# 10 Favorite Composers



## Morimur

*If you had to limit yourself to the music of 10 composers for the rest of your life, who's would it be?*


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## Morimur

My List

1. Johann Sebastian Bach

2. Ludwig van Beethoven

3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

4. Franz Peter Schubert

5. Claude Achille Debussy

6. Igor Stravinsky

7. Johannes Brahms

8. Giuseppe Verdi

9. Richard Wagner

10. Bela Bartok


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## hpowders

J.S. Bach

Joseph Haydn

W.A. Mozart

Beethoven

Brahms

Mahler

Prokofiev

Bartók

Copland

Sibelius

No real surprises. Musical conservative.


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## DiesIraeCX

1. Beethoven
2. Mahler
3. Brahms
4. Schubert
5A. Schoenberg
5B. Debussy
Bruckner
Wagner
Chopin

I can't decide between Webern, Mozart, Bartok, Ligeti, J.S. Bach, and Stravinsky. :-/


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## brotagonist

I simply could not do it.

How about if we group composers into 50- or 100-year spans? Or into approximate stylistic groups? :devil: I might be able to do it then


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## isorhythm

Josquin des Prez
Thomas Tallis
J.S. Bach
W.A. Mozart
Franz Schubert
Gustav Mahler
Igor Stravinsky
Olivier Messiaen
Gyorgy Ligeti
Steve Reich

Very sad to leave out anything medieval, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Schoenberg, Berg, Debussy, Stockhausen...this exercise would make life barely worth living.


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## Guest

Bach
Beethoven
Mozart
Schubert
Brahms
Schoenberg
Stockhausen
Stravinsky
Schumann / Wagner
Debussy / Ravel

The last two pairs come with the instructions "Just pick one for me, please, and don't make me watch!"


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## Guest

DiesIraeVIX said:


> Beethoven
> Mahler
> Brahms
> Schubert
> Schoenberg
> Debussy
> Bruckner
> Wagner
> Chopin
> 
> I can't decide between Webern, Mozart, Bartok, Ligeti, J.S. Bach, and Stravinsky. :-/


May I recommend Karlheinz?


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## Dim7

Mahler

Mozart

R. Strauss

Scriabin

Bruckner

Schoenberg (for the tonal works largely)

Sibelius

Ravel

Bach

Beethoven

I was tempted to include Wagner just because of the Tristan und isolde, Parsifal and Tannhäuser preludes and Bartok just because of the String Quarets 4 & 5. And I have to say I included Beethoven almost solely because of Eroica.


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## Itullian

Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Schumann, Haydn, Messiaen, Spohr(I love string quartets and quintets), Wagner, Vivaldi(lots of music)
sneakin in Debussy, Bruckner and Villa Lobos


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## Art Rock

01. Johann Sebastian Bach
02. Gustav Mahler
03. Johannes Brahms
04. Franz Schubert
05. Dmitri Shostakovitch
06. Antonin Dvorak
07. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
08. Felix Mendelssohn
09. Maurice Ravel
10. Jean Sibelius


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## Vesteralen

*Monteverdi*
*Haydn*
*Mendelssohn*
*Schumann*
*Brahms*
*Nielsen*
*Vaughan Williams*
*Debussy*
*Prokofiev*
*Barber*


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## realdealblues

I couldn't really do it either. The problem for me in this kind of a question is that there are too many composers who wrote a few things that I wouldn't want to go through life not hearing again. 

I wouldn't pick Vivaldi as my favorite composer, but I wouldn't want to go throughout life never hearing the Four Seasons again. Same with Gustav Holst's The Planets, or Debussy's La Mer & Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun, or Ravel's Bolero or Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite or Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade or Schumann's Piano Concerto. None of them are in my top 10 composers but I wouldn't want to live life without hearing certain works. I could live primarily on a diet of: Mahler, Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven & J.S. Bach, but I'd need to mix and match several others. I'd need like 50 composers or I'd have to choose like 200 individual works or something instead.


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## Becca

The first 5 are easy...

1. Mahler
2. Vaughan Williams
3. Sibelius
4. Nielsen
5. Berlioz

It's 6-10 that will cause heartache!
...to be continued... :lol:


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## Morimur

So many opera lovers in TC and yet no *Verdi*? Flabbergasted.


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## Guest

These are the ten for whom I did vote: 

1 Beethoven
2 Eethovenb
3 Ethovenbe
4 Thovenbee
5 Hovenbeet
6 Ovenbeeth
7 Venbeetho
8 Enbeethov
9 Nbeethove
10 Ebethvoen


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## Marilyn

1. Mahler
2. Tchaikovsky
3. Bach
4. Beethoven
5. Motzart
6. Vivaldi
7. Mendelssohn
8. Schumann
9. Brahms
10. Schubert


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## Dim7

TalkingHead said:


> These are the ten for whom I did vote:
> 
> 1 Beethoven
> 2 Eethovenb
> 3 Ethovenbe
> 4 Thovenbee
> 5 Hovenbeet
> 6 Ovenbeeth
> 7 Venbeetho
> 8 Enbeethov
> 9 Nbeethove
> 10 Ebethvoen


Your voting patterns used to be stubbornly conservative, but I'm detecting some progress here! Of course, it's still building on tradition.


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## Itullian

Morimur said:


> So many opera lovers in TC and yet no *Verdi*? Flabbergasted.


Yeah, I just haven't been in the mood for Verdi in a long time.
Except for Falstaff and Un Giorno di Regno.


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## Heliogabo

Bach
Mozart
Haydn
Schubert
Brahms
Strauss (Richard)
Mahler
Schoenberg
Scriabin
Sibelius


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## JACE

Today, I suppose my list would shape up like this *:

- J.S. Bach
- Ludwig van Beethoven
- Hector Berlioz
- Johannes Brahms
- Charles Ives
- Franz Liszt
- Gustav Mahler
- Sergei Rachmaninov
- Dmitri Shostakovich
- Jean Sibelius


* Arranged alphabetically; not ranked in order of preference.


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## Headphone Hermit

Berlioz! what a depressing lack of attention - only two mentions so far - Tut-tut .... Mr Hpowders, for instance - be tutted at!

Bach
Beethoven
Haydn
Bellini (I know, I know .... but I want la Sonnambula, Norma, I puritani and il pirata with Callas)
Schubert
Josquin
Liszt
Richard Strauss

... and you can bring along a composer too :tiphat:


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## Headphone Hermit

TalkingHead said:


> These are the ten for whom I did vote:
> 
> 1 Beethoven
> 2 Eethovenb
> 3 Ethovenbe
> 4 Thovenbee
> 5 Hovenbeet
> 6 Ovenbeeth
> 7 Venbeetho
> 8 Enbeethov
> 9 Nbeethove
> 10 Ebethvoen


number 10 has been disqualified for not maintaining the preceding pattern :lol:


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## Heliogabo

Heliogabo said:


> Bach
> Mozart
> Haydn
> Schubert
> Brahms
> Strauss (Richard)
> Mahler
> Schoenberg
> Scriabin
> Sibelius


My God I forgot Beethoven! What's wrong with me?


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## QuietGuy

In no particular order:

Ravel
Debussy
Copland
Bernstein
Barber
Hanson
Griffes
Gershwin
Stravinsky
Tchaikovsky


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## hpowders

Headphone Hermit said:


> Berlioz! what a depressing lack of attention - only two mentions so far - Tut-tut .... Mr Hpowders, for instance - be tutted at!
> 
> Bach
> Beethoven
> Haydn
> Bellini (I know, I know .... but I want la Sonnambula, Norma, I puritani and il pirata with Callas)
> Schubert
> Josquin
> Liszt
> Richard Strauss
> 
> ... and you can bring along a composer too :tiphat:


 It's really hard to narrow it down to only ten. I do love Les Troyens...

Thankfully any composers I may have slighted are all dead, so I am not currently being overwhelmed by intense feelings of guilt.


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## hpowders

Heliogabo said:


> My God I forgot Beethoven! What's wrong with me?


Expect a PM from the "Tribunal".


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## Cosmos

Bach: He has a gigantic oeuvre of wonderful music to explore
Mozart: Same
Beethoven: Same, with a bit more boom
Mahler: Small oeuvre, grand music
Stravinsky: All over the place/never get bored
Poulenc: He's quirky and catchy
Bruckner: See Mahler
Scriabin: I'm obsessed with much of his music
Medtner: Same as Scriabin
Schnitkke: Because I need something different than the rest, and he's awesome


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## Headphone Hermit

hpowders said:


> It's really hard to narrow it down to only ten. I do love Les Troyens...
> 
> Thankfully any composers I may have slighted are all dead, so I am not currently being overwhelmed by intense feelings of guilt.


you are still tutted at :scold:

There's one clear candidate on your list that would remain in the rucksack for me ......but I'm far too cowardly to pop my head above the parapet. Suffice to say, I think Sir Colin Davis didn't record any of his work


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## hpowders

Headphone Hermit said:


> you are still tutted at :scold:
> 
> There's one clear candidate on your list that would remain in the rucksack for me ......but I'm far too cowardly to pop my head above the parapet. Suffice to say, I think Sir Colin Davis didn't record any of his work


Who? Copland? Bartók? Prokofiev? Mahler?


