# Most 'beautiful' composer



## SeanW (Jul 5, 2011)

Not looks wise, of course, but in the music. Which composer do you think created the highest number of works you would consider 'beautiful'? Schubert? Tchaikovsky? Mozart?

Cheers,

Sean


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## Artemis (Dec 8, 2007)

SeanW said:


> Not looks wise, of course, but in the music. Which composer do you think created the highest number of works you would consider 'beautiful'? Schubert? Tchaikovsky? Mozart?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Sean


Are we allowed to weight our calculations by such concepts as augmentation, diminution, inversion, thematic breakdown, intensity of chromaticism etc?

No? I thought not, just plain beauty.

In that case, it's got to be a tie between Schubert and Mozart, although if I was really pressed I might opt for Schubert by a whisker simply because I'm going through a severe Schubertian time of life. Tchaikovsky might have been my answer some 20-25 years ago, but since then I've fallen prey to the likes of the aforementioned, many of whose works are so utterly boo- ti- full.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Oh dear... I was all prepared to comment on the physical beauty of some composers! On how the young Schubert was an absolute _stud_, and how Ravel has a certain enigmatic charisma, but then you had to say that, no, it's not about looks, it's about _music_. Now the question is just pure nonsense!

My answer would be Brahms on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday; Schubert on Tuesday and Thursday; and either Mendelssohn or Schumann on a sentimental Saturday.


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## Curiosity (Jul 10, 2011)

These guys


















Oh, my mistake, you meant musically. 

Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Morricone are three names that come to mind. Assuming by "beauty" you refer to gorgeous, lyrical melodies... which seems to be the usual implication of the word when used in a musical context.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

lol curiostiy, way to steal Polednice's joke.


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## Curiosity (Jul 10, 2011)

He beat me to it actually.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I figured that, just pulling your chain.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Polednice said:


> [...]
> My answer would be Brahms on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday; Schubert on Tuesday and Thursday; and either Mendelssohn or Schumann on a sentimental Saturday.


I'm not even sure what constitutes beauty in music; it seems amorphous to me. I can think on Chausson's _Poeme_, and it's beautiful. Or on _Amazing Grace_ in some renditions (whoever composed it), or Beethoven's _Op. 109_, and they're just as beautiful. It is not an easy thing to grade the sublime. Plus, how many beautiful works per composer need be considered? Do four A- works equal 0ne A+ work?



I do believe I have rained enough on this parade.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Debussy
Bach
Beethoven


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Tchaikovsky or Schubert.

Chabrier is worthy of mention, though he didn't write very much most of it is of the highest melodic and harmonic quality.


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## Nix (Feb 20, 2010)

SAMUEL BARBER. 

Adagio for Strings + 1st and 2nd movt. of Violin Concerto + 2nd movt of Cello Concerto + 2nd movt of Piano Concerto + Knoxville Summer of 1915 = Win. 

Composers have different kinds of beauty, and Barbers beauty is the kind of beauty I like... if that makes sense. Mozart's beauty is like appreciating the little things in life... like when you move somewhere else and realize there are no birds singing in the morning. Beethoven's beauty is more traditional, and a little more 1 dimensional I feel... like someone who loves things that everyone finds beautiful (women and nature). Brahms' beauty is usually caught up in love and longing, and Wagner is more caught up with sex and longing. 

I also feel that while a composer can write a piece at any tempo, there are certain tempo's that match their sound ideal, and are more of actual characterizations of themselves. Slow movements are often associated with beauty, and with Barber I feel like slow movements often match Barber the man as a person, more then any tempo. I'm not hearing what Barber finds beautiful when he writes slow things, I hear Barber himself.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Schumann
Tschaikowski
Beethoven
Etcetera...


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

I'm thinking Bach for his musical inner beauty (logic, symmetry, etc.), and Debussy for outer beauty and obvious gestures of enchantment. Rachmaninoff for both.

Some Schoenberg, because there are different kinds of beauty.


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## Amfibius (Jul 19, 2006)

I would have to nominate Schubert. Nearly everything he wrote was extremely sensitive and touching.


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## Rasa (Apr 23, 2009)

Bach

Chopin

Can't pick. Then again, apples and pears.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I have to go with Mozart for the sheer volume of beautiful works in so many different genres. I guess I'd put Schubert, Beethoven, and Brahms a step behind.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I'd go a bit farther back and nominate* Monteverdi*. One can scarcely hear the 1610 Vespers and remain aloof to it regardless of spirituality. Also *John Dowland* wrote some stunningly beautiful melodies.

