# Australian ABC Classic's Favourite 100 Composers Poll



## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Australian classical music lovers are on tenterhooks as the national broadcaster counts down to the country's favourite composer.

Surprisingly, it won't be John Williams.

The ABC (equivalent of the BBC, only rarely raided by the police) holds this sort of poll every year. It's partly a celebration of music, partly a survey of popular taste, partly marketing.

Listen online: https://www.abc.net.au/classic/classic-100/composer/

Results so far:

100.	François Poulenc
99.	Carl Orff
98.	Carl Vine	(Australian)
97.	Domenico Scarlatti
96.	Sally Whitwell	(Australian)
95.	Henryk Górecki
94.	Jean-Philippe Rameau
93.	Graeme Koehne (Australian)
92.	Erich Korngold
91.	Michael Nyman (Australian)
90.	Peggy Glanville-Hicks	(Australian)
89.	Jules Massenet
88.	Niccolò Paganini
87.	William Barton	(Australian)
86.	Gregorio Allegri
85.	John Barry
84.	Ottorino Respighi
83.	Fanny Mendelssohn
82.	Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
81.	Howard Shore
80.	Max Richter
79.	Arcangelo Corelli
78.	Johann Pachelbel
77.	Béla Bartók
76.	William Byrd
75.	Johann Strauss I
74.	Modest Mussorgsky
73.	Tomaso Albinoni
72.	Sir Arthur Sullivan
71.	Bedřich Smetana
70.	Luigi Boccherini
69.	Anton Bruckner
68.	John Rutter
67.	Karl Jenkins
66.	Johann Strauss II
65.	Ludovico Einaudi
64.	Astor Piazzolla
63.	Aram Khachaturian
62.	Clara Schumann
61.	Samuel Barber
60.	C.P.E. Bach
59.	Hans Zimmer
58.	Percy Grainger	(Australian)
57.	Hector Berlioz
56.	Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
55.	Gioachino Rossini
54.	Joaquín Rodrigo
53.	Franz Liszt
52.	Thomas Tallis
51.	Alexander Borodin
50.	Benjamin Britten
49.	Max Bruch
48.	Georg Philipp Telemann
47.	Robert Schumann
46.	Igor Stravinsky
45.	Henry Purcell
44.	Claudio Monteverdi
43.	Aaron Copland
42.	Gustav Holst
41.	Richard Strauss
40.	Ennio Morricone
39.	Gabriel Fauré
38.	Leonard Bernstein
37.	Erik Satie
36.	Philip Glass
35.	Richard Wagner
34.	Georges Bizet
33.	Hildegard von Bingen
32.	Sergei Prokofiev
31.	Nigel Westlake	(Australian)
30.	Ross Edwards	(Australian)
29.	Edvard Grieg
28.	Maurice Ravel
27.	George Gershwin
26.	Arvo Pärt
25.	Joseph Haydn
24.	Dmitri Shostakovich
23.	Camille Saint-Saëns
22.	Claude Debussy
21.	Giuseppe Verdi
20.	Gustav Mahler
19.	Giacomo Puccini
18.	Peter Sculthorpe	(Australian)
17.	Jean Sibelius
16.	Elena Kats-Chernin	(Australian)
15.	John Williams
14.	Johannes Brahms
13.	Antonín Dvořák
12.	Felix Mendelssohn
11.	Ralph Vaughan Williams


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

10.	Edward Elgar
9.	Sergei Rachmaninoff
8.	Franz Schubert
7.	Frédéric Chopin
6.	Antonio Vivaldi
5.	George Frideric Handel
4.	Piotr Ilitch Tchaikovski

And no prizes for guessing...

3.	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
2.	Johann Sebastian Bach
1.	Big Ludwig


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

*François *Poulenc?


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Well even if there are few surprises in the top 3 - the ordering of many of the others is different to most lists. Lots of very great composers - Bartok, Wagner, Monteverdi, etc. - seriously undervalued by Australians, it seems.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

I think Bruckner might be the grossest underrate here.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> 10.	Edward Elgar
> 9.	Sergei Rachmaninoff
> 8.	Franz Schubert
> 7.	Frédéric Chopin
> ...


Elgar in the top 10? Brahms down at 14 - wow.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

stomanek said:


> Elgar in the top 10? Brahms down at 14 - wow.


Not all that surprising that Australians would favor composers from their own country and England. Loyalty still counts for something.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

^ I don't think we Brits would put Elgar above Brahms.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Enthusiast said:


> ^ I don't think we Brits would put Elgar above Brahms.


Agreed. Seems odd. Elgar's 2 symphonies, cello and VC, pomp etc dont really stack up against Brahms


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

"The Composers Game" produced far better results haha.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I haven’t been a regular listener to ABC Classic FM for years. The list indicates that they are playing local music, and it’s good to see so many Australian composers on the list (although Michael Nyman isn’t one of them!).


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Astonishing to see Bartók and Berlioz so low! I expected Mahler, Debussy, and Ravel to be in the top 20. And not Rachmaninoff in the top 10!

Hans Zimmer (who scored _Prelates of the Caribbean_) more popular than Bruckner, Massenet, Rameau, or Mussorgsky? (And no Herrmann, Rózsa, or Rota?)

Some startling omissions, too. I would have expected at least some of Lully, Gluck, Cherubini, Spohr, Weber, Meyerbeer, Glinka, Offenbach, Franck, Janacek, Schoenberg, de Falla, Webern, Martinu, Milhaud, Hindemith, Messiaen ...

