# A New Version of Top 10 Composers



## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Please list the one composer or music writer if you had to bring only their music for the rest of your life, if you were forced for time to choose one. Then list the candidate you would bring had #1 not been available and you couldn't bring #1. Don't consider it a package deal, meaning you would never have both. 2 is just the second best scenario, and so on with 3 being the only composer you have for the rest of your life in the third best scenario...

Thank you!

If you can only narrow down five, better to be more accurate and post only five.


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## Aries (Nov 29, 2012)

1. Bruckner
2. Beethoven
3. Wagner
4. Tchaikovsky
5. Bach

I notice some changes to a normal Top 10 list: 
- I don't want to listen only to a 20th century composer. They are good as complementation for a normal top 10 list, but too special for this one.
- Beethoven and Bach are higher in this list. I think I value their wide output and their less specialized expression more for this list. For example I would rate Wagner and Tchaikovsky higher than Beethoven on a normal list and Schubert, Rimsky-Korsakov and others higher than Bach.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

1. Bach
2. Mahler
3. Brahms
4. Schubert
5. Shostakovich
6. Sibelius
7. Dvorak
8. R. Strauss
9. Bax
10. Mozart

The first six actually are the same as my personal composers ranking. After that, Wagner and Bruckner would normally be in my top 10, but for the present exercise, their main works are too much in one genre (operas, resp. symphonies) to limit myself to one of them only.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

1. Stravinsky
2. Bach
3. Miles Davis


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Why do we keep doing this?


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

You're the only one so far doing something old.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

1) Brahms
2) Mozart
3) Sibelius
4) Dvorak
5) Debussy


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Bach
Beethoven
Brahms
Bartók
Wagner
Stravinsky
Schoenberg
Debussy
Ligeti
Kurtág


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

MarkW said:


> Why do we keep doing this?


Don't click on the thread then.

1. Brahms
2. Beethoven
3. Bruckner
4. Mahler
5. Bach
6. Mozart
7. Rachmaninoff
8. Wagner
9. Tchaikovsky
10. Schumann

.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

Guys, seriously, who could spend the rest of their life listening only to Mahler or Bruckner?


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Bruckner would be a stretch, Mahler would be doable.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

1. Bach
2. Shostakovich
3. Mahler
4. Weinberg
5. Mozart


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

Ok...

For something like this, I'd have to choose composers I find more joyful or soulful. Being prolific and diverse is a bonus.

1. Bach - I voted for Bach in another thread with the same premise, and he's still number 1.
2. Villa-Lobos - ahead of Beethoven because his music draws from more influences, so more variety.
3. Beethoven - his music is more homogeneous in style, but many of my top favorites are his.
4. Liszt - big oeuvre, great music, and I'd also be able to listen to Beethoven, Schubert, Bach, etc. Almost cheating.
5. Brahms - not usually my favorite, but perhaps I'd find out what's so great about his chamber works and have nourishing music for the rest of my life. Love his orchestral works and some piano.
6. Mahler - small oeuvre, but deeply emotional and over the top.
7. [insert] - this space is reserved for composers I like, but who I'm still discovering.
8. Ravel - a composer of stunning gems, but small oeuvre, so maybe I would regret.
9. Saint-Saëns - a pleasant life it would be, but possibly I'd get sick of it.
10. Mozart - I'm gambling on him growing a lot on me as I suspect it might happen. Big oeuvre helps.


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## Rambler (Oct 20, 2017)

1. JS Bach
2. Beethoven
3. Mozart
4. Brahms
5. Britten 
6. Handel 
7. J. Haydn 
8. Bartok 
9. Schubert 
10. Berlioz


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## John Zito (Sep 11, 2021)

Ravel
 Mozart
 Debussy
 Sondheim
 Kapustin
 Prokofiev
 Mingus
 Schubert
 Fauré
 Piazzolla

If there's a theme, most (all?) are composers that Ned Rorem would classify as aesthetically "French."


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

1. Mozart
2. Schubert
3 Bach
4 Beethoven
5 Verdi


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

Bach 
Beethoven
Mozart
Haydn
Brahms
Wagner
Handel
Chopin
Bruckner
Stravinsky


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

Art Rock said:


> Bruckner would be a stretch, Mahler would be doable.


