# Composers Off-Limits?



## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

I'm going to have a special job today, for a very special someone who can do the job right. That's right.

I might be spelunking the caverns today with Shostakovich, in which case I'll need an emergency O2 tank, fishing kit, and flares, and the following day off, thank you! Or I'll go on an adventurous hike with Wagner, which will be an investment of time, but no emergency. Or shall I fade into the cushy seat of my sports car with Beethoven and relish yet again in the smooth sights of the town. Who will fit my special job today?

Let's turn this back onto the forum. Sometimes a person's favorite is that one for the special day, even so they wish they could listen all the time, be always in the mood and go on forever, but most days they'd easier find another suiter, or just hop in the car. (Just. Not. You. Right. _Now. _I love you 🐱 my most-dusted shelf.)

So ultimately, a thread _question_. Which of your favorite composers might you (1) always be in the mood for? Which (2) vary and depend if the day is even or odd? And which (3) are for a special required mood only?

Try spreading your Top 10 composers into my groups and see if they distribute randomly.
1. Salad 2. Hamburger 3. Pizza, or
1. Water 2. Wine 3. Pop, or
1. Any day 2. Some days 3. "Dum mood"
or name your three groupings.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Interesting thread idea.

1. Always in the mood for Mozart and Bach.
2. Not always in the mood for Schubert, for me the darkest of the great composers (I find even his most sunlit moments carry a sense that a shadow lies behind them) - if I were in a low mood already I wouldn't play or listen to his music.
3. Don't have any mood-specific favourites that I can think of. I guess I just don't engage with music in that way.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Ethereality said:


> So ultimately, a thread _question_. Which of your favorite composers might you (1) always be in the mood for? Which (2) vary and depend if the day is even or odd? And which (3) are for a special required mood only?


1. Favorite composers that I can listen to at any give moment - Debussy, Strauss, Sibelius and Ravel come to mind from my own 'Top 10' list.

2. I don't really understand your question here.

3. I can't think of any as I don't really think in terms of "mood", but more of what I want to listen at this or that particular moment.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

1. Dvorak, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bach, Brahms

2. Mahler, Haydn, Mozart, Handel, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Monteverdi, etc.

3. Early music composers and modernists


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I don't have moods causing some composers to be less enjoyable. They're always a joy to hear. So...

1. Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Wagner, Schubert, Dvorak, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky 
2. No one 
3. No one


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

My dozen - split 3 ways

1) composers whose music a) does not overstay their welcome with me, b) I can listen to any day/time and c) resonates with me regardless the frequency of repeat listening:

Charles Koechlin
Richard Rodney Bennett
Alex North
Piero Piccioni

2) composers whose music I love but do not listen to every day:

André Jolivet
Aarre Merikanto
Maurice Ohana
Meyer Kupferman

3) composers whose 'voice's are so idiosyncratic that their music is digested by me in small portions which satisfy for long periods of time before I re-visit them:

Giacinto Scelsi
Arne Nordheim
Jón Leifs
Tōru Takemitsu

... and for a baker's dozen, my 13th = Karol Szymanowski whose hedonistic/Dionysian middle-period appeals to me much (but not so his early Germanic phase).


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Let me try:

1. Mozart (most works), Bach (most orchestral and solo harpsichord music and some cantatas), Beethoven (early period works);
2. Mozart (late works), Schubert (most works), Bach (organ music, chamber music, some orchestral and solo harpsichord music and most sacred choral music including most cantatas), Beethoven (most middle period works), Mahler, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius;
3. Wagner, Beethoven (late and some middle period works), Schubert ("unfinished" symphony, string quintet and some other late compositions), Bach (the two passions and the mass in B minor).


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