# Describe your favorite composers in one sentence!



## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

Using the fewest words possible, try to articulate your favorite composer's style of composition. I'll start with a few well-knowns:

Vivaldi: Youth and vitality; extroverted, social, dialogue-like. 
J.S. Bach: Law and order, work and labor. 
Schubert: Pessimistic, sorrowful songs of lost love.
Chopin: Emulator of vocal singing in the piano.


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Not to be pedantic, but these are not sentences exactly.

Beethoven: the indomitable human spirit coupled with musical acrobatics.
Vaughan-Williams: The music of the fey
Schoenberg: sessf og vennbel sesne essf
Stravinsky: mischief incarnate.


----------



## Webernite (Sep 4, 2010)

*Brahms*: Depressing Baroque Romanticism. 
*Schoenberg*: Angry counterpoint.
*Bach*: 20-children music.


----------



## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

*Shostakovich*: Set the Soviet Union to music.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Russian Composers Own Everyone.

Done!  

But to be more specific:
Prokofiev: The Man touched by God
(personal comment)


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Wagner : Lord of the Ring !


----------



## vamos (Oct 9, 2009)

absolutely great idea for a thread! might help me to understand certain composers I've yet to really love...

these might seem idiotic to some who know more about them:

Schoenberg: explorer and adventurer to new realms of structure and bizarre feel - consumed by dark emotions but also brilliantly logical and often humorous!

Mozart: beauty and confidence

Stravinsky: utter magnificent unstoppable hilariously great genius [rite of spring]

Ravel: mysterious but smart and cool watchmaker and master craftsman of music

Debussy: stuffy and pretentious but occasionally interesting composer of soft and forced sentimental music that isn't as good as Ravel [ignorant, i am]

Ligeti: numerological robotic and fascinating investigator of the fractal realm

Xenakis: talks to aliens

Stockhausen: tries to live as a hyperinfinite being, sometimes succeeds. is a hell of a lot of fun

Scriabin: megalomaniac with an absurd capability for dreaming and fantasy realms of imagination and creativity

Schumann: romantic

Beethoven: very angry, sad, and dark person with a rather sadistic side and a great devotion to music. I've always felt the sadistic side getting in the way of my enjoyment. maybe it's my imagination.

Chopin: romantic genius probably with bad mental problems but nonetheless a wonderful imagination and disregard for rules

Schnittke: consumed by demons and satanic metaphysical spirits however manages to triumph in some sense. perhaps the 20th century's Mahler...

[seriously anyone reading this thread... I know we have Mahler fans... something about this guy... I feel the future is in the Schnittke...]

John Zorn... Schoenberg to Schnittke's Mahler:

John Zorn: outcast from all sides, embraced by some...a musical maverick and man of great love for music in all forms.

One more....hmm

Prokofiev: personal favorite of many


----------



## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Brahms: the beauty and imperfections of humanity distilled into musical form.


----------



## wingracer (Mar 7, 2011)

Who needs a sentence? One word will suffice:

Bach = Perfection.

or two:

Chopin = Beauty incarnate.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Bruckner = Majestic
Mahler = Genius
Bach = Hors concours


----------



## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

How about some metaphors?

Bach = Double Helix, Stained-Glass Window
Mozart = Draft of Air, Running River, Birdsong
Schumann = Heartache, Garden, Silhouette
Schubert = Narrow Path
Wagner = Consuming Fire
Beethoven = Storm
Handel = Sunlight
Prokofiev = Clown, Machines, War
Bartok = Geometric Shapes, Commonplace People
Messiaen = Birds
D.Scarlatti = Old Clock, Time Passing
Villa-Lobos = Amazon Forest
Bruckner = Mountain Peak, Wide Vista
Mahler = Nightmare, Vision, Revelation
Sibelius = Snowy Mountainside, Evergreen Forest

My goodness, these are strange.


----------



## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

Schubert = The composer nearest to God..


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Some of these may sound a bit suss, but anyway -

Harry Partch - Ordered chaos
Handel - Complex simplicity giving out a warm inner glow
Monteverdi - Less is more
Beethoven - Simply everything under the sun
Shostakovich - Through a glass darkly
Schoenberg - Ugly beauty
Messiaen - Shimmering darkness and light
Webern - Master of dynamic, rhythmic and tonal contrasts
Carter - Complexity mirroring our fragmented age
Bartok - Folkish regionalism produces universal meanings
Mozart - Pure beauty
Johann Strauss Jnr. - Viennese king of waltzes and more
Granados - Elegance and refinement with a Spanish twist
Penderecki - Dark, dark, dark
Haydn - Optimist with a serious side
Brahms - The Classical Romantic
Schumann - Lyric poet
Mahler - Alchemist who makes all things into gold

...


----------



## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Weston said:


> Schoenberg: sessf og vennbel sesne essf


Webern: xhj.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

And in that style:
Glass cccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc


----------



## haydnfan (Apr 13, 2011)

Mahler-- through a glass darkly


----------



## wingracer (Mar 7, 2011)

Cage.




.


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Carl Nielsen : The unmelancholy Dane; pure optimism and love of life.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Nielsen: Danish Dynamite


----------



## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

Art Rock said:


> And in that style:
> Glass cccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc


Nice. If you were a Glass hater it would have been:

Glass zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

On a similar note:

Reich - Badass-badass-badass-badas-badas-badas-bada-bada-bada-bada-bada-bada-bad-bad-bad-bad-ba-ba-ba-ba-b-b-b-b


----------



## chibura (May 2, 2011)

Schumann: The man who put all of his bewildering emotions into his works.
Schubert: The champion of melodic composing.
Brahms: Philosopher in sound.
Stravinsky: The composer who brings tribal music into music.
Bach: His music is like a cold winter night in a professor's room filled with intellectual books.


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Fun phrases for some of my favorites that deserve representation

WF Bach: The musical Houdini, tricky *******.
CPE Bach: Mastered the basics, musical Bruce Lee.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

chibura said:


> Stravinsky: The composer who brings tribal music into music.


How about...

Stravinsky: The Unrussian Composer


----------



## 1648 (Mar 4, 2011)

Haydn - Serious humor.
Mozart - The world's a stage.
Bach - A universe unfolding.
Beethoven - Headfirst through good taste, onwards to salvation.
Brahms - Art concealing art concealing art concealing art concealing art concealing melancholy.
Webern - Like seeing a Grünewald painting through a kaleidoscope.


----------



## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Scriabin - Chopin discovers LSD.
Schoenberg - Lying on a bed of ice-cold nails.
Wagner - Don't look, don't look, don't look... ah, it's 9:15 pm.


----------



## graaf (Dec 12, 2009)

Beethoven: heroic fury and deep sorrow produced both epic and touching music
Mussorgsky: angry, rebelious, drunken poet
Sibelius: the road less traveled


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Glazunov: And they all lived happily ever after.


----------

