# How do you decide who your favourite composer is?



## BenG (Aug 28, 2018)

Often in the "top 10" or "top 25" or "all time favourite" composer threads I just wonder - how do you actually decide/choose who your favourite composer is?


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I get estimates at TC threads before I make up my mind.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Which composer's loss of work would hit me personally hardest.... that's my #1. Looking at highlights as well as consistency here.

Of the others, which composer's loss of work would hit me personally hardest.... that's my #2.

Rinse and repeat.

My top 6 is pretty much cast in stone after 35 years of listening to classical (Bach - Mahler - Brahms - Schubert - Shostakovich - Sibelius). The rest may fluctuate, although usually not by more than a few places in say the top 30. Beyond that, it becomes diffuse, but big differences I can still clearly decide.


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## Skakner (Oct 8, 2020)

I think that answers 1,2,4 cover the rationale behind the choice.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

For me it's the one who's works resonate most with me. The one I feel most connected too. When I listen to their compositions I feel something unexplainable and indescribable. That's how I picked my favorite.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I don';t tend to have one favourite. I have lots to enjoy


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Skakner said:


> I think that answers 1,2,4 cover the rationale behind the choice.


Yeah, I'm not sure why they were split up. But my favorites change over time. It wasn't that long ago when my favorites were completely different from what they are today, and I'm sure will be different from a year from now.

So, "my favorite" is a short term snapshot that, while not meaningless, is also not very important.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Enjoying many composers' output and having a particular favourite aren't mutually exclusive. There are many composers whose music I'd hate to be without, but even so I have a clear favourite, namely Mozart.


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## Skakner (Oct 8, 2020)

SanAntone said:


> Yeah, I'm not sure why they were split up. But my favorites change over time. It wasn't that long ago when my favorites were completely different from what they are today, and I'm sure will be different from a year from now.
> 
> So, "my favorite" is a short term snapshot that, while not meaningless, is also not very important.


Temporary favorites come and go. Over (long) time we end up with a core of few *true* favorites.


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

I only focus on music, composers personality, sexuality and religious convictions are secondary, even the problem of authorship does not interest me. As long as I have good music to enjoy is enough. BTW, I do not see favorite composers as individuals, but a part of one idealistic kingdom, where they live on harmony with my best writers, thinkers, painters, fighters, warriors, citizens, all kind of interesting people. I do not pick one by one into my mind, I build a floating city for them, hundrels, thousands flit on and off by their own everyday, they have their own life.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

It will always be Mozart because he is the one I loved first <3 I don't listen so much to him these days, but he is always in my head!
...aha, I didn't read it all. I always say "one of my favorites" about what I listen to anytime. I'm often smart enough to listen to music that I really like  Lately it's been Corelli, an old favorite and Cavalli, a new discovery.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

The one I get the most enjoyment out of listening to, and the one I would take to a desert island.

Sometimes I listen to works other than my absolute favorites-- I listen to Elijah more often than Messiah, Christmas Oratorio, or the St. Matthew Passion even though those works are all better, for example.


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

I think one example could be the way that I once selected a Haydn opera aria at random and got more of an adrenaline rush from it than I ever have from Verdi, Mozart, Rossini, and etc. I just happen to have an affinity for his sound and it can attract me to even his weaker works over the stronger ones of superior composers. Same with Handel. My favorites are the ones I would still listen to even if they were far weaker craftsmen, as long as they retained their general character.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

*Other than the items I've chosen, namely*:
The one I listen to most often
The one I would take to a desert island
The one I get most enjoyment from listening to

*I will also add*:
The one I would not mind defending or advocating for any time a day.


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

Favorite to me means that the composer has a considerable amount of works I consider fantastic or that give me immense enjoyment, or composers who wrote few works but that they stroke me deeply.


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## 8j1010 (Aug 29, 2020)

_The one I feel like listening to at this moment
_




Right now it's Clementi .
But if I had to pick an all time favorite, Clementi. But I don't really have a favorite, I love Grieg, Clementi, very recently Wagner, Chopin, Mozart, Telemann, and Haydn. I love classical period music so my top composers are Clementi, and Haydn, a Baroque, Telemann, and Romantics, Chopin, and finally Chaminade. This has become a "who are your favorite composers" reply, so I'm gonna explain my answer.

I find that It always changes, and I used to listen to a lot of Baroque, Bach, Telemann, Kuhnau, Pachelbel, etc., but now I really like classical, especially early Clementi and Haydn. But I find Classical and Baroque unsuitable to relate to emotionally. Everything sounds so idyllic, and formulaic and structural. I go to Beethoven for emotional depth.



> _*"Beethoven tells you what it's like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it's like to be human. Bach tells you what it's like to be the universe."*_


 -Douglas Adams

I have to disagree, Beethoven tells you what it's like to be human and Mozart tells you what it's like to be earth. I don't know enough about Bach to change anything.
 
(sorry for the fonts I don't know what the original one I was using was)


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Bach made that decision for me when I was 2 years old.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

I don't have one favourite composers but I can say that the composers I listen to most often are my favourite. They are Beethoven, Bach (non-vocal music, especially his music for keyboard played on modern piano), Brahms, Sibelius and Shostakovich.

Interesting there are separate options for listening most often and getting the most enjoyment out of; I listen to the music I get the most enjoyment out of most often


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## BenG (Aug 28, 2018)

vtpoet said:


> Bach made that decision for me when I was 2 years old.


Who did he choose? Telemann?


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

How do you decide what your favorite anything is?


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Not "the one I listen to most often" in my case. Actually I avoid over-listening to my favourites, as I believe that any music, as great as it can be, can become tiresome if listened too many times. Besides, my most favourite pieces cause great emotional impact in me and this may be too much for my ordinary day - I reserve them for special moments.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

No need to mention the name of course. He has never taken leave of my affection for over 60 years.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Don't have one favourite composer but do have a few. These are ones who's works may be easy to understand or some that may be a challenge. They are composers that I keep listening to


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

*How do you decide who your favourite composer is?*

I check my bank account to see which one has drained the most coin from my coffers. And like that -- Aha! -- found the culprit. I mean, the favorite composer!


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## Ulfilas (Mar 5, 2020)

I just think of the ones I like that nobody else cares about, in my case, the great American symphonist *William Schuman*, the top-5 opera composer *Christoph Willibald Gluck*, and my adored *Albert Roussel*.


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## BenG (Aug 28, 2018)

Allerius said:


> Not "the one I listen to most often" in my case. Actually I avoid over-listening to my favourites, as I believe that any music, as great as it can be, can become tiresome if listened too many times. Besides, my most favourite pieces cause great emotional impact in me and this may be too much for my ordinary day - I reserve them for special moments.


I absolutely agree with you. My favourite piece is Bruckner 9, and I only listen to that about 2 to 3 times a year for that reason. It loses it's mystery if over listened.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

realdealblues said:


> For me it's the one who's works resonate most with me. The one I feel most connected too. When I listen to their compositions I feel something unexplainable and indescribable. That's how I picked my favorite.


I actually looked at the poster's ID to make sure I hadn't written it. That's exactly how I could describe it. :tiphat:


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