# Other composers are available



## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

It's obvious that some people elevate one or a few composers above all others - usually but not exclusively Mozart, Beethoven and Bach.
But I find I'm not like that; I doubt that I could even come up with an exact number if asked who my favourite composers are, let alone put them in any convincing order.

What about you? Does your musical landscape have well-defined "peaks", and are there many or few? How much of music is just a featureless plain for you?


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

I always regard Mozart, Bach & Schubert in that order, as my favorites forever. They are untouchables for me. Recently I've listened to "everybody else" and enjoy them a lot too. I'm addicted to music


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I have a clear top5 after 30+ years of listening:

1. Bach
2. Mahler
3. Brahms
4. Schubert
5. Shostakovich

but I listen to hundreds of composers, and this top 5 accounts for less than 10% of my total listening time.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I'm happy to elevate Bach, Mozart and Beethoven as objectively supreme, but they aren't the composers I listen to most. Actually I tend not to think in terms of favorite composers any more, but rather favorite works.


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

Overall: Mozart, Debussy, Schumann

Currently: Mahler, Reger, F. Schmidt


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

I find certain composers to be familiar and to deliver a high percentage of music that I like. I tend to explore them more thoroughly before I consciously wander to more unfamiliar composers.

I am less interested in pitting composers against each other than I am in finding music that I enjoy. I can tell you who I click with more often than not, but head-to-head comparisons are tough.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

My musical landscape really starts in 1500 and begins to peter out about 1760. There are one or two people I listen to after that but they are more folk oriented - Bartok, Greig, some Vaughan Williams - Billings and others in the Sacred Harp style also crop up.

Within that landscape there are a number of definite favourites - Swellinck, Dowland, Purcell, Handel, Scarlatti, Bach and Vivaldi - plus a whole alphabet of minor luminaries from Albinoni though to Zipoli.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

I’ve found that lists kill spontaneity and adventure. There are certainly composers that I prefer but I never rank them like I was referring to a racing form at Santa Anita. I’d rather stay a Maverick, be loyal to no one as a composer, and let the choices be made by the dictates of the moment. 

I cannot take lists because it turns the listening process into a mental game and then turns it into a thinking process that gets in the way of the music. “Bach is the greatest or Mozart is the greatest or Beethoven is the greatest,” based upon an attempt to reach a final conclusion of a composer’s relative greatness, and perhaps many others — are often subject to revisions over one’s lifetime, or can become a burden over the years, or become not important at all. 

Beyond having a general idea of favorites, I see no reason why such determinations are necessary. But what I do notice is that I may happen to play some composers more than others. Nevertheless, that’s very different than deciding on a numbered list. Many of my fondest listening experiences have been with composers that one probably wouldn’t find on any list. So I’m not interested in nailing everything down in terms of aesthetic values. It’s too easy to get settled in one’s ways and miss out on the fantastic banquet of sounds and experiences within the music as a whole.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

From my observations it seems clear that there are different types of listeners and thinkers at TC and the world. Some listeners find categorizing things by lists helpful in prioritizing listening and understanding underlying patterns in their musical tastes. Other listeners do not like lists or the process of making them and seem to feel this process can devalue the music somehow, or reinforce existing prejudices towards certain composers. 

I say to each their own. If you don't like lists or ranking don't do it, but realize this is because your brain organizes music differently, not because you are ethically superior, or that you understand some profound truth about music that list makers do not.

I like to listen to the composers I like to listen to, some of those are commonly on the list of greats, some are not. I understand the logic behind lists, and I find them helpful. I think there is good reason that those generally considered the greatest are ranked the way they are, but not everything about music is related to this kind of thing. Often I find profound enjoyment out of music created by less well known composers, but in general (not across the board) I think that those who are considered more important composers do have more distinct compositional voices and more profundity that can be revealed in their music - and no I don't think profundity in music is completely subjective.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

For me (and likely many others here) the 'greats' are like an omnipresent musical backdrop or fine paintings hanging on your walls. After seeing them so often you sometimes forget they're there, but then one day you happen to stop and look and recall how great they are and all the joy you've ever had from them.

