# Reasonings behind latching on to favorite composers? Your's and general reasons.



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

There's a varied spectrum of composer championing on this site. I was very amused and interested to see Couchie's thread, "talkclassical members and their composers." I've also been around here just long enough to have seen several fans transition a little in their favorite composers, myself included. Are you one who has this tendency, and if so what's your story? Do you disdain this tendency in yourself in others? Do you fall somewhere in between?

Here are some of my reasons:
When I first came here, I was going on about the Bach sons, Clementi, and Haydn symphonies and sonatas. I had suitable dreams constructed around early piano construction and performance, clavichord construction and performance, and writing pieces within the confines of classical sonata form. Then I specifically made an attempt to get into the music of a number of composers from various eras, among whom Medtner was to become my fixation. I suspect that one thing that attracted me was the fact that though his music was difficult to play, there is an aspect about his music once you learn the technique for him, you can access most of his works under your fingers, in contrast to say Liszt, Chopin, or Brahms, who seem to have a wider spectrum of pianistic difficulty. I was also fascinated at the thought of composers that reward repeated hearings, and had been told this about Medtner, and actually found it true myself, though some works were instantly likable. (In this vein, I also tried the music of William Schuman quite a lot, who I've come to know quite a bit about, but who I'm much less passionate about, though I enjoy his music.) And finally, I honestly wonder how long this phase will last. I do have dreams about being a pianist knowledgeable about playing Medtner, though the set of 12 pieces I've chosen to learn next year only has 2 of his pieces. 

Anyway:
I hope there is a discussion to come about the general reasons people have this tendency, but I am more curious to read what other people have to say than my ideas.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

When I started listening to classical music, I listened mostly to well known composers and found that I liked Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach the most. Since then I have listened to a very wide variety, but my favorites have not changed. Interestingly, while there seems to be general agreement that Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach are the greatest composers, very few people on TC list them as their favorites. In one recent "favorite composer" thread only 2 TC members listed Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach as their top 3. 

I can't say I would never change my opinion, but so far almost nothing I've heard has made me feel that's likely. The one exception is opera. I have just started to listen to operas. I have always loved Wagner's orchestral music (overtures, preludes). After listening to Tristan and Isolde I can imagine Wagner might reach the heights of the Big Three. Of course after listening to The Marriage of Figaro, I'd be even more surprised if I came to like another composer as much as Mozart.

My feeling about other composers have changed significantly even from a year ago. In particular Mahler, Debussy, Prokofiev, and Bruckner have risen. I attribute that simply to continued listening to works I new and exposure to new works.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

_clavichorder_:
"Anyway:
I hope there is a discussion to come about the general reasons people have this tendency, but I am more curious to read what other people have to say than my ideas."

My guess is that the Favorite Composers Thing is, at least in its genesis, a result of youth and/or underexposure. In your case _clavi_, your aspirations probably reinforce the natural tendency. I too can remember having a few favorites, back when the world and I were young.

_In The Beginning_, The first composers whose music connects with us, stirs emotions and other mysterious subconscious processes, become instant favorites. Gradually, if the exposure to new-to-us music continues, either the pantheon expands to unmanageable dimensions or we decide that our 'favorite' is actually classical music, not so much the composers within it.

The exception to this process is the 'discovery' of a composer whose music we not only resonate to, but whose music seems unique. In my case that is Bartók, but you are not alone _clavi_, in finding that music in Medtner. One of the regular posters to RMCR, whose opinions and perceived persona I valued highly, had the same favorite.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Good thread, clavi. 

I'm a self-professed Brahms fanatic, but I don't take it too seriously, especially because I think any form of idolising is bad. I actually listen to his music comparatively little these days - only for special occasions! - so it's just a mildly amusing indulgence.

Why Brahms? Well, his music does have a special effect on me like no other, so it's not just a random choice. I find that his shifts between melancholy and humanistic hope suit me very well, and he generally has a gift for melody and structure that I haven't found in quite the same astounding form elsewhere. For this, I forgive him for his difficult piano writing!

