# 10 composers...with a twist...



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I've just read Andrew Ford's book called _In Defence of Classical Music_. Details HERE at GoogleBooks.

In this book, Ford goes in depth about 10 composers to basically illustrate what classical music is about, giving a seperate chapter to each.

He says "these are not intended as the ten greatest or most important composers in history (Bach, Mozart and Wagner are not among them), and neither are they my ten favourite composers. In electing to write about their music, I was hoping to present a composite picture of what classical music is, what it is capable of (to some extent), how it works, and how it differs from other sorts of music." (page xiii)

*So, I am asking you good people to choose ten composers with Ford's reasons in mind. Don't only choose composers from one or two eras, be as wide ranging as you can. Ford has included three living composers as well (the last one an Australian), which is interesting.

& if you can use your imagination, why not give us the titles to each of your chapters on the ten composers you chose?*

Here are the titles of Ford's chapters -

_The tears of *John Dowland*

Music to order by *Franz Joseph Haydn*

*Beethoven's* song and dance

The dramatic imagination of *Hector Berlioz*

The honesty of *Johannes Brahms*

*Sibelius's *journey into silence

The expensive distractions of *Maurice Ravel*

*John Adams *and the art of good and evil

*Kaija Saariaho *and the sound of music

Things fall apart in the music of *Ross Bolleter*_


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Hildegard
Perotin 
Dufay
Monteverdi
Bach
Mozart
Beethoven
Wagner
Shostakovich 
Glass

But that is _tough_! I think I'd like a few more (25):

Hildegard
Perotin 
Machaut
Dufay 
Josquin 
Palestrina
Monteverdi
Lully
Bach
Haydn
Mozart
Beethoven
Wagner
Tchaikovsky
Debussy 
Shostakovich 
Schoenberg 
Varèse 
Bartók
Herrmann 
Bernstein 
Stockhausen
Piazzolla
Glass 
Pärt


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^Your selections are interesting, they are some I'm thinking of as well.

I'm still mulling over what to put down concretely on this, to answer my own question, so to speak.

Guys like Dufay, Monteverdi, PIazzolla I was thinking of putting on my list of 10 as well. I think they represent their eras well. I think that actually some of the really huge "geniuses" are not really typical of their era. This may well be whey Andrew Ford avoided doing chapters on guys like BAch, Mozart, Wagner in his book. Apart from avoiding doing the usual (cliched?) book on the three B's, Wagner, Stravinsky and not much else. But of course he mentioned them in relation to the composers he discussed and focussed on. Not much in music happens in isolation.

Stay tuned for my list. I think I'm trying to be a bit lateral thinking and avoid who are simply my favourites. But it's hard to miss out on Beethoven, he is really a composer I value to the utmost and kind of neatly has one foot in the Classical ERa, another in the Romantic...


----------



## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

Neat idea, although I think you'd need at least 10-15 composers to get an outline of just the 20th century alone...

Here's my list. I'm trying to represent as many genres as possible:

Des Prez (vocal polyphony)
Monteverdi (early opera)
JS Bach (counterpoint)
Mozart (classical forms, classical opera)
Beethoven (extended classical forms)
Schumann (character pieces)
Wagner (early chromaticism)
Debussy (impressionism)
Roslavets (effective 12-tone writing)
Ligeti (lots of cool stuff)


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Sid James said:


> ^^Your selections are interesting, they are some I'm thinking of as well.
> 
> I'm still mulling over what to put down concretely on this, to answer my own question, so to speak.
> 
> ...


It's hard to skip the really big name composers: who better to do classical opera than Mozart? I considered doing Gluck instead, but I just can't stick to that. Who better to do string quartets or the classical symphony than Haydn? Piano sonatas than Beethoven? Baroque sacred music and counterpoint (including organ music) than Bach? I just couldn't find a convincing way to skip those guys.

I avoided Handel with Lully, and I think that's a good choice, getting a bit away from the German domination. I also considered Verdi rather than Wagner, but I can't put my heart in that. Tchaikovsky over Brahms was a decision I made because I think his music is more prototypically romantic, and his story is more dramatic.