Listening to the greats never prevents me from enjoying all kinds of music. Very often it leads me back to them and then back out again to other music.

There are some odd extremes that I keep encountering here: the idea of having to enjoy everything a certain composer has produced; being focused on single genres; focus on narrow periods (e.g. mainly baroque or mainly 20th century music); piano above other keyboard instruments or _vice-versa_....and on and on.

I feel like a kid in a giant, free toy shop sometimes. There's so much to encounter and listen to and enjoy. All that hammering on the head of Mozart or Bach because they are familiar, or even exalting them; all the vitriol poured over 'atonal' music for apparently not meaning anything (proper) or having no emotional content, well, it's such a waste of time and energy really.


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

Mozart, Beethoven and Bach are exceptionally great, but they are not the only composers. The overexposure of their music has shadowed other worthy musicians, which I consider somewhat unfair. Among them I prefer Beethoven. I feel identified with his works, with his passion, with his 'angry', but I don't feel the same with Bach and Mozart. In fact, they don't belong to my top 20 all-time favorite composers list. My tastes go in another direction. I'm not so overwhelmed by their huge influence.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Over my lifetime, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms have provided the most pleasure. The list starts to get hazier after that. 

At a time when buying LPs was an expensive proposition in relation to my income, they dominated my music collection. Now, with the availability of cheap CDs, not to mention streaming, my library and listening habits have broadened significantly. If anything, I tend to avoid the composers listed above and explore composers I don’t know as well or at all. Not always - I’m engaged in a Beethoven sonata listening project and have in mind a Bach cantata project for next year. But I have rarely listened to a Beethoven symphonies over the past several years.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> I'm happy to elevate Bach, Mozart and Beethoven as objectively supreme, but they aren't the composers I listen to most. Actually I tend not to think in terms of favorite composers any more, but rather favorite works.


I was trying to think of what my reply would be to the OP and then I read your post and said, 'Yeah, that's where I'm at.' I spent so many years listening to the usual suspects and while I suppose I could list them as favorites, these days I enjoy finding works from lesser known composers of the 19th century and before and will, thus, tend to have a favorite work of the month.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I have a few favourites: Sibelius, Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Barber, Bartok, Bach. But I listen to dozens of different composers. You could almost plot my listening as a bell curve, with the peak in the early twentieth century. I do listen to contemporary music and I do listen to early music, but not much. Its not a perfect bell curve, there's a lump where Beethoven lives, and a gap in the early classical era. 

There are lots of composers available on my playlist. 

My recent American music listening project I heard the music of twenty different American composers. I'm currently in the middle of a British music listening project and I will have at least twenty composers on my list, ancient and contemporary.

A sprawling post, I admit.


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## Guest (Oct 18, 2017)

senza sordino said:


> I have a few favourites: Sibelius, Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Barber, Bartok, Bach.


Sorry, but seeing this list reminded me of being a teenager and looking for the right combination of bands in the penfriends section of Popswop magazine. So, senza, you get plus points for 6 on your list, but 3 minuses...I might write to you, but then again, I might wait and see if there's a perfect match yet to come!

View attachment 98348


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

I would say that my landscape has peaks, but they are defined less by individual composers than by countries/regions. My peaks would be England, France, Nordic Europe, US.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Ranking is for the military. I'm always looking for other composers to explore.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I do like Bach, Mozart and Beethoven but I don't spend much time listening to them.

I have a magpie mind and my passion, really, is for folk music, so I am always trying out new baroque or early music pieces in search of *new tunes*. 

I also want to improve my knowledge of classical music - I have so many gaps - so I will try out romantic or more modern composers to see what they're like.