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## Guest

The 10 names that spring to my mind today are:

Penderecki
Lutoslawski
Kurtag
Ligeti
Chopin
Brahms
JS Bach
Schnittke
Hindemith
Webern


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## Vronsky

Definitely this list is not the final (it's just for now). No particular order:

György Ligeti
Béla Bartók
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Iannis Xenakis
Luciano Berio
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Ludwig van Beethoven
Igor Stravinsky
Hector Berlioz
Robert Alexander Schumann


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## bharbeke

Nowhere in the question does it say we have to limit ourselves to classical. I might put Mozart and Haydn on my list for sheer great output, but I might also put living composers closer to my own age like Brad Paisley. That way, I would still get new music at some points in time.


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## GreenMamba

Listed chronologically. I went with the first post ("if you had to limit yourself to 10") rather than favorites. So I made some adjustments for the sake of variety.


Monteverdi
JS Bach
Mozart
Beethoven
Schubert
Mahler
Stravinsky
Bartok
Ligeti
Reich


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## senza sordino

Beethoven 
Bach
Brahms 
Mahler
Shostakovich 
Ravel
Prokofiev 
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Sibelius 
Stravinsky 

and not including Tchaikovsky and Debussy is heart breaking. Mozart didn't make the cut. There isn't a piece of music by Grieg I don't adore.


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## TurnaboutVox

TalkingHead said:


> *Holland*
> 
> 1 Beethoven (GK)
> 2 Eethovenb
> 3 Ethovenbe
> 4 Thovenbee
> 5 Hovenbeet
> 6 Ovenbeeth
> 7 Venbeetho
> 8 Enbeethov
> 9 Nbeethove
> 10 Ebethvoen
> 11. van Persie


To my British eyes this looked familiar so I finished it off for you, TH


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## almc

TurnaboutVox said:


> To my British eyes this looked familiar so I finished it off for you, TH


hihihihhhh .... that was an excellent post !!!


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## Figleaf

At this precise moment in time, and speaking as someone who usually chooses music for the performer than the composer:

Meyerbeer
Gounod
Verdi
Rossini
Donizetti
G. Faure
Schubert
Massenet
Berlioz 
Wagner


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## Itullian

Figleaf said:


> At this precise moment in time, and speaking as someone who usually chooses music for the performer than the composer:
> 
> Meyerbeer
> Gounod
> Verdi
> Rossini
> Donizetti
> G. Faure
> Schubert
> Massenet
> Berlioz
> Wagner


Meyerbeer? ....................


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## TurnaboutVox

^^^^^^:tiphat: Always my pleasure to make a facetious remark, almc (Malc?) 



I'm basing my list on the composers I'd like to hear more of rather than those I already know well, so:

Ives
Stravinsky
Schoenberg
Hindemith
Bartok
Britten
Ligeti
Kurtag
Rihm
Henze


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## Mahlerian

1. Bach
2. Mahler
3. Mozart
4. Rmealh
5. Debussy
6. Hrlmae
7. Stravinsky
8. Eharml
9. Lemhra
10. Alrehm


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## TurnaboutVox

No Boerscheng, M?


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## Guest

TalkingHead said:


> 4 Thovenbee


Dwiglu Thovenbee is probably my favorite Lithuanian composer of electroacoustic renaissance polyphony. Underrated guy.


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## SeptimalTritone

Mozart
Beethoven
Schoenberg (perhaps Brahms really should be here instead)
Webern
Stravinsky
Stockhausen
Cage
Xenakis
Feldman
Parmegiani


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## Woodduck

Purcell
Handel
Bach
Beethoven
Berlioz
Wagner
Brahms
Sibelius
Rachmaninoff
Prokofiev


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## Mahlerian

TurnaboutVox said:


> No Boerscheng, M?


Unfortunately, I had to go through every permutation!


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## Guest

Mahlerian said:


> Unfortunately, I had to go through every permutation!


You forgot Hamler though...


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## Mahlerian

nathanb said:


> You forgot Hamler though...


Not part of the pattern!


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## Guest

Mahlerian said:


> Not part of the pattern!


Pattern?

I think you misread the OP.


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## DiesIraeCX

nathanb said:


> You forgot Hamler though...


It's a true tragedy that he forgot about Hamler. To include him or not to include him, that is the question...


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## aajj

Not easy stopping at ten. I will miss Sibelius, Ravel, Mendelssohn & others! 
Listed alphabetically.


Bach
Bartok
Brahms
Debussy
Ives
Janacek
Mozart
Prokofiev
Schubert
Stravinsky


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## Guest

This thread is inherently dysfunctional for the reason that it is too broad and thus too difficult.

I will now respond to "If you could only listen to 10 spectralists for the rest of your life...?"

Dufourt
Dumitrescu
Grisey
Haas
Harvey
Hosokawa
Manoury (does he count as spectral?)
Murail
Radulescu
Saariaho


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## Bulldog

J.S. Bach
Mozart
Beethoven
Dvorak
Schubert
Schumann
The Russians are coming: Shostakovich, Myaskovsky, Weinberg, Scriabin


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## Guest

I like your list, Lope, in that it shows your appreciation for some standards a little better...

But I really loved that top 40 of yours that was like, 90% modern/contemporary. Mostly because it made me check out (and grow to love) Aribert Reimann, Vinko Globokar, Friedrich Cerha, and folks like that


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## Figleaf

Itullian said:


> Meyerbeer? ....................


Yes, always Meyerbeer, bearing in mind that as a listener, the music is inseparable from the performance. There may not now be singers with the combination of flexibility and power and, above all, the right style to sing his music, but Meyerbeer was very well served on disc (at least where individual arias were concerned) in the early years of the last century when great singers were plentiful. To show you what I mean, here's a quote from the introduction to 'Giacomo Meyerbeer: A Discography of Vintage Recordings, 1889-1955' by Richard Arsenty and Robert Letellier, in which the authors rank major opera singers by number of Meyerbeer arias recorded:

_Paul Aumonier and Leo Slezak with 39 records each are in a class of their own, followed by Agustarello Affre, Fernand Baër, José Mardones and Juste Nivette, all with 20 plus._

The above 'top scorers' list is of course focused on quantity of Meyerbeer recordings rather than on quality, but it's the quality of the singers in that list that stands out for me. It would be difficult or impossible to name singers greater than Affre, Aumonier, Nivette and even Slezak on a good day. I won't reproduce the list in full, but here are some of the names from it that I'm always happy to see, followed by the number of Meyerbeer arias in their respective discographies:

_Agustarello Affre 24
Juste Nivette 24
Fernand Baër 22
Paul Payan 20
Jean Noté 16
Lev Sibiriakov 13
Jacques Urlus 11
Albert Vaguet 7
Francisco Viñas 7_

Notice how many great basses there are in the above list in particular: Meyerbeer wrote more juicy bass arias than just about anyone else. (Of course there were soprano and mezzo roles in his opera too, but it's the heroic tenors and the basses who get the best music. During the years of decline in the 20thC, the fact that coloratura ability persisted in female singers mostly, as well as the fetishization of female voices and relative neglect of male ones by opera goers in general, may have contributed to the decreasing popularity of Meyerbeer, though perhaps I'm confusing cause with effect.)

We are where we are at the moment- there's no obvious way of reversing the decline in the standard of singing, and without the singers to do his music justice there may be no way of rehabilitating Meyerbeer's reputation. But there's still much pleasure to be had from listening to records made when this music was part of a living tradition:

Paul Payan, 'Des troubles renaissantes': 



Agustarello Affre, 'Plus blanche': 



Francesco Tamagno, 'Roi du ciel':



Pol Plançon, 'Piff Paff':



Emile Scaramberg, 'O paradis':



Leon Escalaïs, 'Sicilienne':



Paul Aumonier, 'Piff Paff':



Leon Melchissédec, 'Roi des vagues':



Ivan Yershov, 'Pour Berthe':



Agustarello Affre, 'Conduisez-moi vers ce navire':



Agustarello Affre & Antoinette Laute-Brun, Huguenots duet:


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## MoonlightSonata

Beethoven
Bach
Mozart
Schnittke
Saint-Saens
Vaughan Williams
Stravinsky
Schubert
Bartok
Tallis


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## GreenMamba

SeptimalTritone said:


> Mozart
> Beethoven
> Schoenberg (perhaps Brahms really should be here instead)
> Webern
> Stravinsky
> Stockhausen
> Cage
> Xenakis
> Feldman
> *Parmegiani*


Never heard of him. How does his music compare to Locatelli?


