# Update TCers on your personal top composers!



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Have your personal favorites changed at all? Anyone new you'd like to mention or talk about? 

Right now, the big composers who's music I feel most strongly about are the following:

Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach
George Phillip Telemann
Orlando Gibbons
William Byrd
Franz Joseph Haydn
Nikolai Medtner
Johann Sebastian Bach
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Alexander Scriabin
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Muzio Clementi
Henry Purcell

Some composers who may make this list in this future:
Federico Mompou
Antonio de Cabezon
John Bull
Deitrich Buxtehude
Robert Schumann
Frederic Chopin
Anatoly Liadov
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Girolamo Frescobaldi

Additionally, some "minor" composers who really intrigue me:
Willhelm Friedmann Bach
Emmanuel Chabrier
Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach
Henri Joseph Rigel
Alexander Tcherepnin
Sergei Lyapunov
Gottlieb Muffat
Leopold Kozeluch
John Field
Johann Nepomuk Hummel
William Boyce
Johann Stamitz
Christoph Graupner


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## StevenOBrien (Jun 27, 2011)

Mozart
Beethoven
Glass
Bach
Chopin
Mendelssohn
Handel
Schubert
Schumann
Stravinsky
Tchaikovsky
Berlioz
Prokofiev
Lully
Bizet
Poulenc
Wyschnegradsky
Weber
Herschel
Eberl


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

In very rough order:

Schumann
Beethoven
Janacek
Britten 
Medtner
Chopin
Webern
Berg
Bach
Shostakovich
Hindemith
Elgar
Tallis
Machaut
Byrd
Dowland
Stravinsky
Sibelius
Vaughan Williams
Walton

I'm probably forgetting a few...


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

Dearest to my heart in no particular order:

Schoenberg
Bach
Górecki
Cherubini
Palestrina
Brahms
Barber
Hovhaness
Schnittke
Honegger
Shostakovich
Sibelius


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## Renaissance (Jul 10, 2012)

J.S.Bach
Beethoven
H.Purcell
Corelli
Palestrina
Arvo Part
Samuel Barber
Buxtehude
Verdelot
Bartok
Machaut
Tavener
Taverner
Monteverdi
Liszt
Schubert
Prokofiev
Stravinsky 
Bruckner

No particular order.


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

My favorites?

Erik Satie
Ludwig van Beethoven
Maurice Ravel
Johann Sebastian Bach
Giuseppe Torelli
Antonio Vivaldi
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Claude Debussy
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Bela Bartok
Philip Glass
Steve Reich
Toru Takemitsu
Arnold Schoenberg
Anton Webern
Alban Berg
Olivier Messiaen
Krzysztof Penderecki
Pierre Boulez
Johannes Brahms
Camille Saint-Saens
Igor Stravinsky
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Edvard Grieg
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Modest Mussorgsky
Antonin Dvorak
Johann Strauss II
Leos Janacek
Claudio Monteverdi
Francis Poulenc
Darius Milhaud
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Dmitri Shostakovich
Domenico Scarlatti 
Carlo Gesualdo
George Crumb
Nino Rota
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Henryk Gorecki
Perotin
Sergei Prokofiev
George Phillip Telemann
William Byrd
Arvo Part
Gyorgy Ligeti
Nico Muhly
Iannis Xenakis 
a lot of small time march and waltz composers
things like that...


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

My favourites at present:

Clementi
Haydn
Dussek
Beethoven
Nyman
Mozart
Elgar
JS Bach
Schubert
Tartini
Vivaldi
Mendelssohn
Schumann
Tchaikovsky
Hummel
Chopin
Alkan
Rachmaninov
Brahms
Neil Hannon


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

1. JS Bach
2. Mahler
3. Brahms
4. Schubert

These four are solid top and will most likely not change anymore as I have listened to classical music for over 25 years now.

Next would be the likes of Dvorak, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Mendelssohn, Takemitsu, Barber, Debussy, Ravel, Mozart, and Gubaidulina.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

The permanent seven, listed chronologically:

Monteverdi
Haydn
Schumann
Brahms
Elgar
Nielsen
Barber

Currently intrigued by:

The Scandinavian composers


Current projects:

Chronological - Hildegard, Leonin, de Vitry, Perotin

Alphabetical - Alwyn, Arnold, J C Bach


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

I've only been listening seriously for a few months, so I haven't really moved on from the big names yet.

1. Beethoven - based on how much I like his piano concertos
2. Chopin - I seem to be primarily a piano music fan at the moment
3. Schubert
4. Tchaikovsky - I'm really enjoying his symphonies when I want a break from piano music (I also like his piano concertos)


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

Mendelssohn
Tchaikovsky
Dvorak
Mozart
Paganini
Rode
Bruch
Bach
Vivaldi
Sibelius
Beethoven
(and just to make those modern listeners happy ) Glass


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

EricABQ said:


> I've only been listening seriously for a few months, so I haven't really moved on from the big names yet.
> 
> 1. Beethoven - based on how much I like his piano concertos
> 2. Chopin - I seem to be primarily a piano music fan at the moment
> ...


