The Great Melodists

[Waldszenen]

These composers all wrote fine melodies... so which do you prefer most?

[Bouter Boogie]

Chopin in my opinion.

[jas]

Much as I love Chopin, I'm going to have to go with Schubert. His success as a song composer can testify to that. (IMO.)

Jas

[Waldszenen]

My vote goes to Tchaikovsky

And then from there it's Schubert > Rossini > Chopin > Grieg

[stevie]

mozart should be up there even though he isnt one of my favourites
beethoven should too, IMO the greatest composer ever

but specifically on melody, id go for tchaikovsky, then schubert

rachmaninov should be up there too

tchaikovsky's greatest work and greatest melody is in his piano trio IMO, the main theme of that is maybe the most moving and awesome melody ever created.

[prometheus]

Bach?

[presto agitato]

Mendelssohn

[da jake]

Agree with the poll lacking Mendelssohn.

Paganini should be up there too. He wrote some catchy stuff!

My vote goes to Frank Schube, however. 

[pita bread]

Why is Barber not up there? T_T

[thalbergmad]

Schubert followed by Verdi

[pianistimo]

dvorak
smetana
bernstein
rogers and hammerstein (that's my choice for the day)

ok.  schubert.  but not for piano.  sung.

hey, you forgot schumann.  and brahms.  how could you?

[jeremyjchilds]

I'd go with schubert, and then brahms, as my "special" selection

[Bouter Boogie]

dvorak
smetana
bernstein
rogers and hammerstein (that's my choice for the day)

ok.  schubert.  but not for piano.  sung.

hey, you forgot schumann.  and brahms.  how could you?

Dvorak's a good choice!

[raffyplayspiano]

schubert, then brahms.   

raffy

[practicingnow]

Grieg is underrated - I remember when I first heard some of the Lyric Pieces - I was whistling and humming them to myself for a week - he was a great melodist, regardless of how he rates against the other guys - I'm glad you included him!

[gaer]

Not one mentin of Puccini?

By the way, I have a great deal of trouble getting theme from John Williams out of my head.

Gary

[arensky]

Impossible question, do you mean as an absolute, or my "favorite"? Favorite is something that can be answered, otherwise it's a subjective matter of taste....

I think all these composers wrote beautiful melodies.

[stormx]

I am surprised that nobody mentionned MOZART   

[nanabush]

I voted chopin solely because of the B flat minor nocturne op. 9... my favorite melody ever.

[wintervind]

Bach?

and Schumann?

[Waldszenen]

Neither Bach nor Schumann nor Brahms nor many of the composers you fellas have listed constantly wrote memorable melodies; sure, they all had their good ones but the composers I listed in the original poll have great melodies in nearly all of their works.


Bach. Hah.

[pianistimo]

no, but they wrote the most vocal/choral work of all the composers listed.  therefore, they probably thought of the piano as an accompanying instrument or filling in for voice when it was not singing.  sometimes you almost hear, in their piano music, the accompaniment and then the singer (like a sort of small intro and then this melody comes in).  although some of the intermezzi of brahms and many of the ideas of schumann start right off with a motive (maybe not a full idea) and expand on it.  they were trying to get into the grand idea of the symphony, imo, but sometimes faltered and the motives didn't get as far.  brahms requiem has to have a lot of memorable melodies (as the verdi requiem). 

somehow, when i think of melodies in entirety, i think of chorales singing them (with words) like beethoven's ninth symphony when the chorale comes in at the end.  when you have a really good pianist - you still remember the melody without the words.  maybe like mendelssohn's songs without words, or something like that.  schubert, to me, stands alone in piano as a melodist that one can sing the lines to, in mozart you have great 'tunes' but they are not all singable.  i guess to me, a melody is something you remember because you can sing it.  i think mozart once had a bird ('fool' was it's name) and he got ideas for melodies from it (so there are some skips and warbles and stuff in his music) - that unless you are a pretty good vocalist - it's hard to imitate.

rossini's right up there, too, with opera.

[mrchops10]

I second Mozart strenuously. Listen to Don Giovanni, how many great melodies are in that one opera alone? I agree that Bach and Beethoven were not exactly great melodists, per se. What they were, especially Bach, were masters of line, rather like Miles Davis. You can't sing it, but every note feels so right and balanced. Another great melodist you didn't list is Gershwin. Porgy and Bess has nearly as many as Don Giovanni.

[prometheus]

You can even sing along with a Miles Davis improvisation.

Also, you can sing along with every composed piece of music in existance. I sing along with Sorabji, for instance.

Singing along with a John Coltrane solo, that I can't do.

[pianistimo]

maybe if you sing in your head.  i understand.  i do that with pieces that are modern, too.  it used to be that i couldn't remember the 'line' because of the wide leaps.  now, i look forward to them.  something different.  i'm not putting down music that has less of a 'singable melodic line.'  just saying that for the average person, they remember something as a melody when they come out singing it.

agreed about gershwin, though it's more complicated to sing jazz.  if you can 'scat' you can probably sing modern music (with the wide leaps).  i've always had trouble with that.  for one thing, you have to suddenly change register without several notes helping you adjust.  i heard someone sing something by philip glass or somebody like that.  it was totally amazing and went for the effect of sound rather than melody.  if you asked the average person to repeat it, they'd just make up something rather than imitate the exact pitches.  (unless a genius of some kind).

[prometheus]

I am not saying it is easy. But most melodies can be sung. For example, Flight of the Bumblebee.

I can sing along with every Bach piece I like. I am not saying I can actually sing the music, but surely the music has singable material.

Themes of pieces like Giant Steps, Locomotion are singable. Not easy but you can do it. It is very very hard to sing along with his solos, but Miles Davis, it is very duable since he most of his phrases are singable.

I have been singing along with jazz and classical music for a while, just for my entertainment and musical thinking. I kind of 'scat', I sing very staccato, I hit the right note in the right rhythm. I can attempt singing chromatic lines.

I have great fun listening to Barber's piano sonata while singing along with some parts.

Some phrases are just to fast to sing, and leaps, the more or the bigger, are also very.

But I don't see why Bach melodies aren't great because they are too complex to sing for an average person.

Some typical instrumental melodies can be very great melodies and can be singable with some practice, though they may never become enjoyable because of the voices limitation.