It is also a matter of circumstance. When I was a teenager a few years ago, I was extremely depressed. Not fashionably so, I mean really clinically, horribly depressed. I fiddled about with counselling and medication, but nothing helped me like music, and no music like Brahms. One day, when listening to his 3rd Symphony, I decided to look him up on Wikipedia for the first time, and what I found was perfection. A man of admirable integrity, caustic humour just like my own, with an under-current of great friendliness (like I hoped to think I had too), and his love life was a complicated mess of loneliness and unrequited affection, which is how I saw my future playing out. That, plus his place in the history of the Romantic movement, which I was already fascinated with in literature due to its aesthetic ideals which I felt were close to my own, I really felt that Brahms was a kind of distant, kindred spirit.

So my reasons to cling to this favouritism now, even though I have much more experience with different types of music, is because his works are the pinnacle that I aspire to, and because deep within my adolescent self was a personal connection, which gives me a great sense of nostalgia now.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I have lots of favorite composers, and the reasons are often different for each of them. I don't know if I can generalize enough to find one overriding attribute that all the composers I like have.


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## Oskaar (Mar 17, 2011)

I have a lot to discover... But after a half year of discovering, Dvoraks chamber music is very close to my heart. I am no expert, not scolared, but that is the way it is. The reason.. The melodies, the fantastic romantic landscapes, the simplicity.


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## Conor71 (Feb 19, 2009)

I think we all like to have special people and things in our lives - In life our attention and energies are spread very diffusely and it feels good to have something to come back to, to keep you "grounded" as it where.. 
With music it's good to have a favourite(s) to keep coming back to for a sense of familiarity and as a reference point for exploring other music.
I know with myself that my list of favourites has changed over time but each Composer I have devoted a good amount of time to will always have a special place!.


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## Oskaar (Mar 17, 2011)

And to Polednice; I also struggle with depression, angsiety, and chaos/structure problems. I am also medicated. But I also find music to be the best medicin!


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Polednice, thanks for telling your story, that's really neat. I agree with the fact that one can become attached to a composer on a more personal level than just the music, because the exact has happened to me.

I told my story about Glazunov as a blog quite a while back: http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/huilunsoittaja/224-music-related-rave.html
What I could add is that I've done even more in-depth study of Glazunov's life this past semester when I found a really neat biography about him in my college's music library, and a Russian one on the internet. There was even a Russian biography at the school of music, but much more difficult to translate because it wasn't on the internet, it was a literary relic. For the first time ever, I read long quotes of him talking about his music, about other people/music, about _conducting_, about things he liked to do _other _than music (who would have thought astronomy was a hobby!). Not only that, I read impressions from his adopted-daughter, Elena Glazunova, whom he was very close with. The more I've gotten to know what kind of character he was, it opens up my mind to view his music in such different ways. Not only that, I've discovered I line up with his personality really closely, and so that explains why I have such an unusual connection to his music. If I were to write music, I _would _write in his style naturally!


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

If I'm to get a little artistic and specific with my Medtner fixation, which has generally so far been centered in the Skazki, the short, somewhat narrative piano works, in part they represent my most recent mind blowing musical episode and it remains for time to determine whether I'll hold them as a passion apart from the rest of classical music. But in fitting with my life, their rich, earthy complexity and willful construction with touches of whimsy seem analogous to my constant yearning to do and accomplish things in the midst of clinging to my introspective and wool gathering urges, that leads to unrealistic plans that only serve to keep my grinding on. Getting a little too much there, but I don't think its too far off.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> What I could add is that I've done even more in-depth study of Glazunov's life this past semester when I found a really neat biography about him in my college's music library, and a Russian one on the internet.
> 
> Not only that, I've discovered I line up with his personality really closely, and so that explains why I have such an unusual connection to his music. If I were to write music, I _would _write in his style naturally!


