Least Favorite Composers

[bflatminor24]

Which composers are your least favorite? I'll start by listing mine...Here we go. In order:

1. Stockhausen
2. Cage
3. Milhaud
4. Stravinsky
5. Bartok
6. Xenakis
7. Bernstein
8. Copland
9. Gershwin
10. Khatchaturian
11. Kabalevsky
12. Aaron Jay Kernis

I think they're UGLY soundin'! Ugh. Anyone else is fine.

~Max~

[chopinfan_22]

I'm sure there have been hundreds of threads on the topic, but oh well.

1. Bach
2. Haydn
3. Handel


That petty much wraps it up.

[steve_m]

I'm sure there have been hundreds of threads on the topic, but oh well.

1. Bach
2. Haydn
3. Handel


That petty much wraps it up.

Why do you not like Bach?

[chopinfan_22]

I just find it... boring. I mean, don't get me wrong. I greatly appreciate what he's done for music. Him, as well as Haydn and Handel... but... I just find them dull and not at all fun to listen to or play.

[phil13]

I just find it... boring. I mean, don't get me wrong. I greatly appreciate what he's done for music. Him, as well as Haydn and Handel... but... I just find them dull and not at all fun to listen to or play.

You should learn the D minor Concerto. Bloody amazing piece of music. I know several people who do not care for Bach but truly enjoy this piece.



As per your question, Max, as it is a subjective one... It's pretty close to yours, but with some differences. Remove Gershwin, Bartok, Khachaturian and Stravinsky and add anybody who doesn't know anything about composing and is obviously writing poor-grade music.

Phil

[jre58591]

I just find it... boring. I mean, don't get me wrong. I greatly appreciate what he's done for music. Him, as well as Haydn and Handel... but... I just find them dull and not at all fun to listen to or play.

i share your feelings exactly. bach's d minor concerto is great, but busoni's transcription of it is better. transcriptions of bach's pieces usually are the ones that catch my interest, as is the case for the others. max, why dont you like gershwin and milhaud? theyre the nicest sounding on that list. kabalevsky is also another that could be debated.

[bachfan87]

John Cage, of course 

Don't really care for Shosty at all, really.

[bella musica]

I rise up in protest, bachfan87!  Shosty is the coolest!  His piano trios are AWESOME, especially the second one!

[thalbergmad]

1. Schumann
2. Schumann
3. Schumann
4. Schumann
5. Schumann
6. Schumann
7. Schumann
8. Schumann
9. Schumann
10. Schumann

[xavierm]

1. Schumann
2. Schumann
3. Schumann
4. Schumann
5. Schumann
6. Schumann
7. Schumann
8. Schumann
9. Schumann
10. Schumann

I'm glad someone said it and not me.

[jre58591]

1. Schumann
2. Schumann
3. Schumann
4. Schumann
5. Schumann
6. Schumann
7. Schumann
8. Schumann
9. Schumann
10. Schumann

yaaaaayy!

[shasta]

Prokofiev
Wagner
Mahler

[mephisto]

1. Schumann
2. Schumann
3. Schumann
4. Schumann
5. Schumann
6. Schumann
7. Schumann
8. Schumann
9. Schumann
10. Schumann

Idiot.

[Kassaa]

Schumann is possibly the best piano composer after Beethoven and Chopin.

[lisztisforkids]

1. Schumann
2. Schumann
3. Schumann
4. Schumann
5. Schumann
6. Schumann
7. Schumann
8. Schumann
9. Schumann
10. Schumann

 True.

[phil13]

1. Schumann
2. Schumann
3. Schumann
4. Schumann
5. Schumann
6. Schumann
7. Schumann
8. Schumann
9. Schumann
10. Schumann

I'm glad someone said it and not me.

yaaaaayy!

True.

Would you all like to explain to me why?

I like Schumann. His music feels soothing to me, especially Kinderszenen and the Piano Concerto.

Phil

[princess_moose]

1. Bach
2. Handel
3. Corelli

Anything Baroque really....

[xavierm]

Would you all like to explain to me why?

I like Schumann. His music feels soothing to me, especially Kinderszenen and the Piano Concerto.