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## Haydn man

My top 10 might be
Haydn
Schubert 
Mozart
Elgar
Beethoven
Dvorak
Tchaikovsky
Brahms
Vaughan Williams
Chopin


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## poconoron

Right now:

Mozart
Beethoven
Haydn
Schubert
Brahms
Dvorak
JS Bach
Handel
Rossini
Tchaikovsky


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## Headphone Hermit

Bulldog said:


> J.S. Bach
> Mozart
> Beethoven
> Dvorak
> Schubert
> Schumann
> The Russians are coming: Shostakovich, Myaskovsky, Weinberg, Scriabin


Weinberg was Polish, surely? I know he lived in the USSR from 1939 til his death (the last few years in Russia) and Wikipedia calls him a Soviet composer but ...?


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## Figleaf

Morimur said:


> So many opera lovers in TC and yet no *Verdi*? Flabbergasted.


Not that many really. And those opera lovers who _are_ here are either (I exaggerate somewhat) Wagner obsessives who think that Verdi is trivial fluff, or singer obsessives who barely notice the name of the guy who wrote the music. :devil:

I leave it to you to deduce from my last post which camp I'm in.


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## Bulldog

Headphone Hermit said:


> Weinberg was Polish, surely? I know he lived in the USSR from 1939 til his death (the last few years in Russia) and Wikipedia calls him a Soviet composer but ...?


Myaskovsky was also born in Poland. Anyways, I wouldn't call them Polish composers, but feel free to do so if you like. The music remains the same.


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## Guest

Figleaf said:


> Not that many really. And those opera lovers who _are_ here are either (I exaggerate somewhat) Wagner obsessives who think that Verdi is trivial fluff, or singer obsessives who barely notice the *name of the guy who wrote the music*. :devil:
> 
> I leave it to you to deduce from my last post which camp I'm in.


You mean Maria didn't write all that stuff? Blasphemy!


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## tdc

J.S. Bach
Ravel
Rodrigo
Bartok
Debussy
Ives
Mozart
Brahms
Dufay
Lopez

Any of a hundred different composers could have made those last two spots but I chose them so I would have some Renaissance and Contemporary music to listen to, by two composers I greatly enjoy but still have much of their work to explore.


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## beetzart

Bach (JS)
Beethoven
Brahms
Bruckner
Tchaikovsky
Chopin
Clementi
Scarlatti
Liszt
Mehul


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## schigolch

Bach 
Bellini 
Berg 
Britten 
Korngold 
Messiaen 
Poulenc
Reich
Sciarrino 
Verdi


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## D Smith

As of this moment:

Bach J. S.
Bartok
Beethoven
Brahms
Debussy
Haydn
Mahler
Mozart
Prokofiev
Ravel


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## Xaltotun

1. Bruckner
2. Wagner
3. Beethoven
4. Mahler
5. Brahms
6. Sibelius
7. Schubert
8. Liszt
9. Dvorak
10. Haydn


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## Morimur

nathanb said:


> I like your list, Lope, in that it shows your appreciation for some standards a little better...
> 
> But I really loved that top 40 of yours that was like, 90% modern/contemporary. Mostly because it made me check out (and grow to love) Aribert Reimann, Vinko Globokar, Friedrich Cerha, and folks like that


Lately, I've found myself gravitating towards the established masters. I've also had a bit of an epiphany: the vast majority of modern/contemporary music after Stravinsky fascinates me in a rather superficial way-as one is captivated by a terrible car crash. I love Stockhausen, Xenakis, Ligeti, etc., but I've finally admitted to myself that I don't feel anything substantial (other than fascination, reverence...) whilst listening to such music. Ligeti is riveting, but J.S. Bach is like fresh air-essential.

_FYI: I've been listening to Bach and Debussy all day._


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## Headphone Hermit

^^^ Wow! That's astonishing, Morimur - you had always seemed so utterly convinced by the many modern pieces that you listened to. I greatly respect you for making such a statement - it is indeed a sign of great strength to change one's mind. :tiphat:

Of course, you might always change it back again, I suppose


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## Guest

Morimur said:


> Lately, I've found myself gravitating towards the established masters. I've also had a bit of an epiphany: the vast majority of modern/contemporary music after Stravinsky fascinates me in a rather superficial way-as one is captivated by a terrible car crash. I love Stockhausen, Xenakis, Ligeti, etc., but I've finally admitted to myself that I don't feel anything substantial (other than fascination, reverence...) whilst listening to such music. Ligeti is riveting, but J.S. Bach is like fresh air-essential.
> 
> _FYI: I've been listening to Bach and Debussy all day._


You went to a twelve-step program recently, didn't you.

(But as a matter of fact, I'm currently wrapping up Act III of _Pelleas Et Melisande_!)


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## joen_cph

Can´t really do it, but maybe-maybe:

Mozart
Beethoven 
Schubert
Bruckner
Mahler
Debussy
Scriabin
Stravinsky
Shostakovich
Nørgård


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## Morimur

Headphone Hermit said:


> Of course, you might always change it back again, I suppose


That's possible, but _unlikely_. My taste has come full circle: I came to CM via the old masters, moved on to _les enfants terribles_, and have returned to the old masters once again.

:tiphat:


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## Guest

Morimur said:


> That's possible, but _unlikely_. My taste has gone full circle: I came to CM via the _masters_, moved on to _les enfants terribles_, and came back to the _masters_ again.
> 
> :tiphat:


Can't we just love both?


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## Weston

Impossible. I know of a few it would have to contain -- the usual suspects:

Bach
Beethoven
Vaughan Williams
I'll include Ian Anderson though he would give me a stern and verbose correction for including him in such a list.

The remaining six would be too heartbreaking to contemplate, but might include Schoenberg (as of this writing), Handel, Brahms, Ligeti, Boulez, Bernard Herrmann and about seven thousand others.


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## Giordano

I will limit myself to seven:

Dufay Josquin Purcell Handel Bach Mozart Beethoven


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## mmsbls

Set in stone:

Mozart 
Beethoven
Bach
Brahms
Schubert
Wagner

Best Guess:

Haydn, Mendelssohn
Stravinsky

Then maybe one of the following:

Tallis, Palestrina, Dufay


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## isorhythm

Morimur said:


> Lately, I've found myself gravitating towards the established masters. I've also had a bit of an epiphany: the vast majority of modern/contemporary music after Stravinsky fascinates me in a rather superficial way-as one is captivated by a terrible car crash. I love Stockhausen, Xenakis, Ligeti, etc., but I've finally admitted to myself that I don't feel anything substantial (other than fascination, reverence...) whilst listening to such music. Ligeti is riveting, but J.S. Bach is like fresh air-essential.
> 
> _FYI: I've been listening to Bach and Debussy all day._


This is fascinating.

To me there are exactly two composers who are "essential," as you put it: Bach and Mozart.

I've never loved any modern composer only for evoking car crash fascination; the ones I love, I love for more or less the same reasons as I do earlier music.


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## science

Maybe:

Byrd 
JS Bach
Mozart
Beethoven
Chopin 
Brahms
Takemitsu 
Nono
Crumb
Rzewski


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## hpowders

I've revised my list after a good night's sleep.

J.S. Bach

Mozart

Haydn

Copland

Prokofiev

Sibelius

Berlioz

Persichetti

Schuman

Mendelssohn


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## Guest

hpowders said:


> I've revised my list after a good night's sleep.
> 
> J.S. Bach
> 
> Mozart
> 
> Haydn
> 
> Copland
> 
> Prokofiev
> 
> Sibelius
> 
> Berlioz
> 
> Persichetti
> 
> Schuman
> 
> Mendelssohn


I thought you loved Dwiglu Thovenbee too...


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## hpowders

nathanb said:


> I thought you loved Dwiglu Thovenbee too...


Top 15, yes. Top 10, no.


