favourite composers of all time! He has written some great guitar music (he played classical guitar himself).

Tough

Most influential:

Philip Glass

Aaron Copland

Debussy

Faure

Favorites:

Philip Glass

Ravel

John Adams

Steve Reich

Messiaen (as a person, as he is a fellow synesthete, but his music...MEH)

JS Bach, he is the master in my opinion

Liszt

Stravinsky

Faure

Rachmaninoff

Also, too many people compare me to Respiggi (however the hell you spell his name). It's really ironic because I think Respiggi is one of the worst composers of all time (worse than mozart!)

JS Bach is the master in many people's opinions ;)

You seem to like good ol' Glass don't you? What do you think his best decade in composition was? To me, I think his best decade was the 1980s, but I really enjoy the music he wrote from the mid sixties to the late seventies.

And BTW, it's spelt "Ottorino Respighi"

I'm not really into much of his music other than his Ancient Airs and Dances.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky and John T Williams

They write the best melodies as far as I know.