# Best composer for a particular instrument



## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

What composer has written most effectively for a particular instrument? As an example, I'm always impressed by how much expressionTchaikovsky can get from the bassoon. Think of the introduction to the _Pathetique Symphony_, the third movement of the _Fifth Symphony_, the Chinese Dance from the _Nutcracker_...

Try not to mention the obvious cases where the composer is more or less defined by one instrument. I think we all know about Chopin and the piano and Paganini and the violin.


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

waldvogel said:


> I think we all know about Chopin and the piano


We do?

Character limit


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Debussy Piano
Bach Harpsichord and Organ
Multiple Composers for Violin. Hard to pick.
Albinoni Oboe
Haydn/Hummel Trumpet
Tuba Ralph Vaughan Williams


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

Trombones = Schubert

Someone said that Schubert's writings for the trombone is the ''bible'' on how to write on the instrument.


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## Very Senior Member (Jul 16, 2009)

Clarinet = Mozart, Brahms, Weber 

Cello = J S Bach	

Flute = J S Bach, Debussy	

Horn = Brahms, Mozart, Schumann, Strauss R	

Guitar = Rodrigo, Albeniz, Sor


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Very Senior Member said:


> Clarinet = Mozart, Brahms, Weber
> 
> Cello = J S Bach
> 
> ...


Pffffft. :lol:

Guitar: Brouwer, Villa-Lobos, Giuliani


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

Piano = Beethoven


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## Very Senior Member (Jul 16, 2009)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Pffffft. :lol: Guitar: Brouwer, Villa-Lobos, Giuliani


 By all means add your suggestions. I'll try not to laugh.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Very Senior Member said:


> By all means add your suggestions. I'll try not to laugh.


Just the fact that you suggested Albeniz as a _guitar_ composer cracked me up.

More guitar: Legnani, Barrios


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

waldvogel said:


> What composer has written most effectively for a particular instrument? As an example, I'm always impressed by how much expressionTchaikovsky can get from the bassoon. Think of the introduction to the _Pathetique Symphony_, the third movement of the _Fifth Symphony_, the Chinese Dance from the _Nutcracker_...
> 
> Try not to mention the obvious cases where the composer is more or less defined by one instrument. I think we all know about Chopin and the piano and Paganini and the violin.


That guy makes we want to fall a sleep, best violin composer must be Bach,Sibelius or Mendelssohn


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Paganini's 24 Caprices are amazing. Not sure about his Concertos though.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

*Saint-Saens' writing for strings.* Not only his works featuring eg. violin and cello - like the sonatas and concertos for those, but also how he uses the massed strings in his orchestral writing. Its kind of light, optimistic in tone and lifts me up. Kind of gleaming and shining, not too rich or overbearing. Kind of balanced and restrained, giving you enough but not too much. Hard to describe, you'll just have to listen!


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Mahler's brass solos. The trombone solo in the Third Symphony (I) and the horn solos in the Fifth (III) in particular.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

I put two composers for most of them, based on my knowledge of the composers:

Piano: Liszt, Saint Saens
Clarinet: Dvorak, Brahms
Violin: Sibelius, Bruckner
Flute: Mozart
Harpsichord: Bach
Organ: Handel
Oboe: Vivaldi, Handel
Cello: Dvorak, Bach
Recorder: Telemann
Viola: Dvorak
Trombone: Wagner, Sibelius
Trumpet: Haydn, Hovhaness


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

I love the way Shostakovich uses the cor anglais and its wonderful timbre. I'm thinking of symphonies no. 8 and 11.

As for the piano, even Gould said that there was no better composer for the piano (or piano composer) than Chopin. Not sure whether that was actually meant to be a compliment, though. - Neither Bach nor Haydn nor Beethoven wrote for the piano as we know it, of course. It was only around Chopin's and Schumann's time that the piano, thanks to constructional improvements, developed this spectacular sound. A sound that Chopin and Liszt and Debussy exploited fantastically well, I guess.

I'm well impressed by the way Bruckner employs the violins. I like the balanced way in which he uses them for tremoli, ostinati and pizzicati besides letting them handle the lead melodies.

As for trumpets, I'm in love with the way Hovhaness uses them in his symphonies for wind and percussion instruments.


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

Andreas said:


> As for the piano, even Gould said that there was no better composer for the piano (or piano composer) than Chopin.


http://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/27/n...d-vs-chopin-schubert-liszt-and-beethoven.html


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## Norse (May 10, 2010)

Messiaen - Organ, maybe?


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

Lisztian said:


> http://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/27/n...d-vs-chopin-schubert-liszt-and-beethoven.html


Thanks, I hadn't seen that. Seems like he changed his mind. Or expressed it differently.

This is from a 1959 radio interview:

Interviewer: "What composer would you say has written most perfectly for the piano?"
Gould: "Well, I think I would be like everybody else and probably say Chopin: if the piano means to you what it meant to Chopin - let's put it that way."

It's on YouTube, titled At Home with Glenn Gould.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Viola: Hindemith
Ondes Martenot: Messiaen
Violin: Schoenberg.

Paganini has written some virtuosic music for violin solo, almost six bel canto inspired violin concertos, nice guitar music and a lot of music for violin and guitar sonatas and duos that can become boring. He is a good writer for the violin but I think a lot of his music sounds very cliché. Compare him with Giuliani or Legnani. I choose Schoenberg for violin because I don't think I've come across music that is so well suited to the instrument as works such as his Phantasy. Schoenberg _knew_ the violin.

Piano: Liszt, Cage (Szopen (that's how I spell Chopin now) is overrated)
Wagner tuba: I'll have to think about this one
All instruments: *Ligeti*


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Norse said:


> Messiaen - Organ, maybe?


I'd vote for the composer who took the first 14 spots on this list of greatest organ compositions: 

http://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best-classic-key.html
(scroll down past keyboard list)

I notice Messiaen didn't quite make the list. 

edit - all though on close inspection the fact that Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor isn't on that list, pretty much makes it worthless in my eyes.


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## superorganic (Jul 6, 2012)

Organ and clavichord - Bach, perhaps
But the Harpsichord - Scarlatti, obviously


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Flute (Orchestral) - Prokofiev, tied with Stravinsky, Ravel and Debussy all for 2nd place. Color is the key.
Flute (Solo) - This is extremely hard to decide since there are so many composers for flute, Ibert, Gaubert Telemann and JS Bach. Some composers wrote a lot for flute, some just a little. But these composers were not only rather prolific, but also made very high quality flute music. All are quite different from each other, but all use the flute excellently.


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## Praeludium (Oct 9, 2011)

Guitar - Takemitsu is the first name which comes to my mind. And maybe Arthur Kampela. 
Fernando Sor was also a truly amazing guitarist composer, even if he did never push the boundaries of any form, nor compose anything really ambitious.

Others instrument : don't know enough ! It's already hard for me to tell for the guitar haha.


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