I'm a Bruckner fan, but you could use a good chunk of that "rest of your life" getting through a Bruckner box set. :lol:


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

1. Bach
2. Mozart
3. Haydn
4. Beethoven
5. Vivaldi
6. John Williams
7. Jerry Goldsmith
8. Max Steiner
9. Paul McCartney
10. Tchaikovsky
11. Sondheim


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

1. Beethoven
2. Wagner
3. Bach
4. Mozart
5. Brahms
6. Schubert
7. Bruckner 
8. Tchaikovsky
9. Berlioz
10. Mendelssohn


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

1. Bach (lots of cantatas I've barely listened to)
2. Beethoven (my actual favorite conposer, and I still haven't listened to many of his piano sonatas or non-string quartet chamber music)

3. Brahms (solid, consistent quality)
4. Mozart (I know his more popular works, not his entire ouvere)
5. Haydn (huge output)


And honestly, this is all I can think of. They are my top 5 composers, BTW, for combining quantity and quality)


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

1. Charles Koechlin
2. Andre Jolivet
3. Richard Rodney Bennett (soundtracks, concert works, jazz pieces, etc.)
4. Aarre Merikanto
5. Alex North (soundtracks & concert works)
6. Arne Nordheim (orchestral/instrumental as well as mag tapes/electronic music)
7. Piero Piccioni (Italian soundtracks)
8. Meyer Kupferman (12-tone + jazz)
9. Toru Takemitsu
10. Heitor Villa-Lobos


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## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

1. J. S. Bach
2. Josquin Desprez
3. W. A. Mozart
4. G. F. Handel
5. Guillaume Dufay
6. Johannes Ockeghem
7. Claude Debussy
8. Maurice Ravel
9. F. J. Haydn
10. L.V. Beethoven

Next five:

11. Prokofiev
12. Wagner
13. Machaut
14. Vivaldi
15. Thomas Tallis

Next five:

16. William Byrd
17. Monteverdi
18. Mahler
19. Orlando di Lasso, or Lassus
20. Schumann

Next three:

21. R. Strauss
22. Schubert
23. Brahms


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

1) Beethoven
2) Haydn
3) Mozart
4) Dvorak

After that, it gets tough for me because #5 would be a tossup between Bach, Brahms, Mendelssohn, or Copland.


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## VoiceFromTheEther (Aug 6, 2021)

1. Williams
2. Beethoven
3. Tchaikovsky
4. Wagner
5. Mendelssohn
6. Shostakovich
7. Dvorak
8. Schubert
9. Verdi
10. Saint-Saens

have to be composers with some diversity (or Wagner)


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## Sumantra (Feb 1, 2018)

Beethoven
Mozart
Bach
Hayden
Tchaikovsky
Prokofiev
Saint Saens
Brahms
Shostakovich
Vivaldi/Mendelssohn


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

1) Mozart
2) Brahms
3) Verdi
4) Rossini
5) Beethoven
6) Bruckner
7) Mahler
8) Bach
9) Chopin
10) Schubert


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

1. JS Bach
2. Beethoven
3. Mozart
4. Mahler
5. Brahms
6. Tchaikovsky
7. Dvorak
8. J. Haydn
9. Schubert
10. Shostakovich

That works for today.
I realize, after looking over this list, that had the first 9 composers not been available to me, I would certainly appreciate the angst of the music of composer number 10, and would likely program the 14th Symphony rather often.

I was intrigued by the mention of Miles Davis in a previous list. Of course I could spend the remainder of my life with only the recordings of Miles to listen to. But those recordings include much music Miles himself did not write. Though I wouldn't want to be without Miles's own tunes, I'm not sure how I'd take to hearing him play only those. In a list of 10 music performers, Miles would likely be near the top if not number one on my list.