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## ArtMusic

Morimur said:


> *If you had to limit yourself to the music of 10 composers for the rest of your life, who's would it be?*


This is easy, for ten. Not in any particular order,

J. S. Bach
J. C. Bach
C. P. E. Bach
Vivaldi
Telemann
Handel
Haydn
Mozart
Beethoven


----------



## StlukesguildOhio

J.S. Bach
W.A. Mozart
L.v. Beethoven
F.J. Haydn
Franz Schubert
Richard Wagner
Richard Strauss
Gustav Mahler
G.F. Handel
Giuseppe Verdi

I would surely miss Puccini, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Biber, Monteverdi, Ravel, Debussy, Faure, and Dvorak (The next 10?), but the above composers would IMO give me the "biggest bang" for my buck.


----------



## brotagonist

When I think of how many hours per day for years I have spent on Amazon in deciding which recordings I wanted to purchase, there is simply _no way_ I could reduce the list to much less than the number I actually have purchased. Just think of the gazillions I didn't (yet) buy. My collection _is_ that painfully wrought subset of the whole.


----------



## Becca

Becca said:


> The first 5 are easy...
> 
> 1. Mahler
> 2. Vaughan Williams
> 3. Sibelius
> 4. Nielsen
> 5. Berlioz
> 
> It's 6-10 that will cause heartache!
> ...to be continued... :lol:


_12 hours later..._
6. Wagner
7. Tchaikovsky

Why do I have this horrible feeling that I will up all night trying to come up with 3 to finish the list??

Note to moderators: Can I report Morimur for inflicting cruel & unusual punishment?


----------



## SeptimalTritone

GreenMamba said:


> Never heard of him. How does his music compare to Locatelli?


Uh... when I looked up Locatelli I get a baroque composer. Parmegiani is one of the best electroacoustic composers, did most of his stuff in the late 20th century and early 21st century.


----------



## 20centrfuge

An interesting question. I often pose a similar type of question to my friends WRT restaurants. "If you could only eat at at 10 different restaurants for the rest of your life, which would you choose."

Of course choosing a composer with a larger output is a smart choice so you have more things to listen to. So even thought I think Sibelius is fantastic, for me he wouldn't be a good choice. His (quality) output is too small. (But for the record, I think Sibelius Symphony 5 is perhaps the greatest piece ever written). Anyhoo...

So, in no particular order:

*1. Prokofiev* (so many home-runs: Symphonies 1,3,5,6,7; Piano Cti, Vn Cti, Piano Sonatas, Ballets, Operas...) 
*2. Mozart* (a no-brainer, so much to listen to that is such high quality)
*3. Beethoven* (ditto)
*4. Brahms* (I love/hate Brahms, but there is so much that is soooo good! and I don't think I could live without his symphonies)
*5. Schubert* (What, like 700 songs to listen to!!?)
*6. Dvorak* (Such amazing consistency in his work)
*7. Adams* (For my post-minimalism itch, plus I couldn't live without "Harmonielehre")
*8. Hindemith* (Large output, unique)

(9 & 10: I am torn between Debussy, Bartok, Barber, Messiaen, Maxwell Davies), but I guess I'll go with:

*9. Debussy* (such a unique harmonic language, and such beautiful music)
*10. Maxwell Davies* (a wild card for me, I am just scratching the surface of his music but there is soooo much to explore!!!)


----------



## 20centrfuge

*Anyone who put Prokofiev on their list is my soul brother or sister!*

:


----------



## 20centrfuge

(....counting about 6 people, so far, with Prokofiev)


----------



## Guest

Figleaf said:


> Not that many really. And those opera lovers who _are_ here are either (I exaggerate somewhat) Wagner obsessives who think that Verdi is trivial fluff, or singer obsessives who barely notice the name of the guy who wrote the music. :devil:
> 
> I leave it to you to deduce from my last post which camp I'm in.


I'm guessing the latter! This, to me, is intriguing because it is an attitude so different than my own; the "barely notice" part. I suspect you're bigging up the attitude for dramatic/humorous effect but it did quite stop me in my (reading) tracks. So this is a common-ish thing amongst opera lovers is it?


----------



## Figleaf

dogen said:


> I'm guessing the latter! This, to me, is intriguing because it is an attitude so different than my own; the "barely notice" part. I suspect you're bigging up the attitude for dramatic/humorous effect but it did quite stop me in my (reading) tracks. So this is a common-ish thing amongst opera lovers is it?


Sadly (for me anyway) not as common as I've mischievously implied. The Callas obsessives and assorted soprano fanciers on here mostly seem to know their music very well, though I have my suspicions that there are a few besides me who approach opera from a 'singer-first' as opposed to 'composer first' standpoint. It does make my heart sink a little when I read things like 'Singer X is the greatest because s/he was the total servant of the music, and always put the composer first'- that, to me, is really not in the spirit of opera in which, historically at least (and in some periods more than others) the singer was the superstar, the composer wrote arias to showcase his/her talents, and the conductor followed the soloist rather than the other way around.

For better or worse this is a rather serious, highbrow sort of music forum with an attached opera subforum that attracts the same kind of highbrow listeners, hence the preoccupation with the ponderous German stuff (often discussed in a very erudite and interesting way, I must admit) as well as the rather joyless 'interpreter must serve the composer and have no individuality' mindset. There are however frequent encouraging posts by many members who revel in beautiful voices and have a very nuanced and knowledgeable appreciation of the singer's art, and those posts are the main attraction of the forum for me.:tiphat: (I do wish very much that Moody was still here, though. I think we would have been good buddies. )


----------



## Morimur

20centrfuge said:


> An interesting question. I often pose a similar type of question to my friends WRT restaurants. "If you could only eat at at 10 different restaurants for the rest of your life, which would you choose."
> 
> Of course choosing a composer with a larger output is a smart choice so you have more things to listen to. So even thought I think Sibelius is fantastic, for me he wouldn't be a good choice. His (quality) output is too small. (But for the record, I think Sibelius Symphony 5 is perhaps the greatest piece ever written). Anyhoo...
> 
> So, in no particular order:
> 
> *1. Prokofiev* (so many home-runs: Symphonies 1,3,5,6,7; Piano Cti, Vn Cti, Piano Sonatas, Ballets, Operas...)
> *2. Mozart* (a no-brainer, so much to listen to that is such high quality)
> *3. Beethoven* (ditto)
> *4. Brahms* (I love/hate Brahms, but there is so much that is soooo good! and I don't think I could live without his symphonies)
> *5. Schubert* (What, like 700 songs to listen to!!?)
> *6. Dvorak* (Such amazing consistency in his work)
> *7. Adams* (For my post-minimalism itch, plus I couldn't live without "Harmonielehre")
> *8. Hindemith* (Large output, unique)
> 
> (9 & 10: I am torn between Debussy, Bartok, Barber, Messiaen, Maxwell Davies), but I guess I'll go with:
> 
> *9. Debussy* (such a unique harmonic language, and such beautiful music)
> *10. Maxwell Davies* (a wild card for me, I am just scratching the surface of his music but there is soooo much to explore!!!)


Errr . . . No J.S. Bach? Debussy at no.9? Have you lost your marbles, man!?


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## mmsbls

20centrfuge said:


> *Anyone who put Prokofiev on their list is my soul brother or sister!*
> 
> :


Maybe I'm a half-soul brother since I had to choose between Prokofiev and Stravinsky.


----------



## isorhythm

If I made the list again today, I would have Debussy and Schoenberg instead of Messiaen and Josquin. Next week it'll probably be different again. These are very close calls.


----------



## Simon Moon

As with lists of this sort, ask me again tomorrow, and it would probably be different.

Stravinsky
Bela Bartok
Elliott Carter
Samuel Barber
Ravel
Benjamin Britten 
Penderecki
Ligeti
Schoenberg
Berg

Shostakovich, Debussy, Schwantner, Magnus Lindberg, could also make the list.


----------



## 20centrfuge

Morimur said:


> Have you lost your marbles, man!?


Probably 

I actually had Bach on my first draft list, and then for some reason took him off. If I made the list again things might change. So much is how things are at the moment, YA know?


----------



## hpowders

My list has changed:

Bartók

Schuman

Prokofiev

Copland

Ives

Mennin

Persichetti

Haydn

Mozart

J.S. Bach


----------



## Haydn man

This task should be quite easy for anybody
The answer is Haydn and any 9 others you care to choose


----------



## Morimur

Haydn man said:


> This task should be quite easy for anybody
> The answer is Haydn and any 9 others you care to choose


Haydn!? Really? I would never have guessed, Haydn man.


----------



## Andreas

Bach
Boulez
Brahms
Chopin
Josquin
Mendelssohn
Mozart
Reich
Schoenberg
Shostakovich


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## JACE

hpowders said:


> My list has changed:
> 
> Bartók
> 
> Schuman
> 
> Prokofiev
> 
> Copland
> 
> *Ives*
> 
> Mennin
> 
> Persichetti
> 
> Haydn
> 
> Mozart
> 
> J.S. Bach


I think this revised list is MUCH improved, hp. 