I would like to read more about Medtner and read what he wrote himself, I actually have a book that he wrote called _The Muse and The Fashion_. I would be curious to see how I relate to him personally.

To your second point I selected, I truly think that's wonderful.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Hm at the moment I don't really have any obsessive composer likings. The more I listen to and learn about music the more I love it and the more I love it the more I tend to stop having composers I can call my favorite because I am fascinated by whatever I listen to (as long as it's good  )

Surprisingly, I find myself not caring much about a composers personal life. I like reading about what they said if it gives insight to their personality but reading about what they did (what jobs they held, where they lived, who they were in a relationship with) just bores me to tears.


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## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

Polednice said:


> Good thread, clavi.
> 
> I'm a self-professed Brahms fanatic, but I don't take it too seriously, especially because I think any form of idolising is bad. I actually listen to his music comparatively little these days - only for special occasions! - so it's just a mildly amusing indulgence.
> 
> ...


I also have a personal story, although it's not as extensive as yours.

I had been an atheist/Raskolnikov character in high school but was having doubts about the nonexistence of God. The overture to Parsifal "converted" me to theism, the philosophical position.

It was the tip of the iceberg really, but the tip of an iceberg also sank the Titanic.


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

A bit of a coincidence as I just wrote a post reaffirming my long-standing 'relationship' with Antonin Dvorak.

I listen to and enjoy a very wide range of music of the 'classical' type. From Early Baroque to contemporary music and of all genres. I migrate nomadically through music, focusing on a few pieces with intensity and then moving on. This comes about naturally and is not intentional. However, there is one composer I come back to time and time again, and for whom I always have time and space to enjoy. That man is Dvorak.

I wouldnt say I was (am) a moody teen, but i very much appreciate(d) the eternal optimism and joie de vivre he expresses. He just happens to be the composer I have delved into the most, exploring all (most so far) of his works and reading biographies. Understanding the thoughts and emotional processes that have gone into writing each piece. This has allowed for me to experience on a much greater level and relatable level of a work such as the Stabat Mater, which is fairly bleak for its majority and therefore all the more important in the output of a general optimist.

I guess this has mostly come about through coincidence. Im sure had I delved with the same fervour into another man's life I would have developed something similar, and hopefully I will live long enough to form these (rather one sided) bonds with many artists.

I can understand where people such as violadude are coming from, but its been a very enriching experience to gain the depth of knowledge rather than the breadth. I also love the fact that other people on this board have something similar with other composers. For example, it is always a delightful read when Huilu posts about Glazunov and Polednice on Brahms.


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## Oskaar (Mar 17, 2011)

emiellucifuge said:


> However, there is one composer I come back to time and time again, and for whom I always have time and space to enjoy. That man is Dvorak..


I love you,emiellucifuge!


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

oskaar said:


> I love you,emiellucifuge!


I'm amused that Hawk 'liked' that statement, its so Hawk to like a statement like that.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I go through periods of "obsessive" exploration of "new" composers: Rameau, Biber, Zemlenka, Alessandro Scarlatti, French 19th century opera, Russian music, Koechlin, French melodies, etc... but ultimately these all eventually take their place within the whole pantheon of the music I know and like and I find myself returning to certain composers more than all the others: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Schubert, Handel, and a couple more.


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

*Franz Peter Schubert*. Oh, Schubert, so dear in my heart that I openly wept upon reading his wretched, miserable life. Dead at the young age of 31, ill and penniless, his death rob us of one of the great musical minds in history.

Schubert's music speaks closest to my heart. I started listening to Beethoven, immersed my self in late Romantic music but my found self returning to him.

His music is deceptively simple but full of musical and emotional complexity. He brought the art song to its highest summit and created the most beautiful melodies the world has seen.

He had a sincere heart, a good man, full of innocence and grace. The effortless shift of joy into sadness in his music, from major to minor, touches me.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

violadude said:


> Surprisingly, I find myself not caring much about a composers personal life. I like reading about what they said if it gives insight to their personality but reading about what they did (what jobs they held, where they lived, who they were in a relationship with) just bores me to tears.