Don't worry Eric, there is a reason why those names are big. 

Listen to Beethoven's violin concerto! Once you've done that listen to Tchaikovsky's violin concerto. And then the Sibelius violin concerto. Sorry, I could go on but I'll stop now.


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

Current favourites:

Liszt.
Beethoven.
Chopin.
Schumann.
Schubert.
Berlioz.
Debussy.
Rachmaninoff.

No order.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

I love (solo) piano music most of all.

My list = Lisztian's list plus Scriabin and Ravel and minus Berlioz, in no particular order, except that Scriabin is my obsession.


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## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

Favourites:

Bach
Beethoven
Verdi
Haydn
Debussy
Liszt
Barber (nice to see that so many others here appreciate him too)
Messiaen
Mahler
Bartok
Berlioz
Stravinsky

Getting there:
Monteverdi
Sibelius
Schumann
Shostakovich
Faure

Needs more work:

Brahms
Schubert
Dvorak
Mendelssohn
Richard Strauss
Richard Wagner
Vivaldi


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Current favourites (or just things I've changed my mind about for the better recently) -
J.S. Bach
Bartok
Saint-Saens
Zemlinsky
Stravinsky
Mahler, Bruckner
Boccherini
Post-1945 neo-classicists, eg. Rodrigo, Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Some opera (esp. Modern period)

Old favourites -
Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert
Berg, Schoenberg, some Webern
Janacek
Messiaen
Haydn
Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov
Rossini
Kodaly
Piazzolla
Shostakovich, Prokofiev

A lot of post-1945 musics - eg. Ginastera, Elliott Carter, Lutoslawski, Ligeti, etc.

Australian composers - eg. Percy Grainger, Peter Sculthorpe, Richard Meale, Nigel Westlake, etc.


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## dmg (Sep 13, 2009)

Saint-Saens
Mozart
Beethoven
Rautavaara
Sorabji
Tchaikovsky
Penderecki
R. Strauss
Dvorak
Rachmaninov
Shostakovich
Schubert
M. Haydn
Schumann
Mahler
Bruckner
Prokofiev


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

I liked Sid James' post just for the mention of Lutoslawski


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

No change.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

1. J.S. Bach
2. W.A. Mozart
3. Ludwig van Beethoven
4. Richard Wagner
5. Franz Schubert
6. Franz Joseph Haydn
7. G.F. Handel
8. Johannes Brahms
9. Richard Strauss
10. Piotr Tchaikovsky

11. Robert Schumann
12. Gustav Mahler
13. Claude Debussy
14. G. Verdi
15. Claudio Monteverdi
16. Gabriel Faure
17. Maurice Ravel
18. Jean-Phillip Rameau
19. Christoph Gluck
20. Sergei Prokofiev

21. Dimitri Shostakovitch
22. Benjamin Britten
23. Bela Bartok
24. Antonin Dvorak
25. Frederick Chopin
26. Antonio Vivaldi
27. Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber
28. Giacomo Puccini
29. Vincenzo Bellini
30. Gaetano Donizetti

31. Ralph Vaughan-Williams
32. Frederick Delius
33. Georges Bizet
34. Jean Sibelius
35. Jacques Offenbach
35. Johann Strauss II
36. Hildegard of Bingen
37. Carlo Gesualdo
38. Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
39. Guillaume Dufay
40. Josquin des Prez

The first ten are virtually set in stone. At the most they might move up or down a space or two. Perhaps Brahms before Handel after having listened to him a good deal.

The second ten are fairly firm... although I can imagine them moving up or down a few more spaces... and even a few being displaced by a composer from below.

From there on things get hazy. I honestly can't imagine more than two or three of these names not being included in my Top-50... but I can easily see them shifting around in rank a good deal

After that...? There are a great many other composers that intrigue me... but I really would struggle in placing them in some semblance of order as to "favorites"... and as such I can't imagine placing them on a Top-40. Still... other names that are important to me include: Zelenka, Buxtehude, Heinrich Schütz, Thomas Tallis, Toru Takemitsu, Osvaldo Golijov, Hugo Wolf, Erich Korngold, Daniel Catan, Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla, Jean-Baptiste de Lully, Christian Bach, Domenico and Alessandro Scarlatti, etc...

As always... my personal list is greatly influenced by the fact that vocal music... opera, choral music, lieder, etc... is my great passion.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I'd been on a Fauré kick for awhile, with some Delius and Canteloube thrown in. I need to get back to D'Indy and Chausson to round this phase off nicely. 

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Renaissance and Baroque music - Gombert, Zelenka, Frescobaldi, Lassus, Victoria, Corelli, the Eton Choirbook, Pergolesi, Buxtehude. 

Of that, the guy that has most grown on me is Zelenka. But all of it is good.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Cnote11 said:


> My favorites?
> 
> Erik Satie
> Ludwig van Beethoven
> ...


HEY! Before you were banned I distinctly remember you enjoying a lot of the music of Michael Nyman. What happened?