HOORAY for Ives!


----------



## Dim7

Haydn man said:


> This task should be quite easy for anybody
> The answer is Haydn and any 9 others you care to choose


I don't remember ever hearing a Haydn pun from you. Where are all your Haydn puns Haydn, man?


----------



## tdc

Figleaf said:


> (I do wish very much that Moody was still here, though. I think we would have been good buddies. )


Yes, Moody was a great personality to have around here. That said, as far as I remember his musical interests were largely German instrumental, no?


----------



## Figleaf

tdc said:


> Yes, Moody was a great personality to have around here. That said, as far as I remember his musical interests were largely German instrumental, no?


Et tu, Moody? :lol: I only know him from his posts on historical opera singers which originally piqued my interest in this site. I don't usually bother reading the threads on music that doesn't interest me, so I wouldn't necessarily know what else my fellow opera lovers are into. Likewise I'm sure most of them avoid the 'nonclassical music' forum and so are spared the worst of my lowbrow tastes.


----------



## hpowders

I've changed my mind:

Handel

J.S. Bach

Poulenc

Mozart

Haydn

Prokofiev

Ives

Verdi

Leoncavallo

Mascagni


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## OldFashionedGirl

In no particular order:
"Daddy" Bach
Beethoven
Bartók
Prokofiev
Shostakovich
Mahler
Stravinsky 
Mozart
R. Strauss
Debussy


----------



## Giordano

A couple of weeks ago, Moody liked a post of mine, as well as other posts in the thread about toasting your darlings and talking about Beethoven. I guess he likes Beethoven. 



Figleaf said:


> It does make my heart sink a little when I read things like 'Singer X is the greatest because s/he was the total servant of the music, and always put the composer first'- that, to me, is really not in the spirit of opera in which, historically at least (and in some periods more than others) the singer was the superstar, the composer wrote arias to showcase his/her talents, and the conductor followed the soloist rather than the other way around.


About operas being for superstar singers -- I agree partially, and I disagree partially. Singers' superstardom may be a part of an opera, but I don't think you can say that any composer wrote operas exclusively for singers. So I agree that when listening to operas, you are focusing on the singers as well as the music, and the drama, etc.



Figleaf said:


> ... rather joyless 'interpreter must serve the composer and have no individuality' mindset.


The interpreter does not lose individuality by serving the composer (who served the "music"). In fact, one cannot and is not "expected to" lose one's individuality. One discards ego-centered vanity and attunes one's individuality with the music to create a unique and particular flower in time and space, a creation belonging to the "species" of the musical piece being interpreted.

Obviously *people hear and enjoy different things* and do not agree to what extent the creation of a flower is successful or not, or is happening or not, or is desirable or not, or is nonsense or not, or that only the so-called individuality of the performer is primary, or whatever, and so on...

I am one of the people who find that "serving the music" can create beauty that moves mind body emotions and spirit, while showing off one's "prowess" hardly ever creates anything that moves anything.


----------



## Muse Wanderer

Ten composers to live the rest of my life with.... tough call! 
Variety is key apart from quality and quantity... hmmmm

Here you go...

Johann Sebastian Bach 
Can I live without the master?
Even his cantatas would be enough to bring joy to every day I have left to live.

Ludwig van Beethoven 
Who else can transform a simple motif into the most majestic towering transcendental musical structure?

Wolfgang Mozart 
Simple gracious splendid heavenly ... the exact antithesis of Ludwig.
I cannot live without both as they are so complementary

Franz Schubert 
Piano sonatas and chamber music to die for and I have barely scratched the surface of his lieder output

Richard Wagner 
His Ring is just stupefying, his music is so addictive, my precious!

Arnold Schoenberg 
I just marvel at Arnold's music. He broke all the barriers and showed me a new world. 
How can I disregard him? 

György Ligeti 
Surreal microtonal master, so original, so captivating

Igor Stravinsky 
His Firebird finale still makes my spine tingle, 
Rite of spring takes me back to my teenage basshead roots
I need to explore so much more of his output

John Adams 
I must have a living composer in this list and so far I loved all I heard from John

and finally...

Jean Sibelius 
I need his music, every single note of his and I just cannot explain why


----------



## MagneticGhost

Trying to fit in a broad variety and my absolute faves without leaving some great masters out is well nigh impossible. So Glad this is only hypothetical.


Victoria
Monteverdi
JS Bach
Schubert
Haydn
Brahms
Rachmaninov
Elgar
RVW
Messiaen


----------



## Polyphemus

There should always be an addendum for new discoveries. Otherwise in no particular order :-
Mahler
Bruckner
Bartok
Simpson
Rachmaninov
Penderecki
Haydn
Ligeti
R V W
Dvorak
Bach
That is 10 and I am ashamed of the ones I had to leave out. No Mozart Beethoven Tchaikovsky. It does not mean I don't love their music but I tried to honestly gauge my response on what I play most.


----------



## Blancrocher

As with most posters in this thread, my top 10 reflects a combination of recent enthusiasms and long-term obsessions. 

1. Schubert

2. Salonen: My heart beats a little faster whenever I get the chance to hear a new composition by him. Over the last 4-5 years I've picked up every commercial recording of his music, and occasionally listen to his complete output. It's remarkable the way he seems to try everything once, and only once--and how, imo, almost everything he touches turns to gold. Standout works include Dichotomie, the Piano Concerto, "Homunculus" for SQ, and Dona Nobis Pacem. 

3. J.S. Bach: Doesn't need much justification, though part of the reason for his prominence in my listening sessions these days is my acquisition of new performances and instrumental arrangements of long-familiar works (like The Art of Fugue). Thanks to ptr, hpowders, and Vaneyes for particular recommendations. 

4. Ligeti: I fell in love with Ligeti all over again while traveling in Eastern Europe. I listen to most of his oeuvre fairly regularly—for its own sake, of course, but also in conjunction with composers that show his influence, such as Unsuk Chin, an important recent discovery for me. 

5. Elliott Carter: One of those composers—like Debussy, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, or Salonen—that seems to approach every piece, whether a small bagatelle-like composition or a large orchestral work, with a particular problem in mind. My old favorites remain my favorites (including, first and foremost, the warm and expansive 1st SQ), but learning about the entirety of his music has been a joy of the last few years. 

6. Shosty: Old habits die hard. The center of his output for me is the Preludes and Fugues, String Quartets, and a handful of chamber works and concertos, though the recent Petrenko cycle has been a pleasant excuse to revisit the symphonies. 

7. Stravinsky: I love every scrap of music he wrote, but I'm especially drawn to the neoclassical period. 

8. William Walton: Another composer of top-drawer music with a relatively small output. One of the sunniest of the great composers of the modern era. His "Variations on a Theme by Hindemith" is just about my favorite modern orchestral work. 

9. Beethoven: For the usual reasons, I'm sure. 

10. Mozart: Whenever I'm actually listening to him he's my #1!

There are too many "honorable mentions" to mention, some of whom would be prominent on a list of 10 or 20 individual works.


----------



## Guest

Nice post, Blanc. I'm just going to follow up on a couple of your tastes and quote from you selectively. So, without further ado (and putting Beethoven to one side for the moment) ...



Blancrocher said:


> 1. Schubert


What a treasure trove! You know there was a big Schubert symposium in Oxford recently. I wish I could have been there.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/to...r-festival-franz-schubert-project-tom-service



Blancrocher said:


> 4. Ligeti: I fell in love with Ligeti all over again while traveling in Eastern Europe. I listen to most of his oeuvre fairly regularly-for its own sake, of course, but also in conjunction with composers that show his influence, such as Unsuk Chin, an important recent discovery for me.


And of course, she studied with him. She's a fairly regular feature now at the Strasbourg _Musica_ contemporary music festival. Not to be missed!



Blancrocher said:


> 8. William Walton: Another composer of top-drawer music with a relatively small output. One of the sunniest of the great composers of the modern era. His "Variations on a Theme by Hindemith" is just about my favorite modern orchestral work.


I discovered Walton via playing his _Facade_, a wonderful piece in one or two-cello versions! So, if you like Walton, why not take a detour with Tippett, another Brit composer with smallish output. Here's my fave:







Blancrocher said:


> 9. Beethoven: For the usual reasons, I'm sure.


I voted for Beethoven on this poll.


----------



## scratchgolf

1-4 Set in stone.