Do you not think that some of that biographical information is important for a keener understanding of a composer's music, or even their intentions? I don't care what Brahms ate for breakfast, but his more pivotal life experiences undoubtedly informed his compositions, just as with any other composer. Take a more obvious example - do you not think that a knowledge of Schumann's bipolar disorder and of his love for Clara opens up a new realm of appreciation?


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

clavichorder said:


> There's a varied spectrum of composer championing on this site. I was very amused and interested to see Couchie's thread, "talkclassical members and their composers." I've also been around here just long enough to have seen several fans transition a little in their favorite composers, myself included. Are you one who has this tendency, and if so what's your story? Do you disdain this tendency in yourself in others? Do you fall somewhere in between?...


I kind of move in phases or orbit certain things, sometimes briefly, sometimes for a longer strech. Chamber music has been my biggest focus over the years of me being into classical, that's like my solar plexus, so to speak.

I think my "core" comes after about 1800, after Beethoven. So basically 1800 until now is my focus, esp. in chamber area. There are composers who I see as kindred spirits, as some others here have said. Beethoven is one, Janacek too, Messiaen, probably Haydn as well, Brahms, Berg, Shostakovich, Peter Sculthorpe, the list goes on. I really like Schoenberg, Varese, Carter & Harry Partch, guys whose music tends to be quite intense and absorbing, so they are not my "bread and butter" as far as frequent listening is concerned. But Elliott Carter's first string quartet may well be my favourite 20th century work in that medium.

In terms of personality, I am most like Janacek. I am quite impulsive in some ways, other ways private and shy. I can be very emotional and not hold back from expressing that. I like to speak my mind, and to some people it's difficult for them to get used to that. But as I've gotten older, I think my communication has improved. So in terms of music being like me, it's Janacek's, which can be as much of a drawback as an asset in real life, as he very well knew...


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## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

I can relate. I am fairly omnivorous musically. I can become obsessed for months over a style period, a genre, and of course, a composer(s). I binge listen a great deal. Last Spring I went on a Josquin and his contemporaries kick and bought about 20 masses and bunch of motets. There are constants in my musical life, however, and Beethoven and Bartok are probably my greatest bookends. Since becoming a member of TC I have added Schnittke and Henze to my personal pantheon of great composers...and then there are others of less genius but worthy to listen to, like Enescu, Myaskovsky, and Wellesz that have also come by way of TC.



violadude said:


> Hm at the moment I don't really have any obsessive composer likings. The more I listen to and learn about music the more I love it and the more I love it the more I tend to stop having composers I can call my favorite because I am fascinated by whatever I listen to (as long as it's good  )
> 
> Surprisingly, I find myself not caring much about a composers personal life. I like reading about what they said if it gives insight to their personality but reading about what they did (what jobs they held, where they lived, who they were in a relationship with) just bores me to tears.


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## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

Oh sure, I absolutely think the 'person' and details of their lives is important, but I prefer biographies that are titled something like 'The Life and Music of Johannes Brahms', as I feel the music is the point of my reading. I like for there to be musical examples and ideas about influences in both directions. Halsey Steven's biography of Bartok is so-named, and it is a personal benchmark of what I want in a book about a particular composer that has grabbed my ear.



Polednice said:


> Do you not think that some of that biographical information is important for a keener understanding of a composer's music, or even their intentions? I don't care what Brahms ate for breakfast, but his more pivotal life experiences undoubtedly informed his compositions, just as with any other composer. Take a more obvious example - do you not think that a knowledge of Schumann's bipolar disorder and of his love for Clara opens up a new realm of appreciation?


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Polednice said:


> Do you not think that some of that biographical information is important for a keener understanding of a composer's music, or even their intentions? I don't care what Brahms ate for breakfast, but his more pivotal life experiences undoubtedly informed his compositions, just as with any other composer. Take a more obvious example - do you not think that a knowledge of Schumann's bipolar disorder and of his love for Clara opens up a new realm of appreciation?