Phil

Hmmm... I guess I'll try to take on this burden. Speaking just for myself, there seems to be no defining, original, or structurally prolific quality to *most* of his pieces. For me, the lack of specific goals and/or visions makes a lot of it, frankly, boring to me and leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth. In the interest of full disclosure this is coming from someone who's favorite composers of all time are Beethoven and Prokofiev, both of whom are very deliberate at giving a direct message, be it with thematic manipulation or another technique of the same vein. Schumann iseems to lack many qualities I adore in a composer, and at times I find it hard to see his originality. That's just me though, and I doubt that made any sense anyway... meh.... I can't really explain it fully.

[bflatminor24]

Here's the problem with your opinion.

The criteria you use to judge Schumann's compositions can also be applied to many *lesser* composers to a higher degree. You don't like long-winded, structurally free, indirect music? Well doesn't that entail disliking many other composers who were more flagrant offenders than Schumann?

Sorabji certainly was. And I love Sorabji.

What about Medtner? There are tons more examples. I'm not even mentioning the unheard of composers with little redeeming quality.

~Max~

[ahinton]

The principal pleasure that I have so far taken in this thread is that no one has cited me yet. That must mean something good. Probably only that no one has yet gotten around to it, however. It's surely only a matter of that alleged "great healer" that we know as "time"...

Best,

Alistair

[dave santino]

1. Mozart.
2. Haydn.
3. Schubert, although I'm coming round a bit now.

[bflatminor24]

The principal pleasure that I have so far taken in this thread is that no one has cited me yet. That must mean something good. Probably only that no one has yet gotten around to it, however. It's surely only a matter of that alleged "great healer" that we know as "time"...

Best,

Alistair

You, Alistair, are a wonderful composer. Now I'm going to change this thread.

Name your FAVORITE and LEAST FAVORITE contemporary composers. That is, composers who were born after 1925 or so. I can name a few.

Favorites:

Lowell Liebermann
Eliot Carter
Morton Feldman
Philip Glass
Alistair Hinton
Ronald Stevenson
Michael Finnissy
Frederic Rzewski
Gyorgy Ligeti
Nikolai Kapustin

Least Favorites:

Karlheinz Stockhausen
Leonard Bernstein
Iannis Xenakis
Aaron Copland
Pierre Boulez
Béla Bartok
Darius Milhaud

Thoughts?

~Max~

[netzow]

1. Cage
2. Mahler
3. Milhaud
4. Bartok
5. Olsen

[jre58591]

favorites (no order):
1. liebermann
2. ligeti
3. rzewski
4. milhaud
5. kapustin
6. ornstein
7. finnissy

im still thinking up a list for my least favorites

[xavierm]

Here's the problem with your opinion.

The criteria you use to judge Schumann's compositions can also be applied to many *lesser* composers to a higher degree. You don't like long-winded, structurally free, indirect music? Well doesn't that entail disliking many other composers who were more flagrant offenders than Schumann?

Sorabji certainly was. And I love Sorabji.

What about Medtner? There are tons more examples. I'm not even mentioning the unheard of composers with little redeeming quality.

~Max~

It's not so much that I can't accept the structurally free or at all indirect. I love Medtner - absolutely love him - as well as others much "worse" than Schumann. However, maybe a better way to put it is, Schumann is almost TOO intellectual, insofar as he overcompensates for form and function (thus losing originality) and makes himself seem formless and structureless. I've been through many a class where we have analyzed Schumann compositions and they are a lot more rigid than people think. Maybe therein lies part of his genius that I only realize now. However, the bottom line is it just doesn't suit my taste, but I think he should still be included among the upper-eschelon of composers, but NEVER near the very top. Ever.

[bflatminor24]

It's not so much that I can't accept the structurally free or at all indirect. I love Medtner - absolutely love him - as well as others much "worse" than Schumann. However, maybe a better way to put it is, Schumann is almost TOO intellectual, insofar as he overcompensates for form and function (thus losing originality) and makes himself seem formless and structureless. I've been through many a class where we have analyzed Schumann compositions and they are a lot more rigid than people think. Maybe therein lies part of his genius that I only realize now. However, the bottom line is it just doesn't suit my taste, but I think he should still be included among the upper-eschelon of composers, but NEVER near the very top. Ever.

Yes, but I asked everyone to list their FAVORITE and their LEAST FAVORITE composers, not ones they believe to be overrated, mediocre, or decent. There have been previous polls and threads for those questions. I'm looking for best and worst. And I highly doubt Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, Handel, Bach, Corelli, Telemann, or other well known examples would make either 'favorite' nor 'least favorite.'

