Favorite classical composer.

[peruban]

For me, I'd go with J.S. Bach. His work just sounds like mathematics.

Mozart is second for the emotion and perfection of his work.

[elleng]

1. How's Smetana?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlLPLO90fSk

Ma Vlast Moldau Kubelik Czech

[peruban]

3. Marvelous!

I never heard of Smetana, looks like I have researching to do. Oh, and the link was great, too.

[elleng]

5. Glad you like it!

I 'feel' that piece, the Moldau River, every time, and actually heard it in Prague recently! What a surprise!

Also like Dvorak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmZ25MDvzNU From the New World Symphony when he visited the U.S. Listen for some traditional/folk smidgens.

[peruban]

6. I like Dvorak, too.

I've only heard a few of his pieces so I have some more to look forward to. And the link you posted is very dramatic.

[tjwmason]

2. I'd rank J.S.B. as the best composer

But I can't really cite a favourite as my favourites are constantly changing and flitting around - usually one of the following:

Messiaen
Victoria
Shostakovich
Tallis
J.S.B.
Wagner
Monteverdi

[peruban]

4. Aside from J.S. Bach and Wagner

I hadn't heard of the others. Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to find some of their works. Thanks again.

[elleng]

7. Tallis Fantasia,

via Ralph Vaughan Williams

http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5y7nJL1hpUU

[peruban]

8. You see? This is why I love DU.

I get to learn something new every day.

[elleng]

10. AND,

how could I forget?

Mozart Rondo alla Turca, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCSevzJQ2-Y&feature=related which is ALSO BRUBECK!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc34Uj8wlmE

[tjwmason]

9. They're quite a varied bunch

Messiaen was a French composer - there should be a reasonable amount of his stuff around at the moment as it's the centenary of his birth. I salivate over modern French organ music which is how I found him, I strongly recommend "Quator pour le fin de temps" (Quartet for the end of time) which was written in a Nazi P.o.W. camp and Turangalila Symphony.

Victoria, renaissance Spanish composer - I believe that he's the only composer who only ever wrote sacred music...as such there are tons of Masses, motets and so forth. My favourite is probably his Requiem of 1605.

Shostakovich, Soviet composer not generally very easy going. Famous for his symphonies and for nearly being killed off because Stalin didn't like one of his operas. His 7th symphony was written and premiered during the siege of Leningrad (from inside the city). His piano and 'cello concerti and 5th symphony are good entry points, his string quartets are incredibly intense.

Tallis, English renaissance composer during the Elizabethan golden age. Bridged the gap between the protestant vernacular music and R.C. Latin - his motet "Spem in Alium" is particularly famous, being scored for 40 voices (to be honest, it was a bit of an ego-trip after a Spanish composer wrote for a similarly large number...but the result is sublime).

Monteverdi, Italian composer on the cusp of the Baroque. The "father of opera" wrote some of the very earliest operas still performed, L'Orfeo and L'Incoronzione di Poppea. Also worked at St. Mark's Venice, and composed much in that very distinctive Venetian voice.

[harmonicon]

38. Victoria is a good choice

I have a friend who loved Victoria in college. We put out a song based on a Victoria sample, even.

[Lyric]

11. Tchaikovsky is right up there for me.

I love this piece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HEQqtoAwjY

And also this one by Mozart:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgz-5sF8PC4

And this one by Barber:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRMz8fKkG2g

I am intrinsically drawn to heartbreakingly sad compositions.

[elleng]

12. That's certainly true of Barber's Adagio.

.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

49. My favorite Tchaikovsky is the Serenade for Strings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsGRglp6tvs

[Burma Jones]

13. Beethoven, Bach, Vivaldi, Brahms, Mozart, Haydn, Monteverdi, Copland and Debussy

Would make a shitty baseball team, but are all "my favorite" composers

oh, and this guy too:

[peruban]

14. I love all of those.

Monteverdi and Copland, though, I'm not too familiar with. Also, I can't tell who that is in the portrait.

[Burma Jones]

18. The portrait is of PDQ Bach, aka the brilliant Peter Shickele

A Famous piece from Aaron Copland:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzf0rvQa4Mc&feature=related

A little Monteverdi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEBEMB0QaAg

A little PDQ Bach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY0CFaracVE&feature=related

[yellowdogintexas]

36. oh gosh, I had not thought about PDQ Bach for years. I love that silly stuff

Thank you

[Richardo]

15. :o)

I was just thinking the phrase 'I virtuosi di Hoople' on the ride in to work today.

[gemdem]

42. P.D.Q.!

God bless Peter Schickele!