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## sibylla (Jun 13, 2021)

1. Beethoven
2. Mozart
3. Schubert
4. Bach 
5. Brahms


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## bavlf (Oct 4, 2020)

1. Johann Sebastian Bach
2. Robert Schumann
3. Franz Peter Schubert
4. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
5. Anton Webern


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## advokat (Aug 16, 2020)

1. Bach
2. Rachmaninov
3. Brahms
4. Mozart
5. Tchaikovsky
6. Mendelssohn
7. Schubert
8. Taneyev
9. Bruckner
10. Haydn


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## Eriks (Oct 10, 2021)

1. JS Bach
2. Telemann
3. Sibelius
4. Beethoven
5. CPE Bach

I think each of these should last a lifetime, even though I am a bit worried about Telemann, but he has lots of humor and is very humane - should be useful qualities when stuck on e.g. a deserted island.


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## Andante Largo (Apr 23, 2020)

1. Sibelius, Jean (1865 - 1957) [Finland]
2. Respighi, Ottorino (1879 - 1936) [Italy]
3. Brahms, Johannes (1833 - 1897) [Germany]
4. Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Mario (1895 - 1968) [Italy]
5. Karłowicz, Mieczysław (1876 - 1909) [Poland]
6. Reinecke, Carl (1824 - 1910) [Germany]
7. Perosi, Lorenzo (1872 - 1956) [Italy]
8. Rheinberger, Josef (1839 - 1901) [Liechtenstein]
9. Wieniawski, Henryk (1835 - 1880) [Poland]
10. Rachmaninoff, Sergei (1873 - 1943) [Russia]

Honorable mention: Chopin, Fryderyk (1810 - 1849) [Poland]


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

I've really enjoyed this thread--maybe the best one so far! I'm still considering who I'd bring with me, but it would be fun to hear what more people list for their own.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Ethereality said:


> Please list the one composer or music writer if you had to bring only their music for the rest of your life, if you were forced for time to choose one. Then list the candidate you would bring had #1 not been available and you couldn't bring #1. Don't consider it a package deal, meaning you would never have both. 2 is just the second best scenario, and so on with 3 being the only composer you have for the rest of your life in the third best scenario...
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> If you can only narrow down five, better to be more accurate and post only five.


1. J.S. Bach
2. Joseph Haydn
3. Franz Liszt
4. Johannes Brahms
5. Erik Satie
6. Claude Debussy
7. Igor Stravinsky
8. Leonard Bernstein
9. Stephen Sondheim
10. Osvaldo Golijov


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

1. John Williams
2. Ludwig van Beethoven
3. Pyotr Tchaikovsky
4. Bernard Herrmann
5. Dmitri Shostakovich
6. Felix Mendelssohn
...
7. Wolfgang Mozart
8. Jerry Goldsmith
9. Ennio Morricone
10. J.S. Bach


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

pianozach said:


> 1. Bach
> 2. Mozart
> 3. Haydn
> 4. Beethoven
> ...


5 months later, and this list still looks great to me. I might switch Beethoven and Vivaldi though.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

1. Brahms
2. Beethoven 
3. Schubert 
4. Mozart 
5. Bach 
6. Verdi
7. Chopin
8. Tchaikovsky 
9. Wagner 
10. Tallis


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## smoledman (Feb 6, 2012)

Paul McCartney does not belong on any of these lists.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

smoledman said:


> Paul McCartney does not belong on any of these lists.


Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries


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## PathfinderCS (11 mo ago)

1. J.S. Bach
2. Widor
3. Mozart
4. Beethoven
5. Stravinsky
6. Mahler
7. Penderecki
8. Brahms
9. Rachmaninoff
10. Shostakovich



smoledman said:


> Paul McCartney does not belong on any of these lists.


Not up to you.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

1. Beethoven
2. Bach
3. Mozart
4. Schubert
5. Sibelius
6. Brahms
7. Tchaikovsky
8. Mahler
9. Debussy
10. Ravel


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

I listen to 3 main genres of music, all of which I place at the same, or near the same levels of artistic, emotional, and intellectual importance (for different reasons). 

So, I am forced to cheat and create 3 lists.