1. Schubert
2. Beethoven
3. Bach
4. Mendelssohn

5-8 Firm but flexible

5. Mahler
6. Brahms
7. Schumann
8. Mozart

9-10 Rotating

9. Wagner
10. Glass

Honorable mentions

-Bruckner
-Dvorak


----------



## hpowders

I've changed my mind:

Wagner

Mahler

Sibelius

J.S. Bach

Persichetti

Ives

Mendelssohn

Hummel

Weber

Haydn


----------



## Ingélou

tdc said:


> Yes, Moody was a great personality to have around here. That said, as far as I remember his musical interests were largely German instrumental, no?


No - he also specialised in great voices of the past, as Figleaf says.
Here is my transcription of his words from a telephone conversation that we had: -

*'You ask me about my favourite singers? My absolutely favourite soprano is Zinke Milanov; my favourite tenors are Gigli, and before him De Lucia. Caruso I like. And my favourite composer is Mozart - he is absolutely marvellous.'*

I remember he also liked Mahler's Song of the Earth sung by Kathleen Ferrier shortly before she died - he said that it would make me cry. (It didn't; but it moved me.)

He had a job with a record company and actually met some of the singers he admired. He also had a huge collection of vinyl, which unfortunately had to be disbanded in a hurry when he moved into the nursing home. That grieved him, of course.

Beneath his crusty and acerbic exterior, moody could be warm and emotional - as well as crusty & acerbic!


----------



## Richannes Wrahms

After some deliberation:

Machaut
Ockheghem
Bach
Mozart
Wagner 
Brahms 
Debussy
Sibelius
Webern
Ligeti

Honourable mentions:

(a good deal of world court music, mostly Chinese, Japanese and Javanese)
(a good deal of other pre-baroque polyphonic vocal or keboard music such as Dufay, Josquin, Isaac, all the British Tudor composers...)
Gesualdo
Monteverdi
Purcell
Couperin
Rameau
Bruckner
Borodin
Mussorgsky
Grieg
Rimsky-Korsakov (operas)
Mahler
Schoenberg (specially the 'free atonal' period)
Ravel
Bartok (specially string quartets)
Berg
Babbit
Takemitsu 
Boulez
Stockhausen (here including mostly non-electronic non-vocal works)
Birtwistle
Dufourt
Murail

Here omissions may tell you more than what's written.

Honourable mentions to the honourable mentions (I only love a few selected pieces of them or other reasons):

Vivaldi
Handel
Haydn
Schubert
Beethoven
Mendelssohn
Schumann
Chopin
Liszt
Tchaikovsky 
R. Strauss
Nielsen
Scriabin
Vaughan Williams
Stravinsky
Cowell
Messiaen
Dutilleux 
Rautavaara


----------



## hpowders

Maybe this:

J.S. Bach (for all solo keyboard works performed on harpsichord)

Handel (for Messiah, Semele and Giulio Cesare)

Scarlatti (16 out of the over 500 keyboard sonatas, but those 16 are very fine indeed!)

Debussy (only for L'isle Joyeuse, but man is that terrific!!)

Haydn (for the Paris and London Symphonies, but string quartets are snoozers)

Mozart (no explanation necessary)

Beethoven (for the Missa Solemnis and 32 Piano Sonatas)

Brahms (for Piano Concerto No. 2, Violin Concerto, Symphonies 1 and 4 and Handel Variations)

Copland (for Appalachian Spring, Clarinet Concerto, Piano Blues and Piano Variations)

Ives (for Three Places in New England, Third Symphony and Concord Piano Sonata)


----------



## Kivimees

Mine alphabetically:

Bax
Brahms
Debussy
Dvořák
Eller (that Estonian guy)
Finzi
Koechlin
Respighi
Sibelius
RVW

(I will try not to change my mind as often as hpowders, but no promises)


----------



## Glazunov

Beethoven
JS Bach
Bruckner
Haydn
Prokofiev
Sibelius
Copland
Debussy
Glazunov
Telemann


----------



## jim prideaux

Sibelius
Dvorak
Prokofiev
Schumann
Schubert
Myaskovsky
Brahms
Glazunov
Nielsen
Haydn.......

today!....I think.....and I am aware of who is missing......but!!!!


----------



## Headphone Hermit

hpowders said:


> I've changed my mind


you must be great fun to be with in a restaurant - *For *@#!'s sake - will you decide what you want to eat - I've almost turned into a skeleton while you're changing your mind faster than a revolving door!!!* :lol:


----------



## Gaspard de la Nuit

ravel (surprise)
Wagner 
Stravinsky (Russian phase)
Debussy (not as much as Ravel)
Carlos Chavez
Vaughan Williams
Revueltas
William Walton (almost forgot him)
Peter mennin
John Williams.....yes, film-industry fixture john Williams who is as good at what he does as anyone has ever been.....and if you think film music is a world away from classical, you probably don't like my list to begin with and we're sworn enemies from this point forth.


I expect everyone to treat my list as a revelation of the cosmic order....thank you and have a nice day.


----------



## AClockworkOrange

10 Composers - it is wickedly difficult to stop at just 10. Trying to encapsulate everything I love into 10 Composers is quite daunting.

At the moment, I would say the following in no particular order following Ludwig Van.


Beethoven
Mozart
Sibelius
Mendelssohn
Schumann
Schubert
Richard Strauss
Haydn
Brahms
Bax

Mendelssohn has been in and out of my list, saved by the fact that when I listen to his music I am instantly reminded as to why I rate him so highly. He is easy to take for granted at times. Saint-Säens is tied with Mendelssohn in my affections but at present, Mendelssohn edges ahead by a hair.

Sibelius and Schumann have, for the moment, displaced Bruckner and Mahler. I am really hooked on these two composers and have been for the past few weeks. My enjoyment is growing much stronger and shows no sign of diminishing.

Dvorak is a Composer I just couldn't squeeze in despite his remarkable contributions in Chamber Music and a wonderful Requiem. At a push he could almost displace Bax depending on my mood.

It would be fair to say that Dvorak hovers in the 11-13 range at present with Mahler and Bruckner.

The absence of Wagner, Verdi and Puccini is largely due to the fact that their body of work is largely Operatic and this is a general list. Mozart, Richard Strauss and Beethoven's Fidelio covers Opera satisfactorily for the purpose of this list including a number of my favourite Operas. I would not be without Wagner, Puccini or Verdi generally but in a list of 10 overall favourites something has to give.

Naturally I reserve the the right to change my list at will but for the present this will suffice.


----------



## tdc

Ingélou said:


> No - he also specialised in great voices of the past, as Figleaf says.
> Here is my transcription of his words from a telephone conversation that we had: -
> 
> *'You ask me about my favourite singers? My absolutely favourite soprano is Zinke Milanov; my favourite tenors are Gigli, and before him De Lucia. Caruso I like. And my favourite composer is Mozart - he is absolutely marvellous.'*
> 
> I remember he also liked Mahler's Song of the Earth sung by Kathleen Ferrier shortly before she died - he said that it would make me cry. (It didn't; but it moved me.)
> 
> He had a job with a record company and actually met some of the singers he admired. He also had a huge collection of vinyl, which unfortunately had to be disbanded in a hurry when he moved into the nursing home. That grieved him, of course.
> 
> Beneath his crusty and acerbic exterior, moody could be warm and emotional - as well as crusty & acerbic!


Yes, I realize that he was interested in a large spectrum of different music - including vocal. I guess my point was, from his posts he clearly was into a lot of instrumental music as well especially Beethoven and Brahms - and I don't believe he shared figleaf's view that German music was too serious or ponderous etc. or that somehow the composers were of less importance than the performers. Figleaf's post seemed to imply that moody somehow shared her unique view of music and that they would be kind of kindred spirits or something?

For the record I find Figleaf's views on music interesting and unique and I respect that she has her own way of viewing things, yet simultaneously I completely disagree with those views.


----------



## Figleaf

tdc said:


> Yes, I realize that he was interested in a large spectrum of different music - including vocal. I guess my point was, from his posts he clearly was into a lot of instrumental music as well especially Beethoven and Brahms - and I don't believe he shared figleaf's view that German music was too serious or ponderous etc. or that somehow the composers were of less importance than the performers. Figleaf's post seemed to imply that moody somehow shared her unique view of music and that they would be kind of kindred spirits or something?
> 
> For the record I find Figleaf's views on music interesting and unique and I respect that she has her own way of viewing things, yet simultaneously I completely disagree with those views.


I seem to have given you the wrong impression: I mentioned Moody as an aside, an example of someone knowledgeable about singers, and who made the opera forum an interesting place, not as someone who shares my views on everything... he's a Gigli fan, for a start!  I think that if I only wanted to talk to people who were my exact mirror image, I would be very lonely indeed!


----------



## manyene

Arguably if one has absorbed the music of ten great composers, they remain in the memory and so one should explore ten other great composers with whom one is less familiar but which should be explored?