:-)

[Rabrrrrrr]

16. Bach is baroque, technically. :-) But damned good, indeed!

Mozart is Classical.

I, too, love me some Bach.

I'm not as big on Mozart - not that he's bad, but the Classical period itself I don't find as interesting as the earlier and later stuff - baroque and renaissance is wonderful, and I'm a huge fan of the Romantic and modern periods.

My favorite composers are Mahler, Sibelius, Shostakovitch, Wagner, Dvorak, Bartok - and Bach, Buxtehude, and Purcell; and in the modern era, I'm a big fan of Messiaen Debuusy, Smetana, Penderecki, Zappa, Glass, Reich, Hindemith, Gorecki, Riley.

[Fire Walk With Me]

25. Isn't Purcell technically "medieval"?

Hmm, 1695. Wikipedia call him "Baroque". I've gotta dust up my music knowledge again... (I've only got one CD of his music, and look forward to more.)

[Rabrrrrrr]

27. I don't think "medieval" is a proper musical period term.

At least, I don't remember using it in the history of music classes I had in college.

Seems like it goes Early Music, Renaissance, Baroque, then Classical.

But Purcell is solidly Baroque.

[Fire Walk With Me]

28. "Early", got it. I have a few CDs of music from the Crusades era

1000AD+ and they're quite interesting.

[harmonicon]

40. definitely Baroque

If it's opera, it's not medieval, or even renaissance, it's baroque or later. The renaissance/baroque split started nearly 100 years earlier, with the likes of Monteverdi, Byrd, and Dowland, who were sort of half way.

[Fire Walk With Me]

52. Dowland is considered Baroque? That's interesting..

I've lost track of when he was alive/active so it could certainly be so..

[harmonicon]

60. he's more late renaissance

but there are aspects to the music, especially the stuff that involves counterpoint, that are Baroque. I don't remember the exact years, but I think he was active from the 1590's to 1610's, or so. My favourite piece of his is Lachrimae, which was published in a book along with some other pieces in 1604. In any case, he lived and composed after the Elizabethan era.

[Fire Walk With Me]

63. I'm sure that you know there are at least two legitimate CDs of his work

and it's SOOOO depressing. He must have reincarnated into Joy Division or something.

[harmonicon]

67. there are umpteen billion cds of his work

It's good, and it can be depressing. I like how many of the pieces are multifaceted, so there can be several totally different, but equally legitimate, versions made.

[cemaphonic]

34. OP used small-c classical

It is kind of irksome that the catchall phrase for European art music is the same word as a specific period within that frame. Especially since the other arts going on in that time period get referred to as Neo-Classical, which in music history is used to describe a particular school of 20th century Modernism (which, at 90+ years old, is not really especially modern anymore).

Anyway, CPE Bach is definitely Classical, so there. J.S. Bach is probably my overall favorite too, but I also like a lot of the 20th century and Medieval/Renaissance/Early Baroque composers as much or better than the Classical/Romantic canon.

Some of my favs are Palestrina, Monteverdi, Stravinksy, Reich, Webern and Dowland. Of the popular 18th-19th century giants, probably Beethoven, Schubert (more for his chamber music and lieder than his orchestral works) and Mendelsohn.

[Richardo]

17. My favorites are from the baroque: JS Bach, GF Handel, A Vivaldi

...and PDQ Bach ;-)

[Mendocino]

19. Edvard Grieg

[CBHagman]

20. That's like asking which was my favorite piece of chocolate.

Impossible to decide!

[MilesColtrane]

21. favorites

Bach
Late Beethoven
Chopin
Schubert
Scriabin
Mahler
Prokofiev
Hindemith
Stravinsky
Bartok

[catzies]

22. Mozart for all seasons, Telemann/Corelli for baroque faves, Chopin for piano

And Dvorak for poetry. :)

[Mad_Dem_X]

23. Mozart! n/t

[ceile]

24. Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Chopin n/t

[derby378]

26. Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Holst, Dvorak, Bartok, Prokofiev, and Barber

There's more - I like some of the works from Brahms, Mozart, Varese, Berlioz, and Sibelius, among others.

[Bake]

29. Chopin, for the piano.

I love to hear Mrs. B play the Grand Valse ...

Bake

[emilyg]

50. Definitely.

[DarkTirade]

30. Define "Classical."

Since you put Bach in there I'm assuming you just mean orchestral instrument style. In which case, I'm a big fan of Shostakovic and Beethoven. Although both were after the 'classical' period.

[harmonicon]

41. Beethoven is classical

He was "late" classical, but classical all the same.

