your favourite Composer---POLL!

[alwaystheangel]

I'm sorry if I forgot anyone,  it's hard to think of the big ones off the top of one's head!

Just a note:  What I mean by favourite composer is not who is the greatest composer or whatever but the one that you LOVE listening to and you LOVE to play and there's just something about their music that just speaks to you in an indiscribable way.

Cheers,
Always

[alejo_90]

Where the hell are Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky & Scriabin?

Beethoven is number one for me, then Bach, Rachmaninoff, Chopin & Liszt.

[emmdoubleew]

Where the hell are Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky & Scriabin?

Hahah seriously  , you included diabelli, field, etc but not those.

[alwaystheangel]

ooppss!!!  I can't believe I missed those.  I'll add them right away.  head in the clouds....

If anyone else has others that I foolishly forgot. (It's late here)  PLease don't hesitate to tell me! as Alejo and emmdoubleew had no qualms of doing!
Once again, My appologies!

Cheers,
Always

[raskolnikov]

Please add Ravel to the list.

[stevie]

predicted top 3-

chopin
beethoven
rach

add alkan, for me

[nicco]

Rachmoninoff? Greig? Mussirgsky? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[elevateme]

ravel ravel ravel ravel ravel ravel ravel

and, for the sake of my good friend adam, alkan.

[alwaystheangel]

ravel ravel ravel ravel ravel ravel ravel

and, for the sake of my good friend adam, alkan.

Voila! Elevateme, Ravel et Alkan sont maintenant la.
A bientot.

[JCarey]

Gershwin? Shostakovich? MAHLER?!?!

I'd have to say either Beethoven or Rachmaninoff.

[dough_mouse]

you spelled Rachmaninoff wrong 

...still voted for him though!

[alwaystheangel]

Edited.  You do pronounce it Rachmoninoff right or do you actually pronounce it Rachmaninoff, sounds really nasal to me somehow...

[contrapunctus]

Uh, since you have Wagner, why aren't Puccini and R. Strauss on he list?

Oh you also forgot Alistair Hinton, you don't want him to get angry at you because you forgot to put him on the list.

I seriously cannot believe why Bach is not the best according to the poll.

[sauergrandson]

I miss Scarlatti in the list.


I did a little exercise. I searched for some great composers at "yahoo" and I found these numbers of entries for each one:

BACH                                  39, 700 000
MOZART                              26 700  000
HAYDN                                   4 280 000
BEETHOVEN                        12, 600 000
CHOPIN                                 5, 340 000
SCHUBERT                             7 910 000
SCHUMANN                            5 970 000
BRAHMS                                 5 170 000
LISZT                                     2 830 000

[tonylinlin]

I miss Scarlatti in the list.


I did a little exercise. I searched for some great composers at "yahoo" and I found these numbers of entries for each one:

BACH                                  39, 700 000
MOZART                              26 700  000
HAYDN                                   4 280 000
BEETHOVEN                        12, 600 000
CHOPIN                                 5, 340 000
SCHUBERT                             7 910 000
SCHUMANN                            5 970 000
BRAHMS                                 5 170 000
LISZT                                     2 830 000

Those numbers don't mean anything.

"Bach" could mean bachelor or the house OR the composer....

[nicco]

Searching for "Name" and "Composer" in google:

Mozart: 9 670 000
Bach: 8 460 000
Beethoven: 7 260 000
Brahms: 3 560 000
Schubert: 3 230 000
Haydn: 2 930 000
Chopin: 2 610 000
Mendelssohn 2 290 000
Schumann: 2 170 000
Liszt: 1 790 000
Rachmaninoff\Rachmaninov: 786 000 + 951 000
Grieg: 954 000
Scriabin: 315 000

Strange outcome

[sauergrandson]

Interesting exercise, indeed.     

[prometheus]

I was suprised to see that I was the first person that voted for Sorabji and Mahler...

I missed Busoni, Reger, Barber and some others. Scarlatti doesn't indicate which one.

Af for the google search it is highly flawed. Scriabin has some alternative spellings. For russian composers I guess searching with the cyrillic alphabet is a must too.

And I don't really understans what is so suprising about it. I guess it is Chopin. While, Chopin is just not very popular with non-pianists for obvious reasons.

Mahler scores 1.56 million. Verdi 1.76. Tchaikovsky 1.7 in that spelling only. Wagner scores 2.48 million. Strauss gets 1.82 which isn't fair and can't ever be fair. Stravinsky gets 1.5 million. Gershwin get 1.68.  Even Cage gets 1.6 million.