I might have gone with Adams over Glass, but your man had put in Adams already, and Glass is a good choice too.

If I got a 26th choice, I might put in C. P. E. Bach for the "gallant style."

What if I picked 10 composers for "what classical music means to me" discussion? I would do works rather than composers:

- Monteverdi: L'Orfeo
- Allegri: Miserere 
- Rebel: The Elements 
- Mozart: Don Giovanni 
- Beethoven: Symphony #5
- Brahms: German Requiem 
- Debussy: Prelude to the afternoon of a faun 
- Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring 
- Shostakovich: String Quartet #8 
- Reich: Music for 18 Musicians

Of course all of this is subject to great change upon reflection...


----------



## pluhagr (Jan 2, 2012)

Pope Gregory
Gregorio Allegri
J.S. Bach
W.A. Mozart 
Ludwig van Beethoven 
Giuseppe Verdi
Igor Stravinsky
Arnold Schoenberg
Maurice Ravel
Philip Glass


----------



## Valse (Jan 8, 2012)

Frederic Chopin
Franz Liszt
Peter Tchaikovsky
Johann Sebastian Bach
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Scott Joplin
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Claude Debussy
Robert Schumann
Johann Brahms


----------



## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Valse said:


> Scott Joplin


 Interesting choice, there.


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

A work in progress here. I'll fill the gaps later. Trying hard not to necessarily include my absolute favourites, as Andrew Ford described in how he chose his "10" in my OP. I included an Aussie in Brett Dean, and he's also not too old, aged fifty years. I tried to contrast the certainties of Bruckner with the uncertainties of Mahler, a good idea for a potted history of classical music? -

_From the spiritual to the physical with *Claudio Monteverdi*_

....

_Faith in God and love of nature in the music of *Anton Bruckner*_

_All certainties shattered in the neurotic world of *Gustav Mahler*_

...

_Life, love and death in the tangos of *Astor Piazzolla*_

...

_Both hemispheres covered, from Brisbane to Berlin, with *Brett Dean*_


----------



## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Sid James said:


> *Sibelius's *journey into silence


Andrew Ford should have selected John Cage for that instead.


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Hildegard (plainchant and early secular works)
Palestrina (renaissance polyphony)
Monteverdi (orchestral techniques, baroque madrigals)
Corelli (concerti grossi, trio sonatas)
Vivaldi (solo concerti, operas)
Bach (Counterpoint, cantatas)
Handel (operas, oratorios)
Haydn (symphony, string quartet, oratorios)
Salieri (operas, choral music)
Beethoven (evolution to the romantic period.)

Already done ten. Time for a sequel.

Donizetti (bel canto operas)
Berlioz (orchestration, programmatic music)
Louise Farrenc (Symphonies)
Clara Schumann (for music that is better than her husband's  )
Smetana (Nationalism)
Liszt (piano music, symphonic poems, early chromaticism)
Wagner (leitmotif, early chromaticism)
Tchaikovsky (Ballets, operas, symphonies)
Puccini (verismo)
Ives (American nationalism, polytonality, poly-everything)

Looks like we need another sequel

Schoenberg (Atonality, dodecaphony, operas)
Stravinsky (Ballets, neo-classicism, dodecaphony)
Webern (the miniature)
Cage (chance music, piano music, piano music where the pianist does not actually play a note during the entire performance)
Stockhausen (for literally being an alien)
Milton Babbitt (music for synthesiser, integral serialism)
Carter (Polyrhythm)
Ligeti (everything)
Another chapter on Ligeti (because he is the best)
Steve Reich (phasing, minimalism)
John Williams (neo-romanticism)


----------



## TrazomGangflow (Sep 9, 2011)

Frederic Chopin (Transforming dance style pieces)
W. A. Mozart (Opera)
L. V. Beethoven (Symphonies in depth)
John Williams (Movie compositions)
Haydn (Form of the symphony)
J. S. Bach (Excellent example of a Well Rounded Composer)
George Gershwin (an important example of evolving classical music)

I know I don't have ten but my mind is quite blank at the moment.


----------