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

I'll add Schnittke ang Ligeti to mine. Maybe more in the future.


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## Very Senior Member (Jul 16, 2009)

I'm keeping my list a secret.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

1) Mahler: He grabbed me from the start and hasn't let go.
2) Mozart: He's actually moved up in the rankings over the last two weeks. 
3) Mendelssohn: His music makes me relaxed and happy. Easy to listen to, which some classical music fans mean as an insult, but I don't.
4) Brahms: His German Requiem is my favorite of all Requiems. I also love his horn trio and clarinet sonatas.
5) Dvorak
6) Tchaikovsky
7) Bach
8) Ravel
9) Puccini: Initially I had him lower, as I don't listen to opera often, but I like a lot of his arias and love Suor Angelica.
10) Schubert
11) R. Strauss
12) Beethoven
13) Chopin
14) Debussy: He could go up as high as 10th or down to 20th depending on the day, I have to be in the mood for his work.
15) Faure (I suspect that he will rise in the standings as I listen to more of his work, but that remains to be seen!)
16) Richard Wagner. I have a couple of his orchestral-only albums and that's how I enjoy him best right now.
17) Schumann: primarily for that amazing piano concerto.
18) Sibelius.


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

Currently: Wagner.

Dont blame me, I cant help it


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> HEY! Before you were banned I distinctly remember you enjoying a lot of the music of Michael Nyman. What happened?


I've always liked Nyman, but I don't know if I'd put him in my top favorites... perhaps if he didn't make "The Piano" soundtrack.


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## Carpenoctem (May 15, 2012)

I don't have a favorite composer.

Sometimes I am feeling emotional and I listen to Brahms, Schubert, Tchaikovsky...

Yesterday I wanted to relax so I listened to Mozart's Piano Concertos

Today I wanted to raise my hands and yell : "**** yeah humanity!" so I've listened to Beethoven.

I like all of them.


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

Beethoven? Would have been better off listening to *LIGETI*


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

My list is more or less the same as it has been for a long time: 
1) Bach
2) Ravel 

...and then a whole lot of other composers whose positions are constantly changing around. Rachmaninoff has moved down a bit for me recently and Copland has moved up.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

I forgot my other list but here is my new list. Man I like a lot of composers. But the ones in Baroque and 20th Century tend to be my favorites. 
Ligeti
Bartok
Shostakovich
Rameau
Vivaldi
Byrd
Dowland 
Scarlatti 
Corelli
Telemann
Haydn 
Satie 
Albinoni 
Mozart
Beethoven
Dvorak
Grieg
Tchaikovsky
Boccherini
Schnittke
Biber
Handel
Bach
CPE Bach
JC Bach
Zelenka
Stravinsky
Poulenc
Debussy
Ravel
Glass 
Faure
Chopin
Schubert


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## Clementine (Nov 18, 2011)

I really really love:

Beethoven
Bach
Mozart
Brahms
Schubert
Haydn
Schumann
Bartók
Barber
Debussy
Mahler. 

And love music by, and am therefore intrigued to listen to more of:
Schoenberg
Berg
Britten
Lutoslawski
Janáček
Handel
Strauss
Stravinsky
Dutilleux
Crumb
Ligeti
Carter
Reich

And I like these composers, but am not especially intrigued to scavenge all of there output:
Adams
Adès
Berlioz
Berio
Chopin
Dvořák
Elgar
Liszt
Mendelssohn
Messiaen
Prokofiev
Rachmaninov
Ravel
Smetana
Sibelius
Tchaikovsky
Vaughan Williams
Vivaldi
Wagner


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## Chrythes (Oct 13, 2011)

Without any particular order -

Beethoven
Mahler
Faure
Brahms
Norgard (Even though I should listen to more of his works)
Bartok
Enescu
Shostakovich
Schubert
Bach
In a sense Sibelius.
Ravel
Britten
Prokofiev

The problem is that most of my choices are made according to the chamber music output of these composers.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

*Ligeti*
Wagner
Michael Nyman
Giuliani
Frank Zappa
Brian Ferneyhough
Carter
etc.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

Updated:
Mendelssohn
Tchaikovsky
Dvorak
Mozart
Paganini
Rode
Bruch
Bach
Vivaldi
Sibelius
Beethoven
Glass
Schubert
*Ligeti* (Just to get a like from CoAG )
*ComposerOfAvantGarde*


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

^ I would have liked it anyway, even without *Ligeti!*


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> ^ I would have liked it anyway, even without *Ligeti!*


Nice to know. :lol:


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroViolinist said:


> Nice to know. :lol:


You listed Glass.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> You listed Glass.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

MaestroViolinist said:


>


But not me?


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## Conor71 (Feb 19, 2009)

Bach
Chopin
Shostakovich
Sibelius
Tchaikovsky
Mendelssohn
Schubert
Ligeti
Ravel
Debussy
Mozart
Beethoven
Brahms
Schumann
Villa-Lobos
Dvorak
Vaughan Williams


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> But not me?


What? As my favourite composer? Oh alright.


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