Classical:

1. Elliott Carter
2. Charles Wuorinen
3. Penderecki
4. Arnold Schoenberg
5. Magnus Lindberg
6. Bela Bartok
7. Stravinsky
8. Joan Tower
9 Gyrogi Ligeti
10. Per Norgard

Jazz:

1. John Coltrane
2. Chic Corea
3. Allan Holdsworth
4. Miles
5. John McLaughlin
6. Steve Coleman
7. Ralph Towner
8. Mingus
9. Joe Zawinul
10. Orenette Coleman

Prog:

1. Robert Fripp
2. Christian Vander (Magma)
3. Daniel Denis (Univers Zero)
4. Gentle Giant
5. Frank Zappa


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

1. Brahms
2. Prokofiev
3. Mozart
4. Bach
5. Beethoven
6. Sibelius
7. Rachmaninoff
8. Dvorak
9. Ravel
10. Debussy


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## Agamenon (Apr 22, 2019)

1. Bach.
2. Wagner.
3. Debussy
4. Monteverdi.
5. Brahms.
6. Bernstein
7. Orff.
8. Satie.
9. Furtwängler ( he was a composer)
10. Harrison.


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## poconoron (Oct 26, 2011)

1. Mozart
2. Beethoven
3. Haydn
4. Schubert
5. Bach


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## EvaBaron (Jan 3, 2022)

1. Mozart
2. Beethoven
3. Brahms
4. Bach
5. Schubert


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

1. Beethoven
2. Brahms
3. Bach 
4. Sibelius
5. Shostakovich
6. Chopin
7. Prokofiev
8. Bruckner
9. Dvorak
10. Schubert


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## Doulton (Nov 12, 2015)

I don't have a best list but I have musical standouts that got me through various heavy times in my life. Humperdinck and Bizet delighted me as a child and encouraged me to listen more--then came Tchaikovsky. Then I was wowed by Eugene Onegin. I spent my teenage years playing and replaying the old Nonesuch LP of the string quartets of Ravel and Debussy. As an undergraduate it was all about Beethoven and growing into his late quartets. As a pregnant/nursing woman I turned to Puccini and Fred Astaire. Tosca was a great accompaniment for my baby that bit savagely into the breast. And then I was off and running with Mahler. I listened to Upshaw sing Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs as I was working on my dissertation. 


But steady, sturdy, essential Beethoven, Mahler, Mozart, Schubert, and Dvorak are probably the top five I would bring if I were to be locked up forever. And if there was only one option I think I would go for the Schubert Quintet, D. 956.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

pianozach said:


> 5 months later, and this list still looks great to me. I might switch Beethoven and Vivaldi though.


I think Lennon's songs were better than Paul's, now that I'm older. Lennon's concepts were more difficult to put into excellent music (which Paul accomplished consistently), so that's confusing for me..


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

I have not posted my final five, so here they are, joined with my top five:

1) Brahms
2) Mozart
3) Sibelius
4) Dvorak
5) Debussy
6) Vaughan Williams
7) Mendelssohn
8) Haydn
9) Ravel
10 Schubert


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

1. Mozart
2. Beethoven
3. Bach, J.S.
4. Brahms
5. Schubert
6. Dvorak
7. Haydn
8. Mendelssohn
9. Tchaikovsky
10. Wagner

Wagner is normally higher for me, but if I have only 1 composer's works to hear, I'd probably want composers who have written more music.


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## OCEANE (10 mo ago)

In replying, I recalled my music experience and found my favorite composers list not change much.

1. Bach
**********
2. Beethoven
3. Mahler
**********
4. Mozart
5. Schubert
6. Tchaikovsky
7. Bruckner
8. Brahms
9. Vivaldi
10. Chopin

Bach is the highest above and to me his matchless range of musical works contain the profound expressivity and touch me deeply and sincerely. The more I go into his music (especially his keyboard music), the more I am touched. And I also read a lot of books and articles abt Bach to understand his life so that I could feel his music rightly and deeper. The eternal “Art of Fugue” though left incomplete, is the totem of his music.

Beethoven and Mahler, to me, are close to Bach in the musical and mindset connection with me. They are separated from the rest below as their music really mean something to me and they are never ever as a kind of entertainment.

The rest of favorite composers on list maybe change in future which I don't know but now they really give me something special but nothing compare with the top three.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Luchesi said:


> I think Lennon's songs were better than Paul's, now that I'm older. Lennon's concepts were more difficult to put into excellent music (which Paul accomplished consistently), so that's confusing for me..