~Max~

[xavierm]

Yes, but I asked everyone to list their FAVORITE and their LEAST FAVORITE composers, not ones they believe to be overrated, mediocre, or decent. There have been previous polls and threads for those questions. I'm looking for best and worst. And I highly doubt Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, Handel, Bach, Corelli, Telemann, or other well known examples would make either 'favorite' nor 'least favorite.'

~Max~

Well, then Schumann DOES make my least favorite list, since favorite implies opinion and not how skilled we think the composer is.

[ahinton]

You, Alistair, are a wonderful composer. Now I'm going to change this thread.

Thank you very much for the compliment; I hope that I can mange to deserve it!

Name your FAVORITE and LEAST FAVORITE contemporary composers. That is, composers who were born after 1925 or so. I can name a few.

Favorites:

Lowell Liebermann
Eliot Carter
Morton Feldman
Philip Glass
Alistair Hinton
Ronald Stevenson
Michael Finnissy
Frederic Rzewski
Gyorgy Ligeti
Nikolai Kapustin

Least Favorites:

Karlheinz Stockhausen
Leonard Bernstein
Iannis Xenakis
Aaron Copland
Pierre Boulez
Béla Bartok
Darius Milhaud

Since you have been so kind, it seems churlish to mention this (so forgive me), but Carter (whose forename has 2 "l"s and 2 "t"s, by the way) and Copland - and especially Milhaud and Bartók - were born long before 1925...

Best,

Alistair

[bflatminor24]

I said AROUND 1925. God I'm so amazingly STONED right now. Jesus Damn Gigitee goo! 

[mephisto]

You, Alistair, are a wonderful composer. Now I'm going to change this thread.

Name your FAVORITE and LEAST FAVORITE contemporary composers. That is, composers who were born after 1925 or so. I can name a few.

Béla Bartok


~Max~

I see you find it har to understand numbers

[apion]

1. Schumann
2. Schumann
3. Schumann
4. Schumann
5. Schumann
6. Schumann
7. Schumann
8. Schumann
9. Schumann
10. Schumann

Much of Schumann's oeuvre hovers around the "above average" to "very good" ranking, but pieces that are "great" are few and far between.  His great works include: piano concerto; Symphonic Etudes; and Toccata op. 7.

Among composers who wrote for the piano with some regularity, the composer with the WORST piano oeuvre is Tchaikovsky.

[moi_not_toi]

Schumann is possibly the best piano composer after Beethoven and Chopin.

Good God. Do you ever listen to Romantic Era Music??

[bflatminor24]

I see you find it har to understand numbers

I see you find it hard to understand spelling

You schmuck.

Best,

~Max~

[steve_m]

df

[bflatminor24]

You're becoming worse than soliloquy.  At least he knew what he was talking about, every now and then.

No, I'm not worse because I'm not serious. I'm messing with you! 

~Max~

And I know what the Hell I am talking about. Gigitee gigitee goo. Allllllright.

[sissco]

No, I'm not worse because I'm not serious. I'm messing with you! 

~Max~

And I know what the Hell I am talking about. Gigitee gigitee goo. Allllllright.

Yeah family guy fan hereeee 

Least Favourite:

Tchaikovsky
Prokofiev
Bartok

[bflatminor24]

Yeah family guy fan hereeee 

Least Favourite:

Tchaikovsky
Prokofiev
Bartok

Woman: Why aren't you in bed?
Quagmire: Why are YOU still here?

Gigitee gigitee goo! 

Tony Robbins....HUNGRY 

[prometheus]

Good God. Do you ever listen to Romantic Era Music??

What do you think Chopin and Schumann are?

I don't connect with Schumann either but I don't really see the need to mention him. As for Cage, since when is he an actual composer?

[xavierm]

What do you think Chopin and Schumann are?

I don't connect with Schumann either but I don't really see the need to mention him. As for Cage, since when is he an actual composer?

Oohhh. snap.

Get ready to dodge bullets my friend.

[bflatminor24]

Xavierm, please explain to us humble folk what makes John Cage an "actual composer." And let the bullet dodging begin, you weirdo.

~Max~

[xavierm]

I never said he wasn't. I was just pointing out to Prometheus that he will have to defend himself on that point.

BTW - Why do you hate me?

[bflatminor24]

I never said he wasn't. I was just pointing out to Prometheus that he will have to defend himself on that point.

BTW - Why do you hate me?