Altogether, a good deal of my time is spent with *Other Composers*, but the ones that I return to again and again, in no particular order, are Biber, Handel, Lully, William Lawes, François Couperin, Vivaldi, Geminiani, Carolan, Purcell, Byrd, Dowland, Boccherini, Tchaikovsky, Telemann, *Early-Stuff-Played-By-Jordi-Savall* and so on...


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

starthrower said:


> Ranking is for the military. I'm always looking for other composers to explore.


You could explore other composers, then rank them.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Bulldog said:


> You could explore other composers, then rank them.


Hey! What a novel idea!


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

If asked I know who my favourites are (Mozart and Bach in that order overall, Chopin for solo piano music) but I don't spend time thinking about that when I'm choosing what to listen to, still less when actually listening.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Belief in the supremacy of the germanic trinity does not preclude adherents from enjoying other music - even if our comments on these pages may seem to indicate as much.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Art Rock said:


> I have a clear top5 after 30+ years of listening:
> 
> 1. Bach
> 2. Mahler
> ...


really? how much spare time do you have?


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Since most of the time I have to listen to digital music (while not at home) and I use CATraxx as my main system to keep track of my collection, I can easily identify my tastes right now:

*most played all time* (classical only, from more to less frequent):
Verdi
Rossini
Wagner
Bach
Bellini
Donizetti

*most played last 30 days* (classical only, from more to less frequent):
Rangström
Bantock
Meyerbeer
Verdi
Auber
Bach
Vaughan Williams
Mozart

Strangely, no Bruckner, Mahler or Puccini, but this is due to the fact this music requires most of my attention so I keep these as "for home use only"


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

stomanek said:


> really? how much spare time do you have?


Retired - I usually play 6-12 CD's per day.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I've been listening to music for most of my 60 years; I've been listening to, and enjoying symphonic classical music for nearly 50 of those years. That being said, it is only in more recent years that I have grown to appreciate and enjoy Beethoven, Brahms and (latterly) Mozart; my staple diet being more modern with favourites in Mahler, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Vaughan-Williams and Sibelius.
That being said, it is also only relatively recently that I have started to really enjoy Britten and Wagner and wish I had more years ahead of me to explore everything that these composers have to offer.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Great question in the OP, and I find I'm very much in the same category as Nerrifid. There are different qualities in music that are explored in different eras, so I don't think there is a greatest composer anymore as I used to. To me ranking composers is dogmatic. I could agree Bach, Mozart Beethoven are the top or near the top of tonal composing, but to me Stravinsky, Debussy, Bartok and Prokofiev go way beyond those more limited boundaries, and are way more profound without being superficial like some modern composers.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Being a fan of mostly mid 20th century to contemporary classical, I don't put a lot of emphasis on big names. 

I find amazing pieces by quite a few lesser known composers. If a piece is good, it is good despite being from an unknown composer.

My attitude with regards to music, has always been one of exploration and discovery. I could care less about the big names, because they are the big names.


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

Hmm. My two favorite pieces of music are by Beethoven. But I like all kinds all eras, different works. I listened to Vivaldi over the weekend. Listening to Sibelius symphonies now. I have plans to listen through an Elgar box set mp3's next. The stack of Cd's waiting include Ferde Grofe, Respighi, Holst, Bach, and Beethoven. 

I listen quite a lot.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I do wonder how much of it all is based on dogmatic opinion. Telemann used to be regarded in his day, and even in Mozart’s time, as the premier composer ahead of Bach, who was considered a second-rate Telemann. Beethoven himself thought Handel was the greatest.


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## R3PL4Y (Jan 21, 2016)

I certainly have favorites, and although I do believe them to all be good composers, the reason that they are my favorite composers is more that I relate with their music than that it is objectively superior to that of other composers. 
That said, while many of my favorite composers change, my top two for a while have been Vaughan Williams and Shostakovich. If I had to name more right now, they would be Bartok, Ginastera, Hindemith, and Chavez.


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