Lennon had some great songs, as did McCartney. Lennon's worst solo tracks are far, far worse than McCartney's worse tracks.

Frankly, post-Beatles, McCartney was twice as prolific as John until his death. It's almost an unfair comparison though: During his lifetime, more than half his singles only had one song from him - the majority of the B-Sides were a Yoko song. Similar story with his albums: Both SOME TIME IN NEW YORK CITY and DOUBLE FANTASY only had a handful of songs from Lennon - half of those albums were songs from Yoko. And those awful "experimental" albums - each worse than the last - UNFINISHED MUSIC NO. 1: TWO VIRGINS, UNFINISHED MUSIC NO. 2: LIFE WITH THE LIONS, and WEDDING ALBUM - all practically unlistenable. And the 1969 live album was pretty sloppy, as was the bonus disc for SOME TIME . . .

I can count the songs, even including Lennon's My Mummy's Dead and Nutopian album, and come up very short in terms of material.

1969
JL: 2
PM: 0

1970
JL: 12
PM: 13

1971
JL: 12
PM: 21 (Love Is Strange was a cover)

1972
JL: 6
PM: 6

1973
JL: 12
PM: 23

1974
JL: 11
PM: 5

1975 
JL: 1 (All of Rock and Roll were covers; his only original song was a B-Side, Move Over Ms. L)
PM: 10

TOTAL: 
JOHN: 56
PAUL: 78

John "retired" early in 1975, not releasing any songs until late in 1980, when he released 7 more songs on the DOUBLE FANTASY album, which initially tanked for three weeks. Then he was murdered, and sales improved significantly.

In that time McCartney released another six studio albums, and a triple-LP live album.

Of course, that doesn't speak to the quality, only the volume.

Among John's catalog of songs are a lot of songs that are pretty polarizing. I mean, is WELL WELL WELL filler? OH YOKO? MY MUMMY'S DEAD? BRING ON THE LUCIE? HOLD ON? CLEANUP TIME? I DON'T WANT TO BE A SOLDIER? ATTICA STATE? COLD TURKEY, I FOUND OUT, or NUTOPIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM? There's an awful lot of filler on MIND GAMES and WALLS AND BRIDGES.

"Woman Is the N***** of the World", for Chrissake?

My favorite John Lennon album is ROCK AND ROLL, an album full of covers.

As for Paul, his albums MCCARTNEY, RAM, and BAND ON THE RAM are crammed full of great tracks. Sure, there was some filler, and a few questionable tracks along the way, but hit for hit, Paul consistently hit it out of the park, repeatedly. Well, except for Mary Had a Little Lamb, but that was satire, a protest of the banning of his previous single Give Ireland To the Irish.

And John certainly had some catchy songs, with soundbite choruses that sounded profound. And some truly inspired tracks as well. Hell, I'll even throw in The Ballad of John and Yoko, as that was pretty much a JL solo song anyway.

Through 1975 I can count 18-20 truly great songs from John (your results may differ). I count 28-30 from Paul.

I think Double Fantasy has some good songs from John, although some are pretty Muzak-y.


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

1. Tchaikovsky
2. Beethoven
3. Dvorak
4. Sibelius
5. Rimsky-Korsakov
6. Grieg
7. Borodin
8. Mendelssohn
9. Kalinnikov
10. Brahms


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

pianozach said:


> Through 1975 I can count 18-20 truly great songs from John (your results may differ). I count 28-30 from Paul.
> 
> I think Double Fantasy has some good songs from John, although some are pretty Muzak-y.


I was thinking more about the concepts of each song. John was always headed in this direction -- of deeper and deeper, as I think of him creating. Mind games, and the ambiguities everywhere in his lyrics, innuendo, lashing out philosophically etc..


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## szabomd (Dec 13, 2021)

Mozart
Brahms
Bach
Mahler
Beethoven
Shostakovich
Sibelius
Tchaikovsky 
Wagner
Liszt


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Luchesi said:


> I was thinking more about the concepts of each song. John was always headed in this direction -- of deeper and deeper, as I think of him creating. Mind games, and the ambiguities everywhere in his lyrics, innuendo, lashing out philosophically etc..