Other candidates I neglected to see mentioned might be: 
*Franz Berwald* who uses remarkable often quite beautiful themes, 
*Gabriel Faure 
Alan Hovhaness*
*Gyorgi Ligeti *(sometimes)
*Joaquín Rodrigo
Ralph Vaughan-Williams *(sometimes)
*Leo Weiner *(sometimes)


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

I would definitely nominate Aaron Copland, Benjamin Brtitten and Vaughan Williams to be included on any such list.


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## SonjiaWeber (Aug 7, 2011)

I also have to go with Mozart, the Beauty of his late Piano and Violin concertos, second would be Beethoven and Debussy and Chopin


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

The most "beautiful" composers for me are the ones that don't only give surface beauty but something more. That something, that "it" factor, is hard to put down in words (let alone in music - that's why these guys were/are so great). I can't disagree with the composers listed by people above. & I agree with guys like member Hilltroll, in suggesting that beauty need not be heavy and profound, it can be light, simple, even whimsical. I wouldn't put someone like Erik Satie (or even John Cage - check out his simply beautious _In a Landscape_) below say eg. Brahms or Schubert in that regard...


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## Theophrastus (Aug 13, 2011)

Well it all hinges on what you mean by beauty. Do you mean pretty? Or is it what Rilke talked about: beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror? In that case I think Beethoven qualifies.


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## SonjiaWeber (Aug 7, 2011)

*Well let's set the record straight! Here is the most "Beautiful" composer by looks and Music..*


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

wagner


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Something tells me he is idealized a bit in that portrait. ^

If you want physical beauty combined with musical beauty, it would be hard to top this lady.










Okay, she's probably idealized too.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Weston said:


> Something tells me he is idealized a bit in that portrait...


Yeah, & I think that most of Mozart's portraits were done posthumously, after his passing, so I don't even know if we have even a vaguely accurate portrait of the man. It seems it's all fantasy, including the famous portrait on those Mozart chocolates they sell in Salzburg, I think it was done about 20-30 years after he had died. There's the "real" Mozart, then there's the Mozart "cult," & same goes with many other composers, it seems...


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

Beauty comes in all shapes and forms.

I find Stravinsky's Rite very beautiful, for its primitiveness and sensuality and those ugly, ugly chords that are so ugly they are beautiful.

I find the simplicity of a Satie Gymnopedie or a Part work very beautiful too - purity that touches the soul. Sometimes being bared down to a minimum may have greater aesthetic worth than any elaborate ornamentation one can hear.

I find the second act love duet of Tristan a pinnacle of what beauty is. The high romance and soaring of passions defines beauty of the human spirit and of human emotion. The intertwining of orchestra and voice - the way it is done - that too can be called beautiful.

Schumann and Chopin's piano works, intricate with passages, class, and absolutely "pianissimo" subtlety, simply flow with beauty. It is in these works that poetry can speak freely, in a beauty that perhaps surpasses them all.

Not to mention the sorrow in Schubert's Winterreise - a longing that goes far beyond physical experience into a realm that is most surely divine. Any music that speaks of such great sadness must be beautiful.

And Beethoven's 9th. Beyond the music, beyond the technicality - the spirit of human freedom - now _that_ is truly beautiful. Is this idealism to be considered beauty? I would think so, since it the absolutely most important thing when it comes to my appreciation and understanding of this one work.

And may I mention, 4'33" falls into that category. A moment of silence is golden. And truly beautiful.

Everything _can be_ beautiful, even if it does not twinkle and sing to one's ears.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

I don't believe Elgar has been mentioned yet. There are places of transcendent beauty in his work. If I measure beauty by impact and quality rather than by mere quantity, nothing compares with "Nimrod" from the Enigma Variations or the reflective longing of the Cello Concerto. Elgarian could no doubt give you plenty of examples from the choral works as well. Plus, the solo violin works...


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## haydnfan (Apr 13, 2011)

Mozart, Dvorak, Wagner, Schubert, Bruckner, Chopin, Vivaldi.


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## Charon (Sep 8, 2008)

Mozart, Schubert, Bach, and Chopin are the first the strike my mind when it comes to beauty in music.


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