[DarkTirade]

43. He was right on the cusp.

[harmonicon]

45. yep

but he's definitely a large part of Charles Rosen's book "The Classical Style".

[harmonicon]

31. what are you counting as "classical"?

Living, I'd go with Christian Wolff. Old, I think probably Dowland, but if you want a "common practice" composer, I guess I'd also go with Bach, maybe Telemann.

[elleng]

55. "Classical music" is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_classical_music

[harmonicon]

61. man, that's a bad article

.... as is stated by wikipedia at the top of the page.

As someone who works within "classical" music, I'm just curious about what people consider it to be. I don't have a good answer. To be honest, I don't even know that what I do is rooted in classical music, but it's been lumped in with it in the halls of academia, so it is, I guess. Labels are weird, but sometimes useful.

[elleng]

68. Grabbed that one quickly,

and haven't 'studied' for many years. Let's try this: http://www.stmoroky.com/reviews/music/classic.htm

[harmonicon]

71. I just disagree with the fact that "modern" would exist from 1900 - present

It seems to me that even the conception of what music is changed with recording technology, so that any comparison between something that's happening now with anything from the pre record and radio days is failed from the start. Anyway, even ignoring that, I think everything changed around 1950, with John Cage and other experimentalists. That's the tradition that I work in, but it's unclear if it is "experimental music" or "experimental classical music". I think of it as "experimental music", but loads of genres just use "experimental" as an adjective, even when it is no way appropriate, so people will have no idea what I mean if I say "experimental music".

[elleng]

72. Add 'orchestral?'

.

[harmonicon]

73. I don't think that really works either...

because so many composers throughout history didn't write for orchestra, and especially in the last 50 years. Also, in the last 100 years or so, there has been loads of music played by orchestras that definitely isn't classical music, most egregiously, these things that are (some city) Orchestra plays the music of (some pop band or performer).

Ultimately, what I'm saying is that it doesn't really matter.

[BurtWorm]

32. When I was a wee lad: Beethoven, Brahms, Prokofiev, St, Saens

As a teenager: Bartok, Stravinsky, Ives, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Shostakovich, Vivaldi

As a young man: Brahms, Mahler, Mozart, Bach

Most recently: Schumann, Schubert, Chopin, Tallis, Byrd, "Anonymous" (music of the Middle ages and Renaissance)

[Danger Mouse]

33. Mahler, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, and Shostakovich are my favorites.

Nothing can match classical music for its sheer beauty.

[Lucian]

35. No Liszt? Seriously?

Damn.

I'm also a fan of Beethoven.

[yellowdogintexas]

37. OH I am a Liszt lover! But I love classical music period. nt

[DarkTirade]

47. Well we're putting one together right now.

:P

[Lucian]

48. Ha. Ha. Ha.

:P

:rofl:

[Haole Girl]

39. Franz Joseph Haydn,

Felix Mendelssohn, Wolfgang Mozart... it's impossible to have just one favorite!

[Tuesday Afternoon]

44. I love the classics...

but, you have to admit that Rachmaninov rocks :headbang:

[elleng]

54. You mean

RACHMANINOV???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D8hIeTwmck

[elleng]

56. Rachmaninov

plays Rachmaninov, Prelude in G:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjcAXvnWPdM&NR=1

AND his Piano Concerto #2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RXnorFwfPA&feature=related

[DarkTirade]

57. Rachmaninov had big hands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifKKlhYF53w

[elleng]

58. And a Rhapsody:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORP4dlwNsKM&NR=1

(performed by the composer.)

[speedoo]

46. Beethoven. Then Mozart. Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Sibelius and Ravel.

That's my top six. Bach, Haydn, Chopin and Brahms round out the top ten.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

51. Couldn't possibly pick one...So for today I'll say Bartok

String Quartet No. 6, Last movement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPFF7WaCfj4

Concerto for Orchestra, movement 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd-4mY-i6kY

Violin Concerto #2, 1st movement (in 2 parts)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-781fHeRTE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E8rO-2-LUY&feature=related

[pokerfan]

53. If I had to pick just one

[Common Sense Party]

59. Vivaldi.

I like pop music.

[dembotoz]

62. beatles, stones, the who

do they count?
they are on the classic rock stations...

[Tikki]

64. Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAnQQ4_Jpd8



Tikki

[jberryhill]

65. Bach has been a decomposer since 1750

He began decomposing in July of that year.

[MineralMan]

66. Buxtehude

I know, I know...

[underpants]

69. That crazy Russian bastard

what was his name :think:

[underpants]

70. Mendehlson's Scottish Symphony is puuurty good too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB_9iