# Composers that Would Make Great Couples?



## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

I'm talking about composers that would live together, whether romantically or unromantically you can decide.

Beethoven and Mahler.

Mozart and Haydn.

*We could do best and worst:*

Schoenberg and Mozart.


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Hildegard von Bingen and Éliane Radigue.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Beethoven and Lady Gaga. It would not go well for her.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

I don't see any reason why Mozart and Schönberg wouldn't have gotten along famously, except maybe that neither of them had the skill and/or inclination for keeping his mouth shut, and Schönberg at least also tended to be easily offended.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

Harold in Columbia said:


> I don't see any reason why Mozart and Schönberg wouldn't have gotten along famously, except maybe that neither of them had the skill and/or inclination for keeping his mouth shut, and Schönberg at least also tended to be easily offended.


The answer here is that Mozart would resent never getting beyond the level of pupil.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Harold in Columbia said:


> I don't see any reason why Mozart and Schönberg wouldn't have gotten along famously, except maybe that neither of them had the skill and/or inclination for keeping his mouth shut, and Schönberg at least also tended to be easily offended.


I think Schoenberg's reputation for leaving his panties on top of the television would eventually annoy the bewigged one...


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Klassic said:


> The answer here is that Mozart would resent never getting beyond the level of pupil.


Pssh. It's fortunate that Schönberg was as willing to be the sub (see his relationship to Mahler, and especially to R. Strauss before Strauss dissed him) as the dom, because, of course, give Mozart a year or so and he always becomes the teacher.

Beethoven, on the other hand, might have stabbed him in his sleep.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti

John Corigliano and Mark Adamo


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## Muse Wanderer (Feb 16, 2014)

Ehhhmm...

Robert Schumann and Clara Schumann

If it doesn't work .... 

Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Worst couple: Prokofiev and Debussy.

I would give Prokofiev 6 minutes before he started screaming "Get me the ___ out of here!!!


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Maybe: Satie and Mussorgsky

Maybe not: Shostakovich and Khrennikov


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

arpeggio said:


> Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti
> 
> John Corigliano and Mark Adamo


Too literal, don't you think?


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## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

Handel and Bach. Guess who would wear the pants and who would wear the panties...


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Suk and Blow, obviously.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

*Good or Great couples:*


Myaskovsky and Prokofiev (very good friends and confidants)
Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov (obvious yes, but it makes sense)
*Unlikely great couples:*


Barber and Ives
Brahms and Wagner
Anton Arensky and Scriabin (a very bad teacher/pupil relationship, imagine them trying to room together)


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Best: Bernstein and Copland. Come to think of it, they may have been!!


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Byrd and Cage

Aphex Twin and Geminiani

Franck and Zappa

Barber and Chavez

Ravel and Tye

Mouton and Wolff (then again, perhaps not...)


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

Klassic said:


> I'm talking about composers that would live together, whether romantically or unromantically you can decide.
> 
> Beethoven and Mahler.
> 
> ...


Sigh....

Compared to Debussy, Stravinsky, and Bartok... Schoenberg is by far the most Mozartian/Beethovenian. By far. With his emphasis on voice leading between and heirarchy within tone rows, his cadences, his motivic development, his sonata form movements, his sharp wit and dramatic harmonic shifts.

If all you hear in music is how many major or minor triads or diatonic seventh chords it has, then listen more carefully.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

SeptimalTritone said:


> Sigh....Compared to Debussy, Stravinsky, and Bartok... Schoenberg is by far the most Mozartian/Beethovenian. By far. With his emphasis on voice leading between and heirarchy within tone rows, his cadences, his motivic development, his sonata form movements, his sharp wit and dramatic harmonic shifts. If all you hear in music is how many major or minor triads or diatonic seventh chords it has, then listen more carefully.


If all you hear is categories then you should switch to philosophy.


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

Klassic said:


> If all you hear is categories then you should switch to philosophy.


That is a very, very weak argument.

When discussing music, one must talk about its traits i.e. its categories. We hear these traits, these categories. When we praise Beethoven, we praise his development, variation, and harmonically extreme classicism. When we praise Schoenberg, we praise what I said above. How could it be otherwise?


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

A philosopher who is only sensible to categories - which of course doesn't actually apply SeptimalTritone - is probably going to be a fairly lousy philosopher.

Anyway, okay, let's do it differently. Schönberg is closest to Mozart because, if you squint, they both sound like this:


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Reichstag aus LICHT said:


> Suk and Blow, obviously.


Oh, you dirty, dirty boy/girl.


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Best:
Wagner and Liszt
Brahms and Strauss II
Mozart, Bach and Beethoven in a poly relationship
Rachmaninoff and Scriabin

Worst: 
Chopin and Liszt
Beethoven and just about anyone
Handel and just about anyone
Wagner and just about everyone except Liszt or Mahler maybe


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> Worst:
> Chopin and Liszt


http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=302


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Beethoven would try to make any composer his *****,though Wagner might give him a run for his money. Don't know if anyone incapable of sucking up indefinitely could handle him, or Wagner for that matter. 