Certainly I think it provides a certain amount of insight to the music, personally I just don't really care about that insight. Whether Brahms wrote his f minor piano quartet with his unrequited love for Clara in mind or a really bad hangover he was experiencing that day isn't too much of a concern to me because it's the same music either way. It's just a personal feeling I think.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

my favorite composer is Alec Wilder, and first of all for musical reasons: before i knew his music i liked Bach and counterpoint but sometimes i find his music cold. I liked the impressionist harmonies of musicians like Debussy and Delius but sometimes their music is formless and without a strong melody. I liked Gerswhin, jazz, pop and great winding and complex melodies. I like to hear unusual combination of unusual instruments and beautiful orchestrations. Alec Wilder's music is been a revelation because it's all those things mixed up but in a really original way and withouth sounding derivative at all. 
And after that, i've been pleasantly surprised to discover also a person that i like on so many level, for his absolute integrity as a composer, for his distaste for possession, and for his views on music that are deep and absolutely antirethoric (and often unconventional).


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## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

At times in my life I have been pretty obsessive over certain composers..

First, when I was young, I LOVED Beethoven and the piano sonatas. I became well-acquainted with all of them very early on. I was amazed with how he could write things that are so dramatic and violent - sonatas like Appassionata, Pathetique, Moonlight, Waldstein, and even the Hammerklavier thrilled me to death. More recently I have especially come to love the personal spiritual intensity in his last three piano sonatas and the last string quartets.

For a couple years in college I was going through some severe depression, and the music that helped me cope the most was Tchaikovsky. In his best works - Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6, and the Piano Concerto - he reaches hysterical emotional climaxes that for me, represented my screaming in frustration at my life. Since I'm generally a very quiet person, this was the only way for me to express how I really felt - it was very therapeutic for me. 

Beethoven and Tchaikovsky will always hold a special place in my heart. Now that I'm more stable emotionally and career-wise, I feel like I can take a more intellectual and analytical approach to music, which I've been doing by reading a lot about music literature, history, and theory. It's more difficult to connect to composers on a personal level by doing it this way, but I'm aiming more for education here than emotional bond.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

I have favorite composers just like the next person but for me a great performer can make an unknown composer an instant favorite just by the way they interpret the music.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

SidJames- Chamber music has been my biggest focus over the years of me being into classical...

In terms of personality, I am most like Janacek. I am quite impulsive in some ways, other ways private and shy. I can be very emotional and not hold back from expressing that. I like to speak my mind, and to some people it's difficult for them to get used to that. But as I've gotten older, I think my communication has improved. So in terms of music being like me, it's Janacek's, which can be as much of a drawback as an asset in real life, as he very well knew...

This is intriguing... in the sense of your making something of a psychological exploration of your musical preferences. I am of the opposite mindset in that chamber music is perhaps my least favorite genre... although I do love a good deal of the chamber music by certain composers. But I am certainly far more theatrically-minded. There's a quote somewhere about the string quartet as being the most democratic musical form in which a small group of equals engage in discussion, debate... even arguments. This quote led me to suspect that is was exactly this which made me ambivalent concerning chamber music. As a painter I have long had an aversion to the notions of mixing democracy... of politics of any sort... with the creative process.

