# Do composers come in pairs?



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

It seems to me that the greatest composers tend to come in pairs: roughly contemporary, arising from the same cultural and musical milieu, often knowing each other, sometimes friendly and sometimes not.

But there are some who were most definitely singletons!

For you, who comes to mind in either category?


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Pairs: Debussy and Ravel
Wagner and Liszt

Singleton: Beethoven (although some people might pair him with Haydn or Schubert...)


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## Richard8655 (Feb 19, 2016)

Bach and Telemann (maybe Handel too). Interesting concept. In some pairs, one may have become more iconic than the other, but from same milieu.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Shostakovich and Weinberg
Rachmaninov and Ravel


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Adams and Glass
Holst and Elgar
Ravel and Debussy 
Brahms and Schumann
Bernstein and Copland
Dvorak and Suk
Bartok and Kodaly


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I think of Brahms and Wagner as a "pair", although opposing. Likewise Prokofiev and Shostakovich, who were at least competitors.

Maybe Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Schumann were triplets?

Glass and Reich (Adams being a more distant relation). Haydn and Mozart.


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Some XXth century pairs:

Nono and Berio
Lutoslawsky and Panufnik
Revueltas and Chávez


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Brahms and Dvorak: like uncle and nephew
Prokofiev and Miaskovsky: longtime friends from conservatory days
Rimsky and Borodin: friends and fellow explorers of music, plus Rimsky finishing Igor
Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff: idol and devotee 
Bach and Offenbach: just kidding
Rachmaninoff and Medtner: friends


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Verdi and Wagner, born in the same year (1813) and the two greatest opera composers of the 19th century, carefully and completely avoided each other.

Intreresting that Bach and Handel, both born in 1685, never met either, but that was not by intention. Bach said that of all his musical contemporaries Handel was the one he'd have liked most to meet.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Verdi and Wagner, born in the same year (1813) and the two greatest opera composers of the 19th century


Berlioz sends his regards.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I think that Berlioz, like Beethoven, was a singleton.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Rimsky and Korsakov
Maxwell and Davies
Vaughan and Williams``
Mendelssohn and Bartholody
Monte and Verdi
Bosc and Anjou


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

How about Ippolitov and Ivanov?

Maxwell Davies is cheating a bit, having been born the son of Thomas and Hilda Davies. Ditto for Michael Tilson Thomas, who decided that "Mike Thomas" just wasn't dignified enough.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

Interesting idea but don't think I could pair Mozart with anyone, doesn't fit with Beethoven or Haydn for me


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

I think Brahms and Schumann. The works are similar and the involvement of Brahms with the Schumanns. (His wife especially but won't go there lol)


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Haydn man said:


> Interesting idea but don't think I could pair Mozart with anyone, doesn't fit with Beethoven or Haydn for me


Victor Borge once linked "Fliszt" with "M. Ozart" in one of his hilarious throwaway lines :lol:.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Medtner & Rachmaninov.

Medtner sounds to me like Rachmaninov, devoid of the latter's gift for memorable melodies.


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Haydn man said:


> Interesting idea but don't think I could pair Mozart with anyone, doesn't fit with Beethoven or Haydn for me


Maybe Mozart could be paired with Joseph Martin Kraus.
Even Haydn paired them, in a way, when he refered to them as the only geniuses he ever met. Aside this, their life and music shows certain parallelisms.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

How about Haydn and his wife, Boccherini?


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

In the Renaissance, Tallis and Byrd. The queen gave them a monopoly on music paper; you couldn't buy a sheet of music without going through them.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Holst and Finzi

Ibert and .... who?


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Pat Fairlea said:


> Ibert and .... who?


Poulenc maybe? Similar type of neoclassical style, with lots of energy and playfulness.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Wilhelm Stenhammar and Hugo Alfvén
Gösta Nystroem and Hilding Rosenberg
Johan Svendsen and Edvard Grieg


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## Vronsky (Jan 5, 2015)

Varèse and Xenakis, especially when it comes to percussions.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Haydn man said:


> Interesting idea but don't think I could pair Mozart with anyone, doesn't fit with Beethoven or Haydn for me


Sure you can.... Salieri


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Phil loves classical said:


> Sure you can.... Salieri


Cherubini was only four years younger and made great music in several genres just like Mozart.


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

Hanns Eisler and Paul Dessau.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

I always think of Debussy and Ravel, although later knowing about Satie made me wonder how much all three stood in equal partnership. The history of the three is interesting. Some are obvious, like Brahms and Schumann because of their relationship, and Liszt and Wagner had a long published correspondence. I think there was also a Medieval duo that were close friends but the names escape me.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

regenmusic said:


> I always think of Debussy and Ravel, although later knowing about Satie made me wonder how much all three stood in equal partnership. The history of the three is interesting. Some are obvious, like Brahms and Schumann because of their relationship, and Liszt and Wagner had a long published correspondence. I think there was also a Medieval duo that were close friends but the names escape me.


On Ravel's influences from the horse's mouth "For Debussy, the musician and the man, I have had profound admiration, but by nature I am different from Debussy, and while I consider that Debussy may not have been altogether alien to my personal inheritance, I should identify also with the earlier phase of my evolution Gabriel Fauré, Emmanuel Chabrier, and Eric Satie."


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## dzc4627 (Apr 23, 2015)

Wagner and Bruckner kinda.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

dzc4627 said:


> Wagner and Bruckner kinda.


The first time I heard a Bruckner symphony I thought: This sounds like a Wagner opera without singing.
I loved it. Bruckner is my favourite composer of symphonies and Wagner is my favourite composer of operas.


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