I don't hate you man, I'm a pianist/stoner. I don't hate anyone. EXCEPT Soliloquy, that bastard...

But yeah, you are chill, everyone is pretty much chill, very few exceptions.

AIM = bflatminor24 if you want to trade recordings. I'm part of a music sharing group and we trade complete recordings of pretty much anything from Bach to Finnissy, Sorabji, Alkan, Godowsky, etc.

†

[xavierm]

I don't hate you man, I'm a pianist/stoner. I don't hate anyone. EXCEPT Soliloquy, that bastard...

But yeah, you are chill, everyone is pretty much chill, very few exceptions.

AIM = bflatminor24 if you want to trade recordings. I'm part of a music sharing group and we trade complete recordings of pretty much anything from Bach to Finnissy, Sorabji, Alkan, Godowsky, etc.

†

Haha... ok. I was mostly kidding. But wouldn't being a pianist AND a stoner be like a double negative or something and actually cancel each other out and make you a hateful person?  Prob not, just a thought.

That's a pretty cool thing... I've only recently gotten into Sorabji and Finnissy even, and I really need to hear more of their rep because I've heard mostly good things about them. I also have a pretty decent size collection of music.
AIM=helixxx104... I'm off for the night... but maybe we'll chat later. Peace.

[Nightscape]

Alistair Hinton, I didn't realize you were a composer.  For some reason, I thought you were a music critic or something.


And how could anyone hate Copland!  Listen to his piano concerto, The Red Pony, Music for a Great City.....

[Nightscape]

I don't really dislike any of the great composers, but I must say that Handel hasn't overtly moved me yet.

[bflatminor24]

Alistair Hinton, I didn't realize you were a composer.  For some reason, I thought you were a music critic or something.


And how could anyone hate Copland!  Listen to his piano concerto, The Red Pony, Music for a Great City.....

There is nothing more odious to me than American music. I HATE Gershwin. I despise Copland. I detest Bernstein. And I loathe Cage. It would make absolutely no difference to me if these composers had not existed. I don't care if people flame me, I've tried listening to their music with absolutely no appeal. GAWD.

~Max~

[paulmt]

How can you not like Bernstein!  Come on West Side Stories MAN! How about Samuel Barber? His works are beautiful. 

Oh check your PM Bflat sent you a msg.

[ahinton]

Alistair Hinton, I didn't realize you were a composer.  For some reason, I thought you were a music critic or something.

Well, I am very thankful that you now know that I am the one and not the other!

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

There is nothing more odious to me than American music. I HATE Gershwin. I despise Copland. I detest Bernstein. And I loathe Cage. It would make absolutely no difference to me if these composers had not existed. I don't care if people flame me, I've tried listening to their music with absolutely no appeal. GAWD.

Well, everthing cannot appeal to everyone, for sure. Bernstein was, to me, more important as a conductor than as any of the other things that he did so well - and he performed sterling service in that capacity to many of his contemporaries as well as to earlier composers. For West Side Story to elicit my admiration is quite an achievement for someone like me for whom the Alerican musical has little appeal. There was far more to LB than just that, however, although I would not pretend that he wa one of the truly gret American composers.

There's not a lot of Copland that appeals to me either, but let us not forget his immense importance in the history of American music - again, he did so much for other American composers that his presence in American music can simply not be denied. But for other American composers - you've not mentioned Sessions or Carter, or some of the middle-century symphonists like Harris, Schuman, Mennin et al; what do you feel about these?

Best,

Alistair

[bflatminor24]

The reason I singled out those four composers was because I feel they typify American style - jazzy, not too serious, catchy, unintellectual, and idealistic (Cage). They come nowhere near the giants of Germany, France, Russia, and even England for that matter.

As for some other American composers who I DO like, they aren't typical. Liebermann, Hinton, Stevenson, Rzewski, Carter, Feldman and many others show greater influence of Russian, French and German composers than they do the American ones. I also like listening to Gottschalk, because even though his music isn't serious, it has a very distinct romantic style I find much more appealing than anything Bernstein, Copland and Gershwin wrote.

And people, please spare me the incessant "but what about West Side Story? What about Rhapsody in Blue?" First of all, those are the ONLY "great" masterworks of those composers, and even those pieces come nowhere near to appealing. I despise even them. They have a lazy, annoying, jazzy sound that is unequivocally American. They sound superficial. American music by these composers isn't deep.

~Max~