Bernstain gets 1.7 million. The Beatles get 1.8 million. Disney gets 2 million. Bush gets 3 million. Kennedy gets 2 million. Newton gets 1.3 million.

Williams gets 7.4 million of course...

[ce nedra]

Where is Prokofiev??? And Gershwin??

[shasta]

Bummed to see the Spaniards and South Americans were not on the list....

[alwaystheangel]

How many Scarlattis are there? Gershwin is there somewhere.
What South American  and Spanish Composers do you want up there?  I am not very familiar with them.
I'll add the rest suggested.

[sissco]

Chopin, Liszt, Scriabin, Schubert and Rachmaninoff for me  But i must say....there is to much I have'nt heard yet...

[steveie986]

Umm, where the eff is Richard Clayderman?

 

[alejo_90]

Umm, where the eff is Richard Clayderman?

LOL !  ! Where is he? He could be No.1 !!

BTW as far as I know he's not a composer.

Where the heck is Tim Hofman??

 

[contrapunctus]

BTW as far as I know he's not a composer.

He is; his most famous composition is Ballad pour Adelaide, or something like that.

[sergei r]

He is; his most famous composition is Ballad pour Adelaide, or something like that.

LOL! 

[term]

He is; his most famous composition is Ballad pour Adelaide, or something like that.

Are you _sure_ he wrote that? I remember reading something else,...

btw it's Adeline

[mostlyclassical]

Edited.  You do pronounce it Rachmoninoff right or do you actually pronounce it Rachmaninoff, sounds really nasal to me somehow...

Maybe you 'd like to edit 'Shubert' too..... aaarrgh ! 

[alejo_90]

He is; his most famous composition is Ballad pour Adelaide, or something like that.

No that's not true ! Clayderman had two composers who used to dedicate works to him:
Paul de Seneville and Oliver Toussaint. I think ballad pour Adeline was composed by one of those two.

Cheers
Alex

[contrapunctus]

I think we should be ashamed of ourselves with this poll. Who in all of Hell would put Chopin and Rach as better than Bach and Beethoven?!

Seriously guys, I can maybe see you putting them above Bach if you are not intellegent enough to like him, but above Beethoven? Come on, Beethoven was the greatest instrumentalist composer, ever.

[JCarey]

I think we should be ashamed of ourselves with this poll. Who in all of Hell would put Chopin and Rach as better than Bach and Beethoven?!

Seriously guys, I can maybe see you putting them above Bach if you are not intellegent enough to like him, but above Beethoven? Come on, Beethoven was the greatest instrumentalist composer, ever.

"Just a note:  What I mean by favourite composer is not who is the greatest composer or whatever but the one that you LOVE listening to and you LOVE to play and there's just something about their msuic that just speaks to you in an indiscribably way."

[steveie986]

You're missing Orlando Gibbons, who was Glenn Gould's favorite composer.

[term]

No that's not true ! Clayderman had two composers who used to dedicate works to him:
Paul de Seneville and Oliver Toussaint. I think ballad pour Adeline was composed by one of those two.

Cheers
Alex

yes now i remember...it was paul de seneville

[sergei r]

More people need to listen to orchestral pieces and vote for Tchaikovsky. 

[kevinatcausa]

Bruckner, anyone?

[steve_m]

2

[apion]

Top 5 is easy (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Wagner); it's the #6 spot that's tricky.....  I went with Schubert

[contrapunctus]

"Just a note:  What I mean by favourite composer is not who is the greatest composer or whatever but the one that you LOVE listening to and you LOVE to play and there's just something about their msuic that just speaks to you in an indiscribably way."

I don't know how it is for you, but the composers who I think are the greatest are the ones I listen to and play the most. The composers who I like the most are the ones who I think are the greatest. This is quite a logical way of thinking.

I mean why would you listen to a composer who you don't personally think is great. Why would you want to listen to anything that you consider less than the best.

[alwaystheangel]

I don't know how it is for you, but the composers who I think are the greatest are the ones I listen to and play the most. The composers who I like the most are the ones who I think are the greatest. This is quite a logical way of thinking.

I mean why would you listen to a composer who you don't personally think is great. Why would you want to listen to anything that you consider less than the best.

I mean most people will agree that Bach is a great somposer, I mean you can see the genius in his music, do I like listening to him? PLaying his works? not really, but I do respect his amazing compositions.  Just an example.

[bennom]

I mean why would you listen to a composer who you don't personally think is great. Why would you want to listen to anything that you consider less than the best.

To learn something new?
To enlarge your mind?
To get broader outlook?
To get less prejudiced?

