# Your Top 40 / 50 Composers



## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

So shoot me: I like making lists and categorizing things. I put some thought into my list but after Stockhausen, ranking becomes less important. Personally I struggled a bit to come up with 40 and anything after that would have been terribly superfluous. What are your top 40 / 50 composers?

*Top 40 Composers*


Johann Sebastian Bach
Ludwig van Beethoven
Karlheinz Stockhausen
György Ligeti
Olivier Messiaen
Witold Lutosławski
Igor Stravinsky
Béla Bartók
Arnold Schoenberg
Anton Webern
Alban Berg
Edgar Varèse
Iannis Xenakis
Elliott Carter
György Kurtág
Luigi Nono
Luciano Berio
Morton Feldman
Pierre Boulez
Benjamin Britten
Milton Babbitt
Giacinto Scelsi
Mauricio Kagel
Gustav Mahler
Harry Partch
Allan Pettersson
Richard Barrett
Brian Ferneyhough
Michael Finnissy
James Dillon
Harrison Birtwistle
Per Nørgård
Robert Ashley
Kalevi Aho
George Benjamin
Aribert Reimann
Vinko Globokar
Toru Takemitsu
Salvatore Sciarrino
Friedrich Cerha


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## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

Yeah I like that too, it's a relaxing activity.
Easily frowned on though, on the forums  However, it can be seen as an excuse to talk about composers and their music.

But go ahead please, share your ranking, I am curious.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Wow, that's a lot  but I can try. In no particular order,

Beethoven, Mahler, Chopin, Prokofiev, Medtner
Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Bruckner, Mozart, Tchaikovsky
Bach, Busoni, Ravel, Shostakovich, Brahms,
Britten, Clementi, Gorecki, Part, Kilar,
Liszt, Wagner, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schubert
Albeniz, Granados, Alkan, Dvorak, Barber
Schmidt, Berg, Webern, Schoenberg, Grieg,
Copland, Debussy, Faure, Franck, Mussorgsky
Poulenc, Rautavaara, Stravinsky, Saint-Saens, R.Strauss

I know what you mean, the more people on the list, the more I would probably say are not deserving of a "top" spot


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## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

Cosmos said:


> Wow, that's a lot  but I can try. In no particular order,
> 
> Beethoven, Mahler, Chopin, Prokofiev, Medtner
> Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Bruckner, Mozart, Tchaikovsky
> ...


I have the suspicion that Lope didn't mean to have them "in no particular order"


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Stavrogin said:


> I have the suspicion that Lope didn't mean to have them "in no particular order"


You Sir, are correct!


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Stavrogin said:


> Yeah I like that too, it's a relaxing activity.
> Easily frowned on though, on the forums  However, it can be seen as an excuse to talk about composers and their music.
> 
> But go ahead please, share your ranking, I am curious.


I'd actually forgotten to put up the damn list. Silly me.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Sorry. I don't like ranking composers in a numeric fashion, just because I never constantly prefer one great composer over another


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## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

Fortunately, I have a list already that's based mostly on my thumbs-ups on Pandora.

Here are 1-50:

1.	Ludwig Van Beethoven 
2.	Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 
3.	Felix Mendelssohn 
4.	Frederic Chopin 
5.	Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 
6.	Sergei Prokofiev 
7.	Jean Sibelius 
8.	Johann Sebastian Bach 
9.	Camille Saint-Saëns 
10.	Bedřich Smetana 
11.	Antonín Dvořák 
12.	Mikhail Glinka 
13.	Gioachino Rossini 
14.	Niccolo Paganini 
15.	Edward Elgar 
16.	Max Bruch 
17.	Henri Vieuxtemps 
18.	Pablo de Sarasate 
19.	Sergei Rachmaninoff 
20.	Dmitri Shostakovich 
21.	Franz Liszt 
22.	Claude Debussy 
23.	Henryk Wieniawski 
24.	Giuseppe Verdi 
25.	Antonio Vivaldi 
26.	Giacomo Puccini 
27.	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 
28.	Benjamin Britten 
29.	Robert Schumann 
30.	Edouard Lalo 
31.	Aram Khachaturian 
32.	William Walton 
33.	Franz Anton Hoffmeister 
34.	Fritz Kreisler 
35.	Alexander Borodin 
36.	Georges Bizet 
37.	Johannes Brahms 
38.	Béla Bartók 
39.	Modest Mussorgsky 
40.	Franz Joseph Haydn 
41.	Hector Berlioz 
42.	Maurice Ravel 
43.	Jan Vanhal 
44.	Fanny Mendelssohn 
45.	Dmitri Kabalevsky 
46.	Franz Schubert 
47.	Johann Strauss II 
48.	George Frideric Handel 
49.	Igor Stravinsky 
50.	Gabriel Fauré