Francis Poluenc; English Nyman - ugh; I posted in a hurry.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Enthusiast said:


> Well even if there are few surprises in the top 3 - the ordering of many of the others is different to most lists. Lots of very great composers - Bartok, Wagner, Monteverdi, etc. - seriously undervalued by Australians, it seems.


Not with me voting 

I am Surprised my Varese vote did count higher thou


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

And no Edgard Varèse, either!


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> And no Edgard Varèse, either!


Life suck sometimes - no accounting for others bad taste too:lol:


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

No Scriabin. Quite shocking to be honest.
No Glazunov. A disappointment. 
No Nielsen. That's too bad, given that his music is getting the exposure it deserves.
No Bax? 

Khachaturian ahead of Bruckner? Based on what? I'm sorry?
(the former is a great composer, but I don't think much of his music is as well known as half of Bruckner's symphonies, let alone his masses).

Oh well....


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Orfeo said:


> Khachaturian ahead of Bruckner? Based on what?


Probably (as is my suspicion for many of the results) as a result of a few well known works (music for the millions style). In this case, the Sabre dance and the Adagio from Spartacus. The casual classical music listener has probably not heard a single piece by Bruckner, Bax, Nielsen, Scriabin and so on.


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## Guest (Jun 10, 2019)

A similar poll in the UK is Classic FM's "Hall of Fame", which is an annual exercise asking listeners to nominate their favourite classical works. This makes more sense to me than asking for listeners to nominate their favourite composers, as in the ABC poll.

For the ABC poll, I suspect that there was a very heavy weighting towards the top 10 composers, with far fewer votes for those further down. This might help explain why several of the results appear to be somewhat strange, as they could be less reliable statistically. In the UK's radio poll, I would guess that there is usually a much wide spread of results between the various works nominated.

I would also suspect, as mentioned in a post above, that the results are highly sensitive to the frequency of playing on the radio of selected works. Pieces like, for example, Elgar's _Pomp & Circumstance _are likely to get frequent showings, whereas portions of, say, a Bruckner Symphony stand much less chance of being played. Hence, a lot of people would be merely voting for material they've heard on the radio.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Art Rock said:


> Probably (as is my suspicion for many of the results) as a result of a few well known works (music for the millions style). In this case, the Sabre dance and the Adagio from Spartacus. The casual classical music listener has probably not heard a single piece by Bruckner, Bax, Nielsen, Scriabin and so on.


Well argued, which begs the question the value of those surveys. Should they be taken seriously when, given that they were conducted in Australia for instance, that even Walton did not make the top 100, and he is a giant in British music.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

stomanek said:


> Agreed. Seems odd. Elgar's 2 symphonies, cello and VC, pomp etc dont really stack up against Brahms


Some might say different.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Orfeo said:


> Well argued, which begs the question the value of those surveys.


I don't think there's much of value to these surveys, but they are fun and interesting. Also, they offer a snapshot of what the casual listener finds appealing.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Bulldog said:


> I don't think there's much of value to these surveys, but they are fun and interesting. Also, they offer a snapshot of what the casual listener finds appealing.


Quite true I suppose, yet it can be disheartening if one has a passion for certain composers. For instance, no Ives?

That said, I declare that from this moment on, I will not take any of these surveys (too) seriously.


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## David Phillips (Jun 26, 2017)

I used to listen to ABC via the internet and it was very similar to the UK's Classic FM. Fine to have on if you're tiling the bathroom but clearly not designed for serious listening. Elgar is popular on these stations because he wrote good tunes in bite-size pieces.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

31.	Nigel Westlake	(Australian)
30.	Ross Edwards	(Australian)
18.	Peter Sculthorpe	(Australian)
16.	Elena Kats-Chernin	(Australian)
Yeah, the cream floated
My vote was for Peter Sculthorpe


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Partita said:


> A similar poll in the UK is Classic FM's "Hall of Fame", which is an annual exercise asking listeners to nominate their favourite classical works. This makes more sense to me than asking for listeners to nominate their favourite composers, as in the ABC poll.
> 
> For the ABC poll, I suspect that there was a very heavy weighting towards the top 10 composers, with far fewer votes for those further down. This might help explain why several of the results appear to be somewhat strange, as they could be less reliable statistically. In the UK's radio poll, I would guess that there is usually a much wide spread of results between the various works nominated.
> 
> I would also suspect, as mentioned in a post above, that the results are highly sensitive to the frequency of playing on the radio of selected works. Pieces like, for example, Elgar's _Pomp & Circumstance _are likely to get frequent showings, whereas portions of, say, a Bruckner Symphony stand much less chance of being played. Hence, a lot of people would be merely voting for material they've heard on the radio.


I hate classic fm - they act like they're doing us a big favour - only 10 minutes of ads and chit chat per hour - whooppy do

there are 24/7 classical music stations no ads


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> 31.	Nigel Westlake	(Australian)
> 30.	Ross Edwards	(Australian)
> 18.	Peter Sculthorpe	(Australian)
> 16.	Elena Kats-Chernin	(Australian)
> ...


And Carl Vine, who is probably the best of them (Australian composers of note) only just scraped through.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

The place of Bruckner and the lack of Scriabin are acts of musical madness. :lol: Otherwise a very good list (Percy could be much better) which shows a certain, very satisfying, level of musical knowledge. Despite the fact I'm German, I find wise the absence of Brahms from the top ten. My Master, somewhere in the middle, it isn't optimal, but ok...


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