# Composers that fulfill you mentally



## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

So, a different sort of topic that I hope will generate some interesting discussion. As I mentioned in current listening, I'm becoming aware that there are certain composers that seem to fulfill something for me mentally, even if the melody isn't always desirable to me, or doesn't necessarily give me an emotional punch. It doesn't happen OFTEN as I'm a sucker for a good melody and a sentimentalist to boot, but it happens.

Mahler was the first example, with the 1st symphony and Das Liede. My first listen had been Sympony #2, The Resurrection, which simply knocked me out on the first listen. I was eager to try his other stuff. Das Lied and #1 were my next Mahler listens, they didn't come easy at first, but he had that SOMETHING in them. I MENTALLY knew it was good stuff even if my ear wasn't quite ready to really get it. If that makes any sense? Where the journey was important even if it wasn't the typical music I was looking for. Of course, I now get the deep emotional impact of most of his work now, just took some time to get to the meat of it.

Shostakovich now is my other example of "mentally stimulating" composers to me. Now I cannot compare him to Mahler in terms of what his music means to me. Mahler has EVERYTHING. I don't feel that way with Shostakovich, not now at least. But I am somehow compelled to listen, it's doing something for me even if I can't say "I am deeply moved by this" or "wow what great harmony" or "love that melody". The journey is more important than the destination.

It's very interesting because I never really looked to music for mental or intellectual fulfillment. But Mahler does it (+ the other things). and I think Shostakovich is now doing it too.

So to make a long story short, what composers fulfill you primarily on a MENTAL level. Where the end results don't seem to matter as much as taking the journey with that composer?


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## userfume (Nov 21, 2012)

I feel like that about some music by Beethoven, like his violin and piano sonatas and string quartets, which aren't immediately melodic but you can instantly tell are "something special". 
I found a similar sensation with Schubert's 9th symphony, and with much Shostakovich music like you, for example the first cello concerto.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)




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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Bach, Mahler, Schubert, Brahms, Shostakovich come to mind. And lately I would have to add Wagner to that list.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)




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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I hope I have not met Her/Him yet, I believe that music which will/can fulfil my mentality is the one I yet have to discover, but I also know that as soon as I've reached a new peak of fulfilment I fall over the crest looking for a new fix... 

But then, there is lots of music from the stone age until now that I can dig whilst looking for fulfilment!

/ptr


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Bach has it all in terms of mental engagement.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Medtner, Bach, Brahms, Bartok, Beethoven(sometimes), Bruckner, Byrd, Gibbons, Bull, and some modernists like Elliot Carter(sometimes) if one is open to the extreme dissonance.

I also find Haydn very fulfilling mentally. His output is very fascinating. Same with Carl Philip Bach.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I don't know, I suppose ultimately I have to fulfil myself mentally. Though all music I like, from the most "profound" to the most "trivial," I find mentally engaging.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Never mind. 

I was curious if you have preferences crudblud?


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> Never mind.
> 
> I was curious if you have preferences crudblud?


Of composers? Well, at the moment I'm actually not listening to much music at all, mostly reading and thinking, but some of the composers I've been listening to with relative regularity include Mahler, Carter, B.A Zimmermann and Stravinsky. All four of these would really be in my overall top 20 if I had to make such a list, so I suppose they are not particularly surprising answers.

I have to say, I am curious to know what you replaced with "never mind."


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

This 'fulfilled mentally' phrase doesn't compute. Whatcha really talkin about, _Sonata_?


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

All of my favorite composers!, that's the reason why they are my favorites in the first place!.


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## Feathers (Feb 18, 2013)

I don't know if I've understood Sonata's question correctly, but I find it most mentally fulfilling when it's music that I play or composed, because that's when the music gets fully processed from the brain to the physical response. Of course, the quality of the music is a totally different story...

Edit: I reread the original post, and I think I misunderstood the question.


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## TresPicos (Mar 21, 2009)

I think one of the most fulfilling journeys you can undertake is to discover all the different levels on which classical music can be enjoyed. From the most obvious and "legit" ones like enjoying music for its traditional beauty, for its emotion or for the mad skills of the composer, to enjoying music for its unconventional beauty, for the intellectual aspects, for the way it's like scratching when you itch, for the way it's like nothing you've ever heard before, for the "mental fulfillment" or even "spiritual" fulfillment.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Modernism has been telling people for years that music is part of the quadrivium; but they're too busy running in slow-motion towards their lover, in a large open field of flowers, while Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" theme plays, for it to register.

Sometimes the best thing to do after a hard day's work is to "turn off" your mental ticker-tape machine and simply "flow." John Cage does it for me every time, as does Morton Feldman, John Field, Chopin, and Stockhausen. I suspect that anything which "engages you on the journey" and avoids overt emotionalism will fit the bill for others as well.


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## sharik (Jan 23, 2013)

Sonata said:


> "mentally stimulating"


well i've always presumed that classical music should do this to me, otherwise its not classical music.


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## Borodin (Apr 8, 2013)

Borodin has fulfilled me the most out of anyone, but I think raw fulfillment is most dependent on one's momentary mood than it is any singular mood.

edit: also John Williams


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Hilltroll72 said:


> This 'fulfilled mentally' phrase doesn't compute. Whatcha really talkin about, _Sonata_?