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

musicrom said:


> Fortunately, I have a list already that's based mostly on my thumbs-ups on Pandora.
> 
> Here are 1-50:
> 
> 1.	Ludwig Van Beethoven


It's always Beethoven, isn't it?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Lope de Aguirre said:


> It's always Beethoven, isn't it?


It's always Beethoven and only Beethoven. How could it be otherwise? :tiphat:


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

KenOC said:


> It's always Beethoven and only Beethoven. How could it be otherwise? :tiphat:


Ahh, too many generalizations for my taste.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Lope de Aguirre said:


> So shoot me: I like making lists and categorizing things. I put some thought into my list but after Stockhausen, ranking becomes less important. Personally I struggled a bit to come up with 40 and anything after that would have been terribly superfluous. What are your top 40 / 50 composers?
> 
> *Top 40 Composers*
> 
> ...


Here... now you have room for fourteen others ;-)

Karlheinz Stockhausen
György Ligeti
Olivier Messiaen
Witold Lutosławski
Igor Stravinsky
Béla Bartók
Arnold Schoenberg
Anton Webern
Alban Berg
Elliott Carter
György Kurtág
Luigi Nono
Luciano Berio
Morton Feldman
Pierre Boulez
Milton Babbitt
Giacinto Scelsi
Gustav Mahler
Harry Partch
Michael Finnissy
Robert Ashley
Aribert Reimann
Toru Takemitsu
Vinko Globokar
Salvatore Sciarrino
Friedrich Cerha


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## Guest (Apr 27, 2014)

I have a theory, but in case I'm wrong, why are all of Lope's threads in the wrong subsection?


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

*Lope de Aguirre before posting these threads, please make sure that they haven't been done before. And please stop posting them on the wrong forum. The Articles forum is only for articles. This belongs in the Classical Discussion forum.
*


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> *Lope de Aguirre before posting these threads, please make sure that they haven't been done before. And please stop posting them on the wrong forum. The Articles forum is only for articles. This belongs in the Classical Discussion forum.
> *


A thousand apologies! Can it be deleted?


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Lope de Aguirre said:


> A thousand apologies! Can it be deleted?


You are fine for now, but you've probably noticed that the other moderators have deleted most of your threads. Leave this one to rest, they can decide if it's also worthy of deletion.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Lope de Aguirre said:


> So shoot me: I like making lists and categorizing things. I put some thought into my list but after Stockhausen, ranking becomes less important. Personally I struggled a bit to come up with 40 and anything after that would have been terribly superfluous. What are your top 40 / 50 composers?
> 
> *Top 40 Composers*
> 
> ...


You are the first person I met (virtual and or real) that have Bach, Beethoven and then Stockhausen! What a combination!


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## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

ArtMusic said:


> You are the first person I met (virtual and or real) that have Bach, Beethoven and then Stockhausen! What a combination!


I can see the reason. In a way it's one of the very few trio of composers whose music encompasses everything concocted from common practice to now.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> You are fine for now, but you've probably noticed that the other moderators have deleted most of your threads. Leave this one to rest, they can decide if it's also worthy of deletion.