As I suggested above, I am much more theatrically-minded. I appreciate the intimate in art... at times, but my own nature is probably far more theatrical. I'm not a small individual and I do love a dramatic flair. My own artistic endeavors... my paintings... tend to be some 7 feet in height, brilliantly colored, employ gold leaf and subject matter certain not to be ignored. It probably shouldn't come as a surprise that my favorite music tends to be among the most theatrical, dramatic, and demanding of virtuosity: opera, choral music, symphonic music, and music for solo instrument. I'll acknowledge that my beloved lieder and art songs as a whole are often quite intimate in nature... but they are also quite often quite theatrical... and quite the virtuoso showpiece. But Bach? My beloved Bach straddles the whole range of music in my mind. Nothing could be more theatrical and grandiose than his great organ works and some of his choral works. I can't think of a composer more demanding of the virtuoso. Yet at the same time many of his cantatas and even the great Passions are written for a wide array of small vocal and instrumental combinations so that they convey an intimate, chamber-music-like nature with the exception of the few grand chorales that employ the whole of the orchestra and choir.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

it's very odd, but I have temporal obsessions with some composers and their historical epoch. first was Bach and the Rococo. Then was Beethoven and Napoleon. Then was Chopin, Brahms and the Romantic period. Now is Ravel and the Belle epoque, and the Art deco visual style. I'm very obssesed with Ravel right now. His melodies, harmonies, colours, the inclusion of traditional music from "exotic" latitudes (at least for him) in his work (spanish, japanase, chinese, jazz, etc). The sophisticated way in which he handles "emotion" in his music. The constant melancholy that some of his music has. When I listen to Ravel, I enter to another world, _his_ world. I like very much his approach to compose, "an strict balance between emotion and intellectuality" (in his own words). In my compositions, I try always to apply this "principle".


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

kv466 said:


> I have favorite composers just like the next person but for me a great performer can make an unknown composer an instant favorite just by the way they interpret the music.


I've gone through my "anything played by Gilels" phase.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

clavichorder said:


> I've gone through my "anything played by Gilels" phase.


That's a good phase. I had a Richter phase for awhile. One of my friends had a Horowitz fixation that lasted for decades (and is not dead yet). One of our members has a Wild fixation, another a Gould fixation. We are "some wild and crazy dudes" here, eh?


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## Oskaar (Mar 17, 2011)

That was a good idea for a new thread! "Anyting played by" obsessions!


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## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

Love the piano trio and the songs 'Chansons Madecasse', also the piano concerto for the left hand!



aleazk said:


> it's very odd, but I have temporal obsessions with some composers and their historical epoch. first was Bach and the Rococo. Then was Beethoven and Napoleon. Then was Chopin, Brahms and the Romantic period. Now is Ravel and the Belle epoque, and the Art deco visual style. I'm very obssesed with Ravel right now. His melodies, harmonies, colours, the inclusion of traditional music from "exotic" latitudes (at least for him) in his work (spanish, japanase, chinese, jazz, etc). The sophisticated way in which he handles "emotion" in his music. The constant melancholy that some of his music has. When I listen to Ravel, I enter to another world, _his_ world. I like very much his approach to compose, "an strict balance between emotion and intellectuality" (in his own words). In my compositions, I try always to apply this "principle".


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## Kevin Pearson (Aug 14, 2009)

I'm not sure exactly why some composers resonate with me and others do not. I have my very favorites that I keep coming back to again and again, Carl Nielsen being one of them and Sibelius another. Nielsen's music reaches me more as an intellectual exercise. I find his music fascinating to follow note by note and harmony by harmony. Some of his music is very difficult to follow but I keep at it and with every listen it grows on me. Sibelius on the other hand reaches me more on an emotional level. I "feel" his music and I let it carry me along without trying to necessarily understand it. Beethoven reaches me on maybe a more "spiritual level but can be also very intellectually stimulating and emotionally satisfying.

I think also that there are periods in our lives where certain music reaches us because of where we are intellectually, emotionally, or spiritually. When I went through a dark period of severe acute depression I listened to a LOT of Miles Davis. Up until that time I never really "got" Miles or even cared much for his music but in my darkest hours I would listen to Miles and it helped. I think I got what Miles Davis was about and what he was trying to do with his music. Now I admit that I still have difficulty with much of his 70s output but his 50s and 60s stuff I really dig.

So, does that answer your query? Probably not because there are as many different answers to the question as there are people and composers in this world.

Kevin


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