# Your spirit composer



## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

Who do you consider to be your "spirit" composer and why?

Mine's Schumann. Why? _Saudade_ and insanity.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Mine is Mozart. I love the steady elegance of his music, it speaks to my soul.


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

Well, my personal definition of Spirit Composer would just be someone whose work appeals the most to your root musical preferences. Some qualities I notice myself gravitating toward over the past ten or so years:

- A galloping rhythmic drive with some swing and swagger to it.

- Melodies with skillfully awkward angles and some sassy misdirection, or uniquely expressive swelling and stretching that mimics inhalations or exhalations being pushed beyond a natural threshold, almost seeming to last too long but in a good way, like a lot of themes in Tristan and Isolde.

- A twitchy, almost improvisational flair without sacrificing fluidity, evading that measured and "geometric" sense of proportion where one can almost hear the "rectangles" the music is written in (Bruckner is unfortunately like that for me). A general feeling of organic and spontaneous variety in the music's motion, even in "And now for the counterpoint" type movements.

- Music that is sparing and selective in its "glittering" and rich textural effects, so that they are more striking by contrast, and just textural contrast in general.

- A preference for composers who succeed on personality, intangibles, and the golden ratios of their material over composers who are infinitely superior in every other criteria.

- An odd one I've acquired over the past couple years and am not really proud of, but music that is either explicitly joyful or austere, none of this weird enigmatic middleground like with Debussy or Ravel

Given a disposition to all of these things, I've always felt innately attracted to CPE Bach, Haydn, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, some of Stravinsky's neoclassical works, Walter Piston, Lou Harrison, the modern and contemporary weirdos who always cause controversy on this forum, some of JS Bach, and, my ultimate answer and favorite composer of all time who is objectively superior to JS Bach because I said so, George Frideric Handel. I think his chorus "All We Like Sheep" is my Spirit Composition. It is an embodiment of the stylistic qualities I enjoy. In as much as a spirit composer reflects personal disposition, Handel is the composer I use to treat my negative emotions and feel the way I want to feel.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Bruckner. Why? He found what I was looking for ......


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I enjoy all the responses so far, fun thread idea OP!


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

Tchaikovsky. Why? I have no idea!


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

haziz said:


> Tchaikovsky. Why? I have no idea!


:lol: hahaha.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

haziz said:


> Tchaikovsky. Why? I have no idea!


 That could easily have been my choice, but my reason would have been 'I'm not sure'.


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## Cristian Lee (Aug 13, 2017)

Kurt Atterberg. 
Why? Because of the slow movement of the 5th symphony and lots of other great melodies.
Sibelius is also a strong contender, very close.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

Brahms. Why? "I had better stop before I say too much."


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Sibelius - lived in a cold climate, liked the occasional libation, when he matured he couldn't be bothered doing much - well two out of three ain't bad


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Clairvoyance Enough said:


> Well, my personal definition of Spirit Composer would just be someone whose work appeals the most to your root musical preferences. Some qualities I notice myself gravitating toward over the past ten or so years:
> 
> - A galloping rhythmic drive with some swing and swagger to it.
> 
> ...


I don't see how C.P.E. Bach satisfies all the criteria you mentioned,
aside from the few improvisational fantasia pieces, his style in general is like;










Haydn is "Music that is sparing and selective in its "glittering" and rich textural effects, so that they are more striking by contrast, and just textural contrast in general." ??? 
Maybe you can show me sections where he is "more striking" in terms of texture than his contemporaries in this way?


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I don't see how anyone could describe themselves through the lens of a single composer. I'd have a number of them:

-- J.S. Bach for musical intelligence, mathematical perfection and humanity.

-- Anton Bruckner for spiritual authority.

-- Mozart and Haydn for being perfect in everything they do.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

HenryPenfold said:


> Bruckner. Why? He found what I was looking for ......


Well said!

