Your Favourite Composers-Reality & Perception

[Beef Oven!]

Asked in a pub who are my favourite composers, I'd say Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert , Wagner, Bruckner and Mahler.

What would you say, and do you think it squares with your listening habits?

Looking through my 'recently played' on iTunes etc, and checking what's on my iPod/pad/FiiO/Sony &c a different picture is shown ...

1. Bruckner
2. Mahler
3. Bartók
4. Sibelius
5. Webern
6. Ravel
7. Debussy
8. Messiaen
9. Boulez
10. Rachmaninov !!!!!!!


Rachmaninov never enters my ken/radar ever! But I seem to listen to his piano music more than I listen to Wagner!!

[Lat-Literal]

Every one in your two lists could be described as substantial.

It's an interesting and varied selection but there is nothing on it that is especially obscure.

I'm not saying that is a good or a bad thing. It's just noted.

Perception:

01 Vaughan Williams
02 Delius
03 Faure
04 Rachmaninov
05 Copland
06 Debussy
07 Puccini
08 Villa Lobos
09 Ruth Gipps
10 Lou Harrison

......although I suspect that everything other than the top four could be replaced by others.

I hope to do reality in my next post.

[Lat-Literal]

Reality:

Walton would be No 1 but that is not a reflection of preference.

It was just something I was exploring in depth.

01 Panufnik
02 Vaughan Williams
03 Sibelius
04 Alexander Tcherepnin
05 Griffes
06 Respighi
07 Blackwood McEwen
08 Kodaly
09 Ciurlionis
10 Ives
11 Jean Cras
12 Grace Williams
13 Cowell
14 Barber
15 Duparc
16 Brahms
17 Ravel
18 Borodin
19 Rautavaara
20 Moncayo

[Beef Oven!]

Thanks Lat, look forward to your real list.

Yes, nothing obscure in my list. I'd love to think that I'm progressive, but I'm actually quite conservative in my listening habits.

In fact, if I limit my analysis to the last 2 years, Vivaldi comes in at no.5.

If I take into account purchases and anecdotal recommendations, Vivaldi comes in at no.3!!!

[Lat-Literal]

Thanks Lat, look forward to your real list.

Yes, nothing obscure in my list. I'd love to think that I'm progressive, but I'm actually quite conservative in my listening habits.

In fact, if I limit my analysis to the last 2 years, Vivaldi comes in at no.5.

If I take into account purchases and anecdotal recommendations, Vivaldi comes in at no.3!!!

Oh, the real list.

So unfairly maligned, fabulous harmonies, this is on repeat 24/7:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0RF7nR_o2A

[Beef Oven!]

Oh, the real list.

So unfairly maligned, fabulous harmonies, this is on repeat 24/7:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0RF7nR_o2A

An almost perfect pop-song. Takes me back to my school days. Even though I was young, I totally got what the song was about, even if Radio 1 DJs didn't!!!

Then Punk came along and the rest is history!!

[Lat-Literal]

An almost perfect pop-song. Takes me back to my school days. Even though I was young, I totally got what the song was about, even if Radio 1 DJs didn't!!!

Then Punk came along and the rest is history!!

What is the song about?

Actually, don't answer that.

I was surprised to hear that you were listening to so much Vivaldi.

Interesting.

Looking forward to seeing other people's lists - they will get us back on track.

[Beef Oven!]

What is the song about?

Actually, don't answer that.

I was surprised to hear that you were listening to so much Vivaldi.

Interesting.

Looking forward to seeing other people's lists - they will get us back on track.

[jayne lee wilson]

I think I can answer this honestly, in the sense of recalling what I've been listening to most, and recurrently, (and thinking about, lovingly, the most), over the last few years -
In no especial, or merely chronological, order:

Haydn
Schumann
Mendelssohn
Bruckner
Roussel
Martinu

[BBMmk2]

I think I can answer this honestly, in the sense of recalling what I've been listening to most, and recurrently, (and thinking about, lovingly, the most), over the last few years -
In no especial, or merely chronological, order:

Haydn
Schumann
Mendelssohn
Bruckner
Roussel
Martinu

Not Mahler, JLW?

Mine in no particular order

Debussy
Sibelius
Bax
Walton
Byrd
Vaughan Williams
Tallis
Shostakovich
Mahler
Wagner
Bruckner
Haydn
Britten
Elgar
Handel
Peter Graham
Philip Sparke
Edward Gregson

[antongould]

Beethoven
Bach
Bruckner
Mahler
Mozart
Ravel
Finzi
Prokofiev
Brahms
Vaughan Williams

[Joseph K]

Excluding Jazz artists -

Bach
Beethoven
Liszt
Debussy
Messiaen
Carter
Xenakis
Boulez
Ferneyhough
Barrett

Of course, I like many, many more composers than that, but these are who I have seemed to have played more over the past years...

[teamsaint]

My own take on this would be composers, or areas of interest that I would study some aspect of in depth given , ( or if I made ) the opportunity.

High on that list would be

Schumann.

The relationships between folk music and more formal music in the Baroque era.

Berlioz.

[BBMmk2]

Not Mahler, JLW?

Mine in no particular order

Debussy
Sibelius
Bax
Walton
Byrd
Vaughan Williams
Tallis
Shostakovich
Mahler
Wagner
Bruckner
Haydn
Britten
Elgar
Handel
Peter Graham
Philip Sparke
Edward Gregson

BACH!!!!

[Petrushka]

I've been asked this question a few times over the years and I immediately answer with the great orchestral music of the late 19th and early to late 20th century, hence Mahler and Bruckner above all followed by Elgar, Strauss, Schoenberg, Berg, Shostakovich and Stravinsky.

I started out with Wagner and moved forward in my early listening years quite quickly to Mahler, Bruckner, Strauss, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Messiaen. I actually found in later years that moving backwards to Haydn, Mozart and even some Beethoven was much more difficult. It amused me some years ago to read that Simon Rattle had the same problem.