LOL. Yes, *John* was an internal philosopher, but outwardly that was usually pretty superficial. *Paul*, OTOH, rarely tackled subjects of depth, concentrating instead on crafting great music.

*John*, however, _was_ a gifted lyricist, being able to make only a few words count, or, in the case of Imagine, or Love, just ONE word. Sometimes it was quite brilliant, or seemed so at the time.

I remember when _*Give Peace a Chance*_ was released; it seemed so prophetic, so perfectly sensible, so philosophical. But aside from the repeated phrase "All we are saying is give peace a chance" (which is brilliant), the rest of the song is trash, a poor man's Dylan, a laundry list of stuff.

Same with _*Power To The People*_; aside from the very powerful appropriation of that title phrase, the rest of the lyrics are actually pretty lame - just filler used until we can get to the catchy revolutionary-sounding chorus.

According to John, _"I wrote '*Power to the People*' the same way I wrote '*Give Peace a Chance*,' as something for the people to sing. I make singles like broadsheets. It was another quickie, done at Ascot."_

"Quick" doesn't necessarily mean 'bad', but Lennon's regard for the song changed during the 1970s. In *Skywriting by Word of Mouth*, he called the song _*"rather embarrassing"*_ and supported Hunter S. Thompson's claim that the anthem was "ten years too late". In 1980, he stated that the song "didn't really come off" as it had been "written in the state of being asleep and wanting to be loved by Tariq Ali and his ilk".

Lyrically, the phrase _"Power to the people"_ is sung 34 times in the song (and fades out while that is repeated). But the rest of the lyrics are questionable. Yeah, somewhat clever, but really devoid of direction https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/8271162/John+Lennon/Power+to+the+People

But yes, great "concept". Same with _*Imagine*_. My fave is _*Instant Karma*_ . . . a perfect marriage of lyrical thought bubbles and music and performance and arrangement. Was _*Cold Turkey*_ brilliant? Yeah, no one had really tackled the subject so head on before.

Comparing *John* to *Paul* though is a rough road. *Paul*'s subject matter, with the exception of _*Give Ireland To The Irish*_, was lightweight subject matter.

Paul's greatest songs and/or hits from 1970-1975 (a subjective list, and pared down quite a bit):

_*Maybe I'm Amazed*_ (1970)
_*Another Day*_ (1971)
_*Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey*_ (1971)
_*The Back Seat of My Car*_ (1971)
_*Give Ireland Back To The Irish*_ (1972)
*Hi, Hi, Hi* (1972)
_*My Love*_ (1973)
_*Live and Let Die*_ (1973)
_*Helen Wheels*_ (1973)
_*Band On the Run*_ (1973)
_*Jet*_ (1973)
*Bluebird* (1973)
*Let Me Roll It* (1973)
*Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five* (1973)
*Listen to What the Man Said* (1975)
*You Gave Me the Answer* (1975)
*Letting Go* (1975) 
*Venus and Mars/Rock Show* (1975)

For *John*? I've already mentioned the most noteworthy, but here's the full list (including some questionable songs):

*Give Peace a Chance
Cold Turkey
Instant Karma (We All Shine On)
Power to the People
Mother
Woman is the N***** of the World
Imagine
Whatever Gets You Through the Night
Mind Games
#9 Dream
Happy Xmas (War Is Over)*

If I'm being really generous I'll include

*Love
It's So Hard
How Do You Sleep?
The Luck of the Irish
One Day (At a Time)
Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out)*
and the covers of *Stand By Me, Rip It Up/Ready Teddy*, and *Ain't That a Shame*

There's also a whole slew of songs from Paul I'd include in a more generous list, like *Too Many People, Dear Boy, Oh Woman Oh Why, 3 Legs, Kreen-Akrore, Junk, Get On the Right Thing, Junior's Farm*, and *Call Me Back Again*

It's a tough call. They really were much greater as a band, working with each other (directly and indirectly), with the extra added ingredients of Harrison, Starr, and Martin. You can clearly hear the stuff missing from the songs from their solo careers - some indescribable bit of magic.


