# Overall, which is your favorite kind of classical music?



## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Let's see how this fares. Somehow I expect that some categories of CM are much more popular here than others.


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

It's impossible to narrow down to just one category.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Opera/Incidental, same thing. So just voted for one.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I won't vote since you did not set up the poll to allow for multiple choices.


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## JohnP (May 27, 2014)

SanAntone said:


> I won't vote since you did not set up the poll to allow for multiple choices.


I voted, but I agree that multiple choices should be possible.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

SanAntone said:


> I won't vote since you did not set up the poll to allow for multiple choices.


Even if you have more than one favorite category of CM (I do), don't you _overall_ slightly prefer one over the others? Are your preferences between your favorites totally equal?


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I'm a big fan of sacred vocal music and have a ton of chamber and solo works, I usually have symphonic works at the top of the heap. I'm a sucker for orchestral color. (Tone poems, not as much, because I can never follow the story.)


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

I clicked symphonies since only one choice was allowed, but my preference is almost evenly split between symphonies and concertos, mostly from the romantic era.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

Symphonies are clear number one. But solo piano music is very close second and a very close third is chamber music.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Chamber music leaves the composer very little room to hide; it is the least forgiving form of art music. As such, it often reveals the composer's essence—for better or worse.


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

Hard to choose between "solo keyboard" and two of the orchestral options -- "symphony" and "tone poem". Unfortunatelly, I'm not too much into concertos anymore, and I'm not familiar with ballets and operas.

"Songs" are growing on me too, but I can't say I listen to them as much as piano and orchestral music.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I went with solo keyboard, and ballet would be the bottom.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

I certainly can’t decide or choose between any of the genres, but I love symphonies, concerti, ballets, tone poems, chamber music, solo piano, songs/lieder/melodies, choral music (esp. with an ensemble) and some opera.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

I voted: others. Agree that multiple choices should be possible.


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

The pieces I've found most addicting have that layered, contrapuntal-machine quality while still having interesting, if not conventionally melodic, themes. Obviously the baroque era has lots of examples which is why it's my favorite, but I can listen to something like the first movement of William Schuman's 5th symphony a million times and never get bored. I like Mahler well enough, but will perk up and start moving for the third movement of his 9th symphony. I can't get enough of that angular sound. I don't know fugues from canons or toccatas or any of the rest, but I like that flavor of stuff more than the typical sonata development I hear.


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## GucciManeIsTheNewWebern (Jul 29, 2020)

Chamber is the most versatile medium IMO.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I'd have to vote chamber or maybe keyboard. But this would be misleading. I don't prefer the sound of a string quartet or solo piano to an orchestra (but neither do I think the former are "monochrome" or so). It's just that of my favorite composers there is usually considerably more good chamber and keyboard music than orchestral or opera or large scale vocal.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Chamber
Symphony
Sacred Vocal


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Most of these options would do, but in the end I voted for concertos. It is the only genre where I find treasures right from baroque to 21st century.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Too bad there isn’t an option for multiple votes or I’d find this poll a lot easier to choose from.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

It's the symphony for me. Many works in CM that I truly love are symphonies, including works by Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Brahms and others. This said, I also greatly enjoy chamber music, sacred vocal pieces and opera (particularly those by Richard Wagner), and have favorites among the other categories as well.

Overall, the category of song is my least favorite in CM, for I don't like the sound of the piano combined with a solo voice, and I tend to prefer longer forms. There are CM songs that I do enjoy though, particularly orchestrated ones but also a few with only piano and voice.

I have no problem with soundtracks and consider works such as Williams' _Star Wars_, Shore's _The Lord of the Rings_ and Moore's _Outcast_ delightful.

*Shamazaar, the World of Temples, from Outcast:*


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Opera is the top of my list, followed by symphonies. After that, limited piano works and sacred works.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Though I dislike most opera, I voted opera, due to being Wagner's medium.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Neo Romanza said:


> Too bad there isn't an option for multiple votes or I'd find this poll a lot easier to choose from.


I'm not a fan of multiple votes; it's way too easy.


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

No votes for "tone poem"!


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

If the question is, "Which is your favourite?", it is right that you can only pick one. But there should have been an option to say that you have some equal favourites.

Anyway, symphony for me, easily above the others, because despite the occasional solo passages, the writing is for the whole orchestra, and no one gets to be virtuoso. There may be some great tunes in concertos, but they seem to be written for the pianist to show off - or at least, s/he thinks its an opportunity to do so.