----------



## Morimur

Screw 10 composers. This is my latest list of favorites in no particular order except for the first 3...

Favorite composers

Johann Sebastian Bach
Ludwig van Beethoven
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Béla Bartók
Richard Wagner
Claude Debussy
György Ligeti
Olivier Messiaen
Arnold Schönberg 
Witold Lutosławski 
György Kurtág
Iannis Xenakis 
Alban Berg
Aton Webern
Elliott Carter
Morton Feldman
Harry Partch
Igor Stravinsky
Luigi Nono
Luciano Berio
Giacinto Scelsi
Gustav Mahler
Franz Schubert 
Pierre Boulez
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Giuseppe Verdi
Jean Philippe Rameau
Josquin Desprez
Claudio Monteverdi
William Byrd
Henry Purcell
Hildegard von Bingen
Frédéric Chopin


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## Guest

That's mah boy!

(Though I would've surely put Schumann and Ravel up there)


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## SeptimalTritone

Morimur said:


> Screw 10 composers. This is my latest list of favorites in no particular order except for the first 3...
> 
> Witold Lutosławski


Dude, you must reałły łike to łisten to Lutosławski's music a łot. I łike him a łot too. He's a łaser intense composer.


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## Guest

SeptimalTritone said:


> Dude, you must reałły łike to łisten to Lutosławski's music a łot. I łike him a łot too. He's a łaser intense composer.


łłłłłłłłłłłł-ike


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## Morimur

septimaltritone said:


> dude, you must reałły łike to łisten to lutosławski's music a łot. I łike him a łot too. He's a łaser intense composer.


**** I Łove it. ****


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## Guest

Morimur said:


> **** I Łove it. ****


λολ υ λικε χενακισ τοο?!


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## Morimur

Yes, I like Xenakis too.


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## Dave Whitmore

Based on what I've heard so far and in no particular order of preference:

Beethoven
Mozart
Tchaikovsky
Dvorak
Brahms
Mendelssohn
Ravel
Haydn
Mahler
Schubert


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## jimsumner

1.Beethoven
2.Mahler
3.Mozart
4.J.S. Bach
5.Brahms
6.Stravinsky
7.Haydn
8.Shostakovich
9.Tchaikovsky
10.Schubert


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## Chronochromie

In no order: 
Beethoven
Schubert
Debussy
Messiaen
Ligeti
Bartok
Ravel
Monteverdi
Stravinsky
Bach/Mahler/Bruckner


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## Albert7

Top 26 for me and I'm not playing any favorites here because I pretty much like every composer:

in no order btw

1) Mozart
2) Beethoven
3) Bach
4) Feldman
5) Reich
6) Bartok
7) Mahler
8) R. Strauss
9) Debussy
10) Stockhausen
11) Takemitsu
12) Glazunov
13) Schubert
14) Stravinsky
15) Elliott Carter
16) Ives
17) Rameau
18) Haydn
19) Helen Grime
20) John Adams or Philip Glass
21) Schoenberg
22) Webern
23) Berg
24) Handel
25) Luigi Nono
26) Ferneyhough


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## cort

Bach
Beethoven
Haydn
Schubert
Mozart
Verdi
Wagner
Rossini
Brahms
R Strauss
Schumann

I would particularly miss Handel, Chopin, Bruckner, Britten, Stravinsky, DeBussy

The top seven for me are: 

Bach
Beethoven
Haydn
Schubert
Mozart
Verdi
Wagner

Such large outputs for each of them. They are truly irreplaceable...


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## Überstürzter Neumann

Alphabetically:
Bach
Beethoven
Bruckner
Haydn
Händel
Kuhlau
Mozart
Schubert
Schütz
Telemann


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## 20centrfuge

My list of all favorites (more than 10)

Prokofiev
Adams, J
Messaien
Bartok
Hindemith
Sibelius
Barber
Mozart
Schubert
Beethoven
Brahms
Bach
Dvorak
Debussy
Maxwell Davies


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## Xisten267

My selection today would be:

1. Beethoven
2. Bach
3. Wagner
4. Mozart
5. Brahms
6. Schubert
7. Bruckner
8. Tchaikovsky
9. Mendelssohn
10. Berlioz


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## ORigel

1. Beethoven
2. Bach
3. Brahms
4. Mozart
5. Haydn
6. Schubert
7. Mahler
8. Bruckner
9. Bartok
10. Shostakovich

This includes: 
--My favorite composers of chamber music
--My favorite symphonists
--My favorite composer of sacred music
--The only Baroque composer I regularly listen to
--My three favorite Classical period composers
--My favorite modernists

Some of the categories overlap


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## lnjng

1. Bach
2. Beethoven
3. Chopin
4. Haydn
5. Tchaikovsky 
6. Mendelssohn
7. Wagner
8. Sibelius
9. Mozart
10. Bartok

To be honest, you can reorder the last 5 however you want and I would be fine with it.


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## ansfelden

Vivaldi
Bach
Beethoven
Weber
Schubert
Dvorak
Tchaikovsky
Bruckner
Debussy
Ravel


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## Prodromides

1. Charles Koechlin
2. André Jolivet
3. Richard Rodney Bennett (for both absolute music & soundtracks)
4. Alex North (for Hollywood soundtracks)
5. Arne Nordheim (for both electronic/tape & instrumental/orchestral)
6. Piero Piccioni (for Italian soundtracks)
7. Meyer Kupferman (for both 12-tone rows & jazz)
8. Tōru Takemitsu (for both absolute music & Japanese soundtracks)
9. Heitor Villa-Lobos
10. Jean Prodromidès (for both absolute music & French soundtracks)


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## ansfelden

i forgot Sibelius! sorry Schubert

Vivaldi
Bach
Beethoven
Weber
Dvorak
Tchaikovsky
Bruckner
Debussy
Ravel
Sibelius


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## justekaia

I would not rank them because they belong to different periods. All of the 10 chosen ones have invented something in my eyes, one has pioneered opera, another one has elevated symphonic music to something that encompasses the world, still another one has understood the importance of a single note or cell in composition, whereas the two last ones just revolutionised the way of composing or added the perception of sound, performance and so many other miraculous things.Here they are:
Cristobal de Morales, Monteverdi, Beethoven, Wagner, Mahler, Bartok, Stravinsky, Scelsi, Xenakis, Lucier.


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## Brahmsian Colors

Brahms
Sibelius
Mozart
Debussy
Ravel
Vaughan Williams
Dvorak 
Haydn 
Mendelssohn
Grieg


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## SanAntone

I recently organized by Spotify composer folders into categories, listed chronologically:

The Canon
My Favorites
The Rest
American Composers
Opera (only three: Mozart, Verdi, Wagner)

From The Canon my Top Ten are:

Machaut
Bach
Beethoven
Schubert
Schumann
Brahms
Mahler
Debussy
Schoenberg
Shostakovich

My Favorites:

Schoeck
Weill
Duruflé
Boulez
Krzysztof Meyer
Golijov

From the American Composers:

Gottschalk
Joplin
Ives
Gershwin
Carter
Cage
Bernstein
Feldman
Zappa
JL Adams

I may post my Top Ten from The Rest, but it is much longer and most of the composers are ones I like, but not among my favorites.


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## Knorf

For me, a top ten list of favorite composers feels impossible, although I suppose some composers will never not be on it, were I to try, in no particular order: J. S. Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Brahms, Mozart, Boulez. Hey look at that! Ten! But then I think of everyone I'm leaving off and feel _very_ discontented: R. Strauss, Nielsen, Schönberg, Webern, Berg, Janáček, Verdi, Carter, Haydn, Holst, Dvořák, Vaughan Williams, Josquin des Prez, Villa-Lobos, Lutosławski, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Hindemith, Mendelssohn, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Xenakis, Berio, Scriabin, etc.

No, no, this won't do.

So, here we go, I think I can manage a clear top 10 list for living composers only, excluding myself:

Harrison Birtwistle
John Adams
Sofia Gubaidulina
Per Nørgård
Shulamit Ran
Unsuk Chin
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Poul Ruders
Magnus Lindberg
Thomas Adès

I can live with this. Maybe.