Well, I suppose "Fulfilled" was the wrong word completely. I mean mentally ENGAGING as Taggart said. I'm not much of an analyst Hilltroll, so it's not an idea I've spent a lot of time picking apart. Merely that there seems to be composers that hit me on a different level. Music that seems to say "come along for the ride, even if you don't like all the notes that are being played". Consciously I'm thinking "this part is too bombastic, or this musical idea didn't take the turn I hoped it would" but yet I am compelled to listen rather than turning it aside. I don't ENJOY this music in a traditional sense all time yet I am mesmerized or intruiged by it. That's the best I can explain it.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Feathers said:


> I don't know if I've understood Sonata's question correctly, but I find it most mentally fulfilling when it's music that I play or composed, because that's when the music gets fully processed from the brain to the physical response. Of course, the quality of the music is a totally different story...
> 
> Edit: I reread the original post, and I think I misunderstood the question.


It's actually still a very good answer though


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## cwarchc (Apr 28, 2012)

Satie, if I'm in the right mood
otherwise Shostakovich


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## IBMchicago (May 16, 2012)

Bach for his masterful engineering of tonality.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

No discussion...Beethoven is the main man!!


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## Guest (Apr 11, 2013)

Yes, the trouble with the whole premise is that the only reasonable answer is "all," which is not all that illuminatin'.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Sonata said:


> ...
> 
> Shostakovich now is my other example of "mentally stimulating" composers to me. Now I cannot compare him to Mahler in terms of what his music means to me. Mahler has EVERYTHING. I don't feel that way with Shostakovich, not now at least. But I am somehow compelled to listen, it's doing something for me even if I can't say "I am deeply moved by this" or "wow what great harmony" or "love that melody". The journey is more important than the destination.
> 
> ...


Its been the same sorts of composers for me lately. Mahler, Shostakovich, also Bruckner. Really getting into long symphonies which do draw me in. Takes effort but worth it. Also love their thematic unity/development of ideas across a whole piece. Also their unique visions and ways of addressing tradition as well as the times in which they lived. For me the split between Bruckner and Mahler is crucial. Bruckner has belief, but in Mahler you got heaps of doubt. & in Shostakovich, horror at events not even imagined by the earlier guys.

Its definitely cathartic, mental, intellectual, profound, gut, the whole thing. I definitely do tend to listen to, or focus on, things that draw me for whatever reason. Its just a feeling, and it can be fleeting. However with these composers, my recent forays into their music has been the longest phase in classical I've gone through with individual composers (esp. Bruckner). & its still continuing, I'm not over this phase yet, but I'm still mixing it up with other musics, since otherwise its too heavy going.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Varese no question


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## opus55 (Nov 9, 2010)

If I understood the topic correctly, I'd say Beethoven and Haydn for me, most notably their string quartets and symphonies. Their music is beautiful as well but there is something beyond musical beauty. I'm enjoying the structure and balance as if I'm constructing a well designed building in my mind. Music sounds intelligent and I think my brain likes it 

Some Shostakovich string quartets also seem to have similar effect.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Going by the OP's definition of music that can be hard to connect with initially yet still seems to satisfy on some level, pressing one to explore further... I would say for me this composer is Bartok.


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## Guest (Apr 12, 2013)

There are some composers whom I feel I can easily follow their thought processes through their music - Beethoven certainly, but also Sarasate and Cras as well. Probably several others which don't spring to mind at the moment. Rota, at this exact moment.

There are other composers whom I just can't follow, and as a result their music just seems to meander randomly for me. Not necessarily unpleasantly so, but generally I prefer to understand where the music is going and why.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Although Dvorak is my most favorite composer, some of Schumann's works have fulfilled me mentally even more than the best of Dvorak


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

To me the answer is Brahms. Most of his music is "beautiful" as well, but it doesn't matter if it isn't. You can usually hear a kind of pattern in his music - his use of motifs most of all - and follow it or discover it more and more and more. He's almost ruthlessly dedicated to his motifs, so even if you don't like or enjoy the music in a romantic sense, you can find listening to it interesting.

This makes Brahms sound like a modernist, doesn't it? Funny how it doesn't matter at all - he was harmonically conservative, therefore he was simply and obviously a musical reactionary. Wouldnta done nothin Schumann wouldnta done. Sorry. Back to intellectual fulfillment.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

Maybe as you listen to more music it's harder to be completely fulfilled by just one kind of music. There may be some music that you go back to more than others but I'm not sure that's the same thing, some contrast with another type is probably needed to keep even favourites fresh.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I would say Brucker has a lot and so does Brahms. Medtner piano concertos and sonatas fill me up beyond capacity mentally. Beethoven possibly had it all in the mental department.

If I'm to think in these terms.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

millionrainbows said:


> Modernism has been telling people for years that music is part of the quadrivium; but they're too busy running in slow-motion towards their lover, in a large open field of flowers, while Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" theme plays, for it to register.
> 
> Sometimes the best thing to do after a hard day's work is to "turn off" your mental ticker-tape machine and simply "flow." John Cage does it for me every time, as does Morton Feldman, John Field, Chopin, and Stockhausen. I suspect that anything which "engages you on the journey" and avoids overt emotionalism will fit the bill for others as well.


John Field does flow indeed!

Saint Saens possibly had it all...those french late romantics...


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Scriabin's music is very "cerebral" to me; his interest in mysticism and theosophy and his alleged synesthesia puts the music on a different level beyond most other composers.


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