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

I voted 'other' as there was not a multiple choice option. I enjoy all of the listed catagories equally with the exception of Song and Incidental which I listen to infrequently.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

In my formative years of collecting it would have been symphony followed by chamber and then piano, but more or less everything gets a far fairer crack of the whip these days as my listening habits are drawn more to gaining an overview of an actual composer rather than focussing on any particular category. If push came to shove I would probably still favour those three categories in that order. That said, I am listening to piano music only for the next few days as I have a Beethoven/Liszt side-by-side thing going on.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Well, they're nearly all nice, and I tend to go for a period of music rather than the choices provided. 

But I chose concerto as my favourite - I like the format where an instrument (especially the violin) features as a solo with a musical comment provided by the orchestra/ensemble. It's like a drama or conversation for me.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Livly_Station said:


> No votes for "tone poem"!


I feel like when a tone poem is "good enough" they (or the composer) call it a symphony or symphony-like as in La Mer, Tapiola and An Alpine Symphony.

That said, I voted chamber music. There a composer can get as innovative and intimate as they want without fearing public shame so much.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Xisten267 said:


> Even if you have more than one favorite category of CM (I do), don't you _overall_ slightly prefer one over the others? Are your preferences between your favorites totally equal?


I concur with SanAntone. Some of us don't engage in the kind of morbid self-examination required to keep track of slight preferences if such even exist.  Might as well ask: Which is your favorite child and which did you leave in a basket in front of Notre Dame?


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Basically I like all genres, but least listened to would be Renaissance choral music, and also solo organ & harpsichord music, plus certain avantgarde stuff, with various content.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Neo Romanza said:


> Too bad there isn't an option for multiple votes or I'd find this poll a lot easier to choose from.


Same here. It depends on the day and my mood.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

EdwardBast said:


> I concur with SanAntone. Some of us don't engage in the kind of morbid self-examination required to keep track of slight preferences if such even exist.  Might as well ask: Which is your favorite child and which did you leave in a basket in front of Notre Dame?


I don't think that it's "morbid" for a person to acknowledge that she has her preferences. I usually prefer purple over brown and I don't think that any "morbid self-examination" was required for me to come to this conclusion. Now, I understand that some members here may not want to show their preferences in a poll, and to me this is perfectly fine.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Opera I like to hear beautiful singing together with music with a plot to follow.

It doesn´t mean I dislike other forms of classical music. I decide if I like a work when I have heard it.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Xisten267 said:


> I don't think that it's "morbid" for a person to acknowledge that she has her preferences. I usually prefer purple over brown and I don't think that any "morbid self-examination" was required for me to come to this conclusion. Now, I understand that some members here may not want to show their preferences in a poll, and to me this is perfectly fine.


I was referring specifically to what you asked about _slight_ preferences, not the kind people might actually care about.


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## Aries (Nov 29, 2012)

Xisten267 said:


> I don't think that it's "morbid" for a person to acknowledge that she has her preferences.


So it isn't morbid for a woman to decide which child she leaves in a basket in front of Notre Dame? I'm sceptical.

But its good that nobody can vote twice in this poll. It just takes some balls to make a decision.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Aries said:


> So it isn't morbid for a woman to decide which child she leaves in a basket in front of Notre Dame?


Yes, but metaphorically the poll asks for a favorite child, not to leave any of them in front of Notre Dame. If I had allowed multiple choices some mommies around would just tell me that they love all their babies and this would pollute the results, as I'm interested in overall favorites.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

It used to be symphonies all the way but for the past few years chamber works (particularly string quartets) have massively superceded them. I still listen to lots of symphonies but listen to 10 times as many SQs these days.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

I voted for solo keyboard because when it comes down to the wire, I would probably save solo piano recordings at the expense of the rest. But it's a false choice. I wouldn't, for example, prefer Scarlatti's keyboard works over RVW's string 4tets or Beethoven's symphonies. But LvB's sonatas over his symphonies? Yes, probably.


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

Pat Fairlea said:


> ...But LvB's sonatas over his symphonies? Yes, probably.


I probably would too. The symphonies have been played to death, but there's a lot of neglected goodness in the sonatas, especially the earlier ones.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

dissident said:


> I probably would too. The symphonies have been played to death, but there's a lot of neglected goodness in the sonatas, especially the earlier ones.


And, if I am to be rationed, there are 32 piano sonatas and only 9 symphonies! Though I would miss the 7th... and maybe the 8th...


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

I'm greedy and have three equal favourites.
Symphony 
Concerto
Chamber

All very different but equally beautiful!


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