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## VoiceFromTheEther (Aug 6, 2021)

Ethereality said:


> Please list the one composer or music writer if you had to bring only their music for the rest of your life, if you were forced for time to choose one. Then list the candidate you would bring had #1 not been available and you couldn't bring #1. Don't consider it a package deal, meaning you would never have both. 2 is just the second best scenario, and so on with 3 being the only composer you have for the rest of your life in the third best scenario...
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> If you can only narrow down five, better to be more accurate and post only five.


Are the results going to be compiled?


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

I've already got that sorted out. No compiling here.


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## VoiceFromTheEther (Aug 6, 2021)

Ethereality said:


> I've already got that sorted out. No compiling here.


I don't understand. Are you going to post them or not?


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

If we were, now wouldn't be a good time. So let's chill out and just have fun with the game.


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## DavidUK (10 mo ago)

1. Shostakovich
2. Mahler
3. Nielsen
4. Rachmaninov
5. Beethoven
6. Dvorak
7. Berlioz (if only to listen to the Symphonie Fantastique over and over again!)
8. Britten (instrumental works only)
9. Honegger
10.Tchaikovsky.


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## sheri2022 (11 mo ago)

1. Beethoven
2. Bach
3. Mozart
4. Brahms
5. Handel
6. Schubert
7. Wagner
8. Haydn
9. Telemann
10. Chopin

I have a big issue with music after Beethoven, so I'm more tilted towards Baroque and Classical period.


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

sheri2022 said:


> 1. Beethoven
> 2. Bach
> 3. Mozart
> 4. Brahms
> ...


And yet Chopin, Schubert, Wagner and Brahms have crept into your list of favorite composers. We all have our likes and dislikes.


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## sheri2022 (11 mo ago)

haziz said:


> And yet Chopin, Schubert, Wagner and Brahms have crept into your list of favorite composers. We all have our likes and dislikes.


Yes, I don't say I hate it. I just don't like the direction the music took. Brahms is almost classical as Haydn and Mozart, Wagner and Schubert are true Beethoven followers and Chopin is a great talent I'm discovering right now.


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

Great idea for a thread! I feel this forces a person to not just think about favorite works but also about the volume of output each composer has. A composer that has one or two masterpieces (the rest being junk), to me, isn't worth as much as another composer that has 20 pieces that are almost masterpieces. 

1. Prokofiev
2. Debussy
3. Bartok
4. Bach
5. Beethoven
6. Adams, John
7. Tchaikovsky
8. Messaien
9. Rihm
10. Maxwell Davies


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

20centrfuge said:


> I feel this forces a person to not just think about favorite works but also about the volume of output each composer has. A composer that has one or two masterpieces (the rest being junk), to me, isn't worth as much as another composer that has 20 pieces that are almost masterpieces.


Hmm... I always think in this way when ranking. Else I would put Beethoven or something first because he has the shortest, best possible single: but a "composer" is about the longer span of composition.

Instead, this thread exerise to me is more about the realization that you won't have any other music to normally balance your equilibrium, and it's actually a really hard exercise to get right unless all you already do is listen to a few composers.

Edit: also it might want to make some people instead keep the composer with the best work. At least speaking for myself, I can faintly picture tuning into Beethoven's _6th_ or Wagner's _Tristan und Isolde _every few weeks and begin writing my own music based on learning from the best short single. But I likely wouldn't go that route because these examples are already in my head. Rather go with the composer of variety to learn from.


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## dko22 (Jun 22, 2021)

This is indeed more of a challenge than simply listing favourites because some of my favourites were by no means prolific. I have more music by Weinberg than any other composer simply because he wrote so much of a pretty consistent high quality and on this basis he might perhaps even deserve a place right at the top. His friend Shostakovich is a less consistent symphonist but also has great chamber works and opera to his name. Suk has written my favourite symphony, Schmidt my favourite string quartet work, Faure my favourite chamber work. All of them have written in different forms so you don't quickly run into a dead end but it's close to borderline. With Bruckner, only the symphonies really interest me but at least there are 11 very different ones to choose from. 