Well, gee. I don't want to make a list of top 40/50 composers just to have this thread deleted.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

ArtMusic said:


> You are the first person I met (virtual and or real) that have Bach, Beethoven and then Stockhausen! What a combination!


Yes, people who like Bach can also like Stockhausen. Shocking, isn't it?!!!


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## Guest (Apr 28, 2014)

ArtMusic said:


> You are the first person I met (virtual and or real) that have Bach, Beethoven and then Stockhausen! What a combination!


Given the fact that he also put Stravinsky above Britten and his other favorites, I would have thought that it was clear that those are not his pure favorites - simply his favorites adapted a bit for "cool factor" (for who can legitimately refute the greatness of Bach)


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## Jonathan Wrachford (Feb 8, 2014)

Lope de Aguirre said:


> So shoot me: I like making lists and categorizing things. I put some thought into my list but after Stockhausen, ranking becomes less important. Personally I struggled a bit to come up with 40 and anything after that would have been terribly superfluous. What are your top 40 / 50 composers?
> 
> *Top 40 Composers*
> 
> ...


where's Chopin? I sure Like how Bach is at the top, but where's Chopin?


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Jonathan Wrachford said:


> where's Chopin? I sure Like how Bach is at the top, but where's Chopin?


Sorry, nothing personal, but it's a big pet peeve of mine (and probably many others) when one feels entitled to see their favorite composers on everyone's list.

I realize you may be joking, but still...


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Beggars can't always be choosers, so today you'll boldly get 50,in no particular order...and like it. 

*Corelli, Vivaldi, JS Bach, Handel, D. Scarlatti, Tartini,* CPE Bach,* Haydn,* Clementi, *Mozart, Beethoven,* Rossini, Schubert, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, *Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms*, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, *Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Bruckner, *Franck, Lalo, Chausson, Grieg, Bruch, *Debussy, *Saint-Saens, Albeniz, Granados, Turina, de Falla, Rodrigo, Severac, *Mahler, *Arnold, Bacewicz*, Barber, Bartok, Berio,* Berg, Boulez*, *Bridge, *Britten, Carter, Delius, *Dutilleux,Elgar,* Enescu, Faure, *Gerhard, Ginastera,* Gubaidulina, Hindemith, *Holst, *Honegger,* Hovhaness, *Janacek, Khachaturian,* Kodaly, Krenek, *Ligeti, Lutoslawski, *Maderna, Martin, Martinu, Messiaen, Moeran, Mompou, *Myaskovsky, Nielsen, Nono, Penderecki, Poulenc, Prokofiev,* Puccini,* Rachmaninov, Ravel, *Rawsthorne, Reger, Respighi, *Roussel*, Satie, *Schnittke, *Schoenberg,* Scriabin, Shostakovich, Sibelius, R. Strauss, Stravinsky, Szymanowski, Vaughan Williams, *Verdi, Walton, Webern, Wuorinen, Zemlinsky.


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## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

The ones not bolded being... ?


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Stavrogin said:


> The ones not bolded being... ?


You'll just have to wait 'n see for another (meaningful) thread.


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## Jobis (Jun 13, 2013)

*In no particular order*


J S Bach
Beethoven
Monteverdi
Ligeti
Messiaen
Chopin
Stravinsky
Bartok
Schoenberg
Webern
Berg
Benjamin
Xenakis
Wagner
Schnittke
Nono
Lully
Handel
Boulez
Rameau
Debussy
Puccini
Machaut
Frescobaldi
Partch
Bizet
Verdi
Ferneyhough
Berlioz
Josquin Desprez
Gesualdo
Satie
Ravel
Albeniz
Shostakovich
Trebor
Mozart
Bellini
Sciarrino
C P E Bach

Liable to change every 2 minutes.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Jobis said:


> *In no particular order*
> 
> 
> J S Bach
> ...


Brahms, no Brahms. The horror...the horror...the horror.


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## Jobis (Jun 13, 2013)

Vaneyes said:


> Brahms, no Brahms. The horror...the horror...the horror.


I'm still new to the classical scene, give me time!


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