...just some suggestions for ya.

[Tash]

where is monteverdi?? and corelli, and biber. and ross edwards and carl vine, the list goes on


yes, listen to absolutely everyone, so you can make a decent judgement of who you like and stuff. like you can't exactly say you don't like liszt when you've listened to one piece by him and you weren't a fan.

[contrapunctus]

To learn something new?
To enlarge your mind?
To get broader outlook?
To get less prejudiced?

...just some suggestions for ya.

You don't understand what I said. I don't know why anyone would listen to some one who they don't personally think is the greatest. You could think that every composer that ever wrote down music is the best; therefore, it would be alright to listen to them.

Get what I am saying?

[Waldszenen]

You don't understand what I said. I don't know why anyone would listen to some one who they don't personally think is the greatest. You could think that every composer that ever wrote down music is the best; therefore, it would be alright to listen to them.

Get what I am saying?

I sure don't. Brahms is my favourite composer and personally I think he's the very greatest - does that stop me from listening to Haydn?

[cloches_de_geneve]

Searching for "Name" and "Composer" in google:

Mozart: 9 670 000
Bach: 8 460 000
Beethoven: 7 260 000
Brahms: 3 560 000
Schubert: 3 230 000
Haydn: 2 930 000
Chopin: 2 610 000
Mendelssohn 2 290 000
Schumann: 2 170 000
Liszt: 1 790 000
Rachmaninoff\Rachmaninov: 786 000 + 951 000
Grieg: 954 000
Scriabin: 315 000

Strange outcome

No, I don't think it's strange at all, especially not that Mozart came out at the top. In a way it tends to reflect how I intuitively think about the relative greateness of the composers (not that this would be of any importance). Perhaps the list should be extended as to include Tschaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel, Bruckner, Mahler, and the operatic composers Wagner, Verdi, Puccini?

[cloches_de_geneve]

Actually, I just did it myself:

Mozart: 9 670 000
Bach: 8 460 000
Beethoven: 7 260 000
Wagner: 3 820 000
Brahms: 3 560 000
Schubert: 3 230 000
Haydn: 2 930 000
Chopin: 2 610 000
Tchaikovsky: 2 440 000
Mendelssohn 2 290 000
Debussy: 2 210 000
Schumann: 2 170 000
Verdi: 2 000 000
Mahler: 1 850 000
Liszt: 1 790 000
Rachmaninoff\Rachmaninov: 786 000 + 951 000
Ravel: 1 490 000
Puccini: 1 150 000
Prokofiev: 1 140 000
Grieg: 954 000
Bruckner: 539 000
Scriabin: 315 000

For whatever it is worth ...if anything it is an indication of prominence, impact etc..

[stevie]

95,400 for composer alkan.

[notturno]

No Schoenberg? 

It was surprised that Chopin came in at #8; I would have guessed he'd be closer to the top.

Looking back at the post I see that the #8 ranking was the Yahoo poll, and not the Piano Forum's.  How careless of me.

[bennom]

You don't understand what I said. I don't know why anyone would listen to some one who they don't personally think is the greatest. You could think that every composer that ever wrote down music is the best; therefore, it would be alright to listen to them.

Get what I am saying?

Dear Dr Contrapunctus,

I do understand what you are saying. Please meditate on this story from real life:

Many years ago I detested Puccini and his operas, the pieces I had heard from them was banal and falsely sentimental to my ears. And I avoided listening to his operas.
Then, I was on vacation in a european capital. We wanted to see some opera, and the only thing available was Madame Butterfly (yes, by puccini). So we went to see it. The production was terrible, and the 15 year old "girl" was sung by a fat american soprano. Anyway: I noticed how the music started to get me, and in the last act I actually burst into tears   from the power of puccini's music. From that moment on, I've listened to his works and discovered that I actually loved something that I thought I hated.

If you didn't get the point now, please don't tell me.

[emmdoubleew]

You don't understand what I said. I don't know why anyone would listen to some one who they don't personally think is the greatest. You could think that every composer that ever wrote down music is the best; therefore, it would be alright to listen to them.

Get what I am saying?

WRONG.

There are plenty of composers that I think are slightly average and I still listen to them to broaden my horizons and learn about music. And quite frankly, I have no idea how you even judge a composer to be the greatest without listening to them before. If you don't like the first few notes of the first composition you hear, do you just start ignoring that composer because he's not the greatest hence not worth listening to?

[jre58591]

where are medtner, bortkiewicz, and rautavaara?
from the list ill say rachmaninoff and alkan