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Favourite Composer(s)?


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Yeah, same here... Mozart IS divine, after all... :laugh:

My favourite composer at the time is Mozart... His works are extremely pleasing to listen to. Also, i guess it's just a matter of time before that dies irae from his requiem mass is arranged into a rock SONG.

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Hmm yea.

Mozart is divine, but that's not even what i was saying.

I just can't get how someone basically says x set of composers arent worth listening to, and then tells us we dont know music unless we listen to y set of composers.

worse still, x set of composers just happen to be three of the best.

I don't get why romantics dismiss mozart so much.

He's very very similar to Schubert at times. Less so, but still to some extent with Beethoven.

I admit Mozart symphonies arent very substantial compared to his other works, and obviously alot of people only listen to k545 and then dismiss him, but really, his late piano concerti are some of the finest ever written.

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Haha, sorry. I was up till' 03:00 last nigth.. Ask wolf, he can verify it. *cough* :laugh:

his late piano concerti are some of the finest ever written.

Heh, nothing comes close to no 17...

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well, i would say that my favourite composer would have to be franz liszt ( as is obvious from my username). his compositions were very innovative (and unorthdox) at that time, and his piano music (or at least some of it) reqires a certiain degree of vituosity to play successfully. im not saying that that means he is a good composer, but it is something anyway.

some people (like chopin, whom i also revere) think his pieces are flamboyant, but i would say that is a matter of personal opinion. some of his gypsy tunes are also fantastic.

heres a liszt (forgive the lame pun!) of my favourite (piano) works by him (thought i like almost all of them):

hungarian rhapsodies nos 2, 6 and 12

paganini etudes nos 1,3 and 5

ballade no 1

transcendental etudes "feux follets", "wilde jagd" and "mazeppa"

all concert etudes ;)

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

this just in: Dutilleux! Zorn! Twining!

Good grief, I listened to one of Zorn's String Quartets, and my first thoughts was, "What the heck was that? Are they plucking and bowing at the same time?"

Still, after some repeated listenings, I learned to enjoy the work.

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Hmm yea.

Mozart is divine, but that's not even what i was saying.

I just can't get how someone basically says x set of composers arent worth listening to, and then tells us we dont know music unless we listen to y set of composers.

worse still, x set of composers just happen to be three of the best.

I don't get why romantics dismiss mozart so much.

He's very very similar to Schubert at times. Less so, but still to some extent with Beethoven.

I admit Mozart symphonies arent very substantial compared to his other works, and obviously alot of people only listen to k545 and then dismiss him, but really, his late piano concerti are some of the finest ever written.

The fact of the matter is that for folks who prefer the Romantics, a lot of Mozart's music begins to sound like the rest of Mozart's music very quickly. Now, this is not to say that Mozart wasn't a great composer. I would never suggest that. It is just that for some of us, his idiom is not as interesting.

For myself, I enjoy several of Mozart's works. I am particularly fond of his last two Symphonies. However, if you ask me if I'd rather hear a work by Mozart or a work by somebody like Dvorak, Brahms, Bruckner, Dohnanyi, or Mahler, I'm never going to choose Mozart.

I prefer the Romantic period, and find much greater fulfillment in the music of that period. Mozart may have blazed a trail, but the Romantics put up the decorations.

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I'd say my favorite classical composer who works in a more traditional idiom is Joaquin Rodrigo - his guitar works are incredible, as are his vocal and piano works - and he was blind, too!

My favorite classical composer who works in a contemporary idiom is probably Jennifer Higdon

My favorite theatre composer is Adam Guettel.

My favorite film composer working in traditional media: John Corigliano

My favorite film composer working in contemporary media: John Powell

As far as Frank Ticheli goes - his choral works are also incredible - all you self-proclaimed "band-nerds" should listen to them. They're great.

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  • 2 months later...

Mozart is frankly, disgusting. Bach is unbearable. for me, music starts with beethoven. My favorite composers at the moment are Lutoslawski (his third symphony is the greatest symphony of the second half of the 20th century) Bartok, janacek, and for cheap thrills, Liszt...

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Currently picking apart: Beethoven's fourth piano concerto.

The 2nd movement is one of the greatest movements I have ever heard! Not without reason, the music has often been associated with the David and Goliath fight (to those who haven't heard it: just listen to the movement and you'll understand why). It is music life Piano Concerto No. 4, Mvt. 2 that make me love Beethoven so damn much. Such a genious.

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I know it's a matter of taste, but I still can't get past someone actually saying that they find Mozart (and apparently every other composer who was active before 1800...sheesh!) disgusting.

What an outrageously strong word.

Since I cannot play Mozart with all my posts, in protest I am going to change my avatar to a Boucher portrait of Louis XV mistress, Madame de Pompadour, so that those who find such things disgusting will be forced to endure a Rococo masterpiece every time I post! So there! :glare:

You think I'm kidding, don't you? heh..

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all the difference in the world.... jupiter is just another classical symphony, expanded to the point of flabbiness, Eroica is just not a classical symphony. it is entirely new, whereas the jupiter is a culmination of something rather older. there is a mammoth personality in the eroica, which there isnt in the jupiter.

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Wow. There have been a lot of strongly worded opinions like that here lately.

What's with you Beethoven worshippers who insist upon making him something superhuman? Must every opinion in this regard put Beethoven at the right hand of God Almighty while debasing his contemporaries and forebears as inferior?

Beethoven is firmly rooted in the Classical tradition and would say so himself. He took it to a new level, I'll grant...but let's not make him something more than he was, and let's not sell the composers of the earlier generation short in the process, who reached their own pinnacles of greatness.

Mozart Jupiter - composed 1788. Beethoven Eroica - composed 1803. A whole lot of stormy water went under the bridge between those two high water marks, including the French Revolution and the re-ordering of European society. Beethoven didn't make all that. He was a product of it. Mozart didn't have a chance to react to it, and Haydn was too old to change. That doesn't diminish them or their achievements.

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I like a more modern group of composers. I really like George Gershwin and i like Richard carpenter and his arrangements of piano pieces and regular music. I also love the jazz that Dave Brubeck made- he is the God of Jazz......my favorite jazz composer......! :rolleyes:

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For video game music I like Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64) and Koji Kondo (Super Mario, Zelda).

For film music I like Danny Elfman and John Williams.

For "real-life" music (;)) I like (in order) Berlioz, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Rossini, Poulenc, Offenbach and the Strauss family (waltzes and polkas)

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