1 Janacek
2 Bruckner
3 Weinberg. 
------
4 Schmidt
5 Faure
6 Suk
7 Dvorak
8 Sibelius

9 and 10 a toss-up between Nielsen, Schubert, Shostakovich and Arnold probably. Rachmaninov has written two of my favourite symphonies but not much else of interest so on this criteria should probably be excluded. Arnold on the other hand, apart from the 9 symphonies, has written several outstanding concerti and first rate chamber music. It's a shame that when his music is performed at all it's usually the lighter, much less interesting stuff.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

pianozach said:


> LOL. Yes, *John* was an internal philosopher, but outwardly that was usually pretty superficial. *Paul*, OTOH, rarely tackled subjects of depth, concentrating instead on crafting great music.
> 
> *John*, however, _was_ a gifted lyricist, being able to make only a few words count, or, in the case of Imagine, or Love, just ONE word. Sometimes it was quite brilliant, or seemed so at the time.
> 
> ...


Again, I meant I was thinking about the quite different songs the two of them put together while in the band, not later. The later stuff is somewhat predictable as we look at it after all these years, but the songs from the band weren't predictable. We hear a big difference in songs before and after the collaboration ended.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

How many versions can there possibly be.


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## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)

1. Schubert
2. Brahms
3. Beethoven
4. Mozart
5. Bach

The Germans truly are THE MASTER RACE.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Ludwig Schon said:


> The Germans truly are THE MASTER RACE.


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## Ulfilas (Mar 5, 2020)

1. Beethoven
2. Haydn
3. Bach
4. Mozart
5. Dvorak
6. Debussy
7. Stravinsky
8. Wagner
9. Schubert
10. Brahms


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

1. Biber
2. Handel
3. Vivaldi
4. Lully
5. Bach
6. Pretorius
7. Byrd
8. Boccherini
9. Purcell
10. William Lawes

Yes, okay, I'm a tunes person... sing it, hum it, dance to it.


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## Lewis Doll (9 mo ago)

1. Rachmaninoff
2. Mahler
3. Scriabin
4. Bruckner
5. Bach
6. (Richard) Strauss
7. Liszt
8. Sibelius
9. Shostakovich 
10. Medtner


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## Rieslingfan (10 mo ago)

Considering that I could probably go to the desert island with just The Beatles Abbey Road, volume of work is not that critical for me. So with that:

1. Beethoven
2. Bach
3. Mozart
4. Bartok
5. Chopin
6. Sibelius
7. Wagner
8. Mahler
9. Vivaldi
10. Haydn


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

Beethoven
Dvorak
Brahms
Shostakovich
Sibelius
Strauss
Prokofiev
Martinu
Haydn
Respighi


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

1 Glass
2 Richter
3 Jenkins
4 Rutter
5 Mozart
6 Bach
7 Bernstein
8 Gershwin
9 MacMillian
10 Mealor


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## lele23 (Sep 1, 2016)

My actual Classic Top Ten:

1) Haydn
2) Handel
3) Mozart
4) Bach
5) Beethoven
6) Vivaldi
7) Telemann
8) Strauss R.
9) Sibelius
10) Messiaen

Ethereality version:

1) Haydn
2) Handel
3) Mozart
4) Beethoven 5 -> 4 = +1
*5) Messiaen 10 -> 5 = +5*
6) Sibelius 9 -> 6 = +3
7) Strauss R. 8 -> 7 = +1
*8) Bach 4 -> 8 = -4*
9) Vivaldi 6 -> 9 = -3
10) Telemann 7 -> 10 = -3


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Ethereality said:


> Please list the one composer or music writer if you had to bring only their music for the rest of your life, if you were forced for time to choose one. Then list the candidate you would bring had #1 not been available and you couldn't bring #1. Don't consider it a package deal, meaning you would never have both. 2 is just the second best scenario, and so on with 3 being the only composer you have for the rest of your life in the third best scenario...
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> If you can only narrow down five, better to be more accurate and post only five.


In my previous post, I'm pretty sure I didn't really answer the OP as best as I could. So here's another shot at it.

1. Verdi
2. Bach
3. Mozart
4. Liszt
5. Machaut
6. Mahler
7. Stravinsky
8. Berg
9. Puccini
10. Wagner


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