Two composers who speak to me at my core are Bruckner and Beethoven. Bruckner is obvious, but as to Beethoven, he is more of a spirit guide. He presents the three stages of life: young and conquering, then encountering life's challenges and learning to overcome them, and lastly, older and resigned, realizing that some things won't be resolved through fighting and then seeing the value of transcendence.


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

hammeredklavier said:


> I don't see how C.P.E. Bach satisfies all the criteria you mentioned,
> aside from the few improvisational fantasia pieces, his style in general is like;
> 
> 
> ...


Well no, CPE Bach doesn't exhibit _all_ of those qualities, which is why I did not choose him overall. I am referring to works like his Cello Concerto in A Minor and sinfonias, which have the driving rhythms, twitchy motion, and etc. And no, Haydn does not fit that description at all, which is why I did not choose him overall. I had Handel and some of the others in mind with that description.

Haydn appeals more with his rhythmic drive, personality, and, for me, the intangible charm of his melodies. You clearly have no affinity for his melodies or expositions whatsoever, which I can frankly understand because much of it is a bit dry, so what's the use in providing examples? I used the word intangible because I cannot explain in precise terms why I think that theme from the Military symphony you hate so much is charming and effective to me. I just hear it and like it.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

One of my favourite composers is Lully - because he is a dancer to his soul, and I've been in love with dance from my childhood. But there's no way he could be my spirit guide as I know too much about him!

I love Vivaldi, because his music has *life* in abundance. Handel is gorgeous, but rather too elegant.

So I will go with William Byrd - I love his music, both sacred and secular, and as a Catholic I can sympathise with his difficulties making his own path through a worldly and hostile age.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

J S Bach

Everything you need is in Bach. Elegant keyboard music, great violin sonatas, lovely cantatas, superb mass and Passion settings, orchestral music as well. All with a sense of order and decorum supported by an outstanding musical imagination.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Luigi Nono might be mine.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Sibelius walking in the woods listening to the trees.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

I want to say Debussy, but then I think about Mahler or Bartók or Shostakovich or Sibelius or...you get the idea. I simply don’t have one, but I have a love for many composers with none them being my ‘one and only’. I just don’t think such a notion exists as the human condition is so vast in terms of emotion and intellect that narrowing it all down to one composer feels like an unrealistic, but also a humanly impossible, ideal.


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## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

It`s Mussorgsky. Why?  Ahem, because I like art exhibitions...


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

I have two: Beethoven and Nielsen. Beethoven because of his rebellious personality, the depth of his compositions, he wasn't ashamed to express what he wanted, and the way he did is astonishing by breaking the moulds of composition and thinking at his time. Nielsen because of the vitality and quirkiness he stamped on his works, which are two features I find so fascinating in music, and that also says much about his personality.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Franz Schmidt - no composer's music speaks so directly to my heart and mind. The only composer for whom I've traveled the world to hear his music played live. I just wish I played in an orchestra good enough to play his music: none of it is easy.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Camille Saint-Saens. I've listened to his Organ Symphony more than any other piece, and have yet to grow tired of it.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Brahms because Autumn is the best season in NY.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

science said:


> Luigi Nono might be mine.


Do you have a reason?


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Enthusiast said:


> Do you have a reason?


It just seems like we connect somehow. All his works, without exception, seem so fresh, surprising, interesting, and inspiring to me. He composed the kind of thing I'd like to compose if I had any talent, both in terms of the music and its extra-musical associations.

Also seems like he was a guy I would've enjoyed knowing.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Spirit composer?

Though I worship at the shrines of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, and Haydn, among others, the one composer who has always delighted me, even if less of a "shrine figure" is the French master Camille Saint-Saëns. When I was younger and initially getting into "classical music" it were the works of this Frenchman with the almost unpronounceable name who greatly attracted me to the idea of becoming a composer. I used to think: if I were a composer, I would like to write music like the music of Saint-Saëns. I never did become a composer, and I now realize Saint-Saëns is not as critically celebrated as my shrine picks, but I would still be proud to have written something akin to the _Organ Symphony_ or the various Saint-Saëns concertos. So, that is why I go with Saint-Saëns as my "spirit composer".