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## Emperor of the North

Beethoven
J.S. Bach
Mozart
Schubert
Tchaikovsky
Vivaldi
Mendelssohn
Shostakovich
Brahms
Stravinsky


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## justekaia

SanAntone said:


> I recently organized by Spotify composer folders into categories, listed chronologically:
> 
> The Canon
> My Favorites
> The Rest
> American Composers
> Opera (only three: Mozart, Verdi, Wagner)
> 
> From The Canon my Top Ten are:
> 
> Machaut
> Bach
> Beethoven
> Schubert
> Schumann
> Brahms
> Mahler
> Debussy
> Schoenberg
> Shostakovich
> 
> My Favorites:
> 
> Schoeck
> Weill
> Duruflé
> Boulez
> Krzysztof Meyer
> Golijov
> 
> From the American Composers:
> 
> Gottschalk
> Joplin
> Ives
> Gershwin
> Carter
> Cage
> Bernstein
> Feldman
> Zappa
> JL Adams
> 
> I may post my Top Ten from The Rest, but it is much longer and most of the composers are ones I like, but not among my favorites.


Allow me to ask what sparkles your interest for Schoeck's music who appears to be a conventional composer. I have tried to penetrate into his world but quickly lose interest, which indicates I miss something. Maybe you can help. Thks


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## Waehnen

10 composers for the rest of my life? This is tough!

In no particular order

Bach
Beethoven
Brahms
Sibelius
Schubert
Mozart
Shostakovich
Wagner
Debussy
Tchaikovsky


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## Art Rock

Morimur said:


> *If you had to limit yourself to the music of 10 composers for the rest of your life, who's would it be?*


The OP is no longer with us at TC, but this question is not the same as the thread title "10 Favorite Composers". As an example someone with a rather broad taste who happens to have both Mozart and Haydn in their top ten, might pick just one of the two for the restriction of the music of ten composers only for the rest of your life.

In my case, both Mahler and Bruckner are top ten composers, but for the actual question I would just pick one of the two to get a more varied package.

So... here is my answer to the actual question rather than the thread title (alphabetical):

Bach, Bax, Brahms, Gubaidulina, Mahler, Mozart, Schubert, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Wagner.


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## SanAntone

justekaia said:


> Allow me to ask what sparkles your interest for Schoeck's music who appears to be a conventional composer. I have tried to penetrate into his world but quickly lose interest, which indicates I miss something. Maybe you can help. Thks


I am rather simple in my appreciation of composers, if their music interests me and I like the way it sounds, then they get on my lists. I am not the sort of person who works to find words to explain this mysterious process, so I hope this answer will suffice, meager as it is.

But I will say this regarding Schoeck, two song cycles of his I find especially pleasing: _Elegie_ and _Notturno_.


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## Xisten267

Art Rock said:


> The OP is no longer with us at TC, but this question is not the same as the thread title "10 Favorite Composers". As an example someone with a rather broad taste who happens to have both Mozart and Haydn in their top ten, might pick just one of the two for the restriction of the music of ten composers only for the rest of your life.


Indeed. If it's not about favorites but instead about saving the music of some composers for me to hear for the rest of my life, then, looking back at post #142, I think I would, reluctantly, remove Mendelssohn and Berlioz from my list to include Debussy and Prokofiev, for the sake of stylistic variety. So, my picks today would be:

Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Debussy, Mozart, Prokofiev, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Wagner.


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## Waehnen

Waehnen said:


> 10 composers for the rest of my life? This is tough!
> 
> In no particular order
> 
> Bach
> Beethoven
> Brahms
> Sibelius
> Schubert
> Mozart
> Shostakovich
> Wagner
> Debussy
> Tchaikovsky


And I had to change Chopin to Tchaikovsky. Just for the wonderful variety. And orchestral colours. I could almost change Shostakovich to either Ravel or Stravinsky. But I cannot. For the immense emotional and expressionist force of Shostakovich.


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## Simon Moon

Simon Moon said:


> As with lists of this sort, ask me again tomorrow, and it would probably be different.
> 
> Stravinsky
> Bela Bartok
> Elliott Carter
> Samuel Barber
> Ravel
> Benjamin Britten
> Penderecki
> Ligeti
> Schoenberg
> Berg
> 
> Shostakovich, Debussy, Schwantner, Magnus Lindberg, could also make the list.


My list has changed quite a bit over the last 6+ years.

Now it would look like this:

Elliott Carter
Charles Wuorinen
Joan Tower
Ligeti
Schoenberg
Harrison Birtwistle
Per Nørgård
Magnus Lindberg
Bruno Maderna
Berg

But now I am having a hard time leaving: Penderecki, Unsuk Chin, Bartok, Stravinsky, Barber off the list.


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## allaroundmusicenthusiast

Art Rock said:


> The OP is no longer with us at TC, but this question is not the same as the thread title "10 Favorite Composers". As an example someone with a rather broad taste who happens to have both Mozart and Haydn in their top ten, might pick just one of the two for the restriction of the music of ten composers only for the rest of your life.
> 
> In my case, both Mahler and Bruckner are top ten composers, but for the actual question I would just pick one of the two to get a more varied package.
> 
> So... here is my answer to the actual question rather than the thread title (alphabetical):
> 
> Bach, Bax, Brahms, Gubaidulina, Mahler, Mozart, Schubert, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Wagner.


Far more interesting this scenario. In my case it'd look something like this, in no particular order:

Ligeti
Beethoven
Debussy
Bartók
Mahler
Messiaen
Schönberg
Des Prez
Wagner
Schumann


----------



## SanAntone

SanAntone said:


> I recently organized by Spotify composer folders into categories, listed chronologically:
> 
> The Canon
> My Favorites
> The Rest
> American Composers
> Opera (only three: Mozart, Verdi, Wagner)
> 
> From The Canon my Top Ten are:
> 
> Machaut
> Bach
> Beethoven
> Schubert
> Schumann
> Brahms
> Mahler
> Debussy
> Schoenberg
> Shostakovich
> 
> My Favorites:
> 
> Schoeck
> Weill
> Duruflé
> Boulez
> Krzysztof Meyer
> Golijov
> 
> From the American Composers:
> 
> Gottschalk
> Joplin
> Ives
> Gershwin
> Carter
> Cage
> Bernstein
> Feldman
> Zappa
> JL Adams
> 
> I may post my Top Ten from The Rest, but it is much longer and most of the composers are ones I like, but not among my favorites.


With the OP in mind, my first group of canonical composers would fit the theme of the thread, and is a group of composers I could live with for the rest of my life.

*Machaut
Bach
Beethoven
Schubert
Schumann
Brahms
Mahler
Debussy
Schoenberg
Shostakovich*


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## Tony Shih

Beethoven
Bach
Mahler
Shostakovich
Schubert
Mozart
Haydn
Brahms
Chopin
Tchaikovsky
That's plenty of music to live for the rest of my life!


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## justekaia

SanAntone said:


> I am rather simple in my appreciation of composers, if their music interests me and I like the way it sounds, then they get on my lists. I am not the sort of person who works to find words to explain this mysterious process, so I hope this answer will suffice, meager as it is.
> 
> But I will say this regarding Schoeck, two song cycles of his I find especially pleasing: _Elegie_ and _Notturno_.


I also like the two song cycles plus the Cello Concerto and the Suite for strings, but consider this is not enough for a would-be major composer. Anyway thks for the exchange.


----------



## SanAntone

justekaia said:


> I also like the two song cycles plus the Cello Concerto and the Suite for strings, but consider this is not enough for a would-be major composer. Anyway thks for the exchange.


Oh, there's much more of his music that I enjoy, I just mentioned those two song cycles since those two I am especially fond of. But, he wrote hundreds of songs, six other song cycles, symphonic works like _Sommernacht_, and several operas. I love his sound world, that post-Romantic period is especially a favorite of mine, *Franz Schreker* is another composer I enjoy.

But I am very much drawn to vocal music, so any composer who writes in that vein will usually figure high in my estimation.


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## patinosorio

My List

1) Mahler

2) Puccini

3) Janacek

4) Tchaikovsky

5) Sibelius

6) Nyman

7) Verdi

8) Shostakovich

9) Ravel

10) Respighi


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## Highwayman

My actual top 10 Favourites (in a particular order):

1- Brahms
2- Bach
3- Beethoven
4- Schumann
5- Dvořák
6- Sibelius
7- Schubert
8- Fauré
9- Mahler
10- Mendelssohn

My top 10 regarding what OP asks:

-Brahms
-Bach
-Beethoven
-Schumann

-Palestrina
-Shostakovich
-Debussy
-Carter
-Takemitsu
-Xenakis

This was quite interesting.


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## Brahmsian Colors

My current top ten favorites in order:

1) Brahms
2) Sibelius
3) Mozart
4) Vaughan Williams
5) Dvorak
6) Ravel
7) Debussy
8) Mendelssohn
9) Haydn
10) Schubert

....alongside original question of ten life long composers:

Brahms
Sibelius
Mozart
Debussy
Ravel
Vaughan Williams
Dvorak
Haydn
Mendelssohn
Grieg


----------