The distant and cool relationship of Berlioz and Wagner is a testament to this. Always, one of them on some level feels better than the other and has a slightly patronizing way, that if the other composer has a high enough opinion of his own work, will not tolerate this much. Sibelius/Nielsen for example. Liszt/Alkan as pianists. Strauss and Sibelius could patronize each other in different ways, as could Sibelius and Mahler I think, but Strauss/Mahler was trouble. It's interesting how these dynamics play out.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

It's funny and strange that Wagner/Brahms could perhaps have worked out. Enough differences so that neither feels threatened, yet, despite it all, maybe similar views about the history and destiny of Austro-German music.


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Xaltotun said:


> It's funny and strange that Wagner/Brahms could perhaps have worked out. Enough differences so that neither feels threatened, yet, despite it all, maybe similar views about the history and destiny of Austro-German music.


Obviously it worked out because if it didn't work out, we wouldn't have Richannes Wrahms.


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

KRoad said:


> Handel and Bach. Guess who would wear the pants and who would wear the panties...


Handel would eat both.


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## Guest (Mar 1, 2016)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> Wagner and just about everyone except Liszt or Mahler maybe


Would Mahler have been antisemetic enough for Wagner's tastes though?


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)




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## Guest (Jul 21, 2016)

Ideal:

Barber and Chin.

Not so much:

Cardew and Wagner.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Abraham Lincoln said:


>


Touching pair :lol:


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## Ginger (Jul 14, 2016)

Richard Wagner and Howard Shore. 
They would probably argue about wearing rings or not...


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Adam and Ives
Victoria and d'Albert
Charpentier and Zimmermann
Schoeck and Auer
Eröd and Rust
Bull and Scheidt


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Bach, Toch und Bloch.


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## Retyc (May 10, 2016)

#RavinskyShipping


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Orff und Dittersdorf
Bach und Offenbach
Britten & Ireland
Delius & Sibelius

I am reminded that a seminal paper on nuclear fusion reactions in the sun was written by Alpher, Bethe, and Gamow.


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

Best
Xenakis and Mendelssohn
Worst
Bartók and Shostakovich


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Beethoven and Beethoven 
Mozart and Haydn 
Also I think Françoise Xenakis and Iannis Xenakis would be a great couple!


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Orfeo said:


> Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov (obvious yes, but it makes sense)
> 
> Anton Arensky and Scriabin (a very bad teacher/pupil relationship, imagine them trying to room together)


WOMP

Indeed, father-and-son friendship between Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. My nominations however are for RK and _Mussorgsky _who were the best of friends for many years, living in an apartment together even. An interesting codependent relationship I think, where RK both put up with and greatly hated Mussorgsky's decadent ways.

On the other hand, Glazunov and Liadov were great buddies, more akin in generation. Both complimented each other well in that one was disciplined, the other very lazy, one was alcoholic, one was sober, one had ADD, one had trouble relating to the common man's attention span. One skipped teaching, the other had to be his substitute whenever that happened. You guess where each character trait aligned with who. :tiphat:

Regarding your Arensky and Scriabin pairing, I lol'd. :lol: Yes, I'd love to have seen one of their arguments. Supposedly Arensky's arguments with Gretchaninoff also got really mean, and they split too. Arensky's _favorite _pupil was Rachmaninoff, that was good relationship.

Another great pairing in Russian music history: Arensky and Taneyev. Taneyev the reasonable one, the clear-headed and teetotaler, the cerebral, and Arensky the dreamer, the decadent gambler, the man who lost his mind to his passions and visions of grandeur. Buddies for life too.

Russian composer pairs in history were quite remarkable, and common. Sometimes trios, but usually duos. One was dysfuntional while the other was codependent haha!


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

OldFashionedGirl said:


> Best
> Xenakis and Mendelssohn


I think I get the reference here! :devil:


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Schubert and Beethoven

Mendelssohn and Niels Gade

Brahms and Strauss II

Scriabin and Scriabin's hand


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Kind of an uncle/nephew thing with Brahms and Dvorak. Rimsky and Borodin tried out musical ideas and instruments together. Prokofiev seems to have respected Ravel, and played bridge with Poulenc. Bartok and Kodaly in the field together, recording folk music. Maybe another uncle/nephew relationship between Mendelssohn and Schumann.


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## Guest (Feb 13, 2019)

Liszt and Berlioz.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> WOMP
> 
> Indeed, father-and-son friendship between Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. My nominations however are for RK and _Mussorgsky _who were the best of friends for many years, living in an apartment together even. An interesting codependent relationship I think, where RK both put up with and greatly hated Mussorgsky's decadent ways.
> 
> ...


Great points. Also,

Tchaikovsky pairing with Taneyev would also make sense.
Gliere with Lyatoshynsky
Stanchinsky with Alexandrov
Catoire with Roslavets (perhaps with Blumenfeld)
Popov with Shostakovich (both had similar musical paths early on during the 1920s-1930s)


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