But I will never abandon my shrines.


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## Aries (Nov 29, 2012)

Bruckner, because his music works in a different way, and for me this way works better. I think it has something to do with compositorial architecture and athmosphere.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Highwayman said:


> It`s Mussorgsky. Why?  Ahem, because I like art exhibitions...


We know why. There's a question regarding spirits or spirits composers, what have you, Mussorgsky is the first at the door.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Highwayman said:


> It`s Mussorgsky. Why?  Ahem, because I like art exhibitions...


such as...........


Ethereality said:


>





hammeredklavier said:


>


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Scriabin, and Messiaen. My favorite kook, and Catholic!


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Highwayman said:


> It`s Mussorgsky. Why?  Ahem, because I like art exhibitions...





hammeredklavier said:


> such as...........


Or the hall of end bosses...


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

I don't know. I guess it would have to be a mediocre, deservedly forgotten composer who grew increasingly bitter at the world as he aged.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Taggart said:


> J S Bach
> 
> Everything you need is in Bach. Elegant keyboard music, great violin sonatas, lovely cantatas, superb mass and Passion settings, orchestral music as well. All with a sense of order and decorum supported by an outstanding musical imagination.


Yep. Can't beat Bach.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Taggart said:


> Everything you need is in Bach. Elegant keyboard music, great violin sonatas, lovely cantatas,





Red Terror said:


> Yep. Can't beat Bach.














youtu.be/B4ckb-RoKe3?t=1685


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## romantique (May 13, 2021)

Second Saint Saens.

Second movement of Organ Symphony and the Aquarium in the Carnival of Animals - that's an example of how one reaches towards the Heavens. 
I never understood all the hand-wringing around Saint-Saens (the hate), including that of his time...maybe someone could explain it to me.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

My spirit composer is Beethoven, Wagner and Bruckner.


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## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

Brahms, Brahms and Brahms.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Oh dear, I fear my spirit is too mercurial to find a single spirit composer or a small bunch of them.


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

My eyes: Heinrich Purcell and Heinrich Schutz

Nose: Orlando di Lasso

Lips: Johann Jakob Froberger 

Forehead: Johann Sebastian Bach

Ears: Louis and Franssois Couperin

Tongue: Orlando Gibbons

Throat: William Byrd

Chest: Marc Antoine Charpentier

Hands: Telemann and Graupner

Stomach: Giacomo Carissimi 

Liver: Giovanni Legrenzi

Kidneys: Jean Philippe Rameau and Jean Bapstiste Lully

Skeleton: Josquin Desprez, Johannes Ockeghem and other early 16th century composers.

---The rest is up for imagination.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

What does "spirit composer" mean? Is it just another way of saying your favorite composer, or something else?


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## PuerAzaelis (Jul 28, 2021)

For me it was Mahler - when I was young I listened to the 2nd Symphony and something happened to me ... It changed my life I think. These days probably JS Bach.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

SanAntone said:


> What does "spirit composer" mean? Is it just another way of saying your favorite composer, or something else?


It doesn't mean anything.


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## Nedeslusire (Jul 27, 2021)

Has to be one of the demigods of the High Renaissance. Palestrina, Lassus or Victoria. For the mystical splendor of their music.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

If I may, I claim Arnold Bax. Amiable, self-deprecating yet capable of high emotion, liked a beer, loved cricket. If I could spend a few hours with a deceased composer, it would be an afternoon at Lords with Sir Arnold. I think we would get on.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Beethoven. I love his music more than anything else in the arts.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

SanAntone said:


> What does "spirit composer" mean? Is it just another way of saying your favorite composer, or something else?





Neo Romanza said:


> It doesn't mean anything.


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## golfer72 (Jan 27, 2018)

Pat Fairlea said:


> If I may, I claim Arnold Bax. Amiable, self-deprecating yet capable of high emotion, liked a beer, loved cricket. If I could spend a few hours with a deceased composer, it would be an afternoon at Lords with Sir Arnold. I think we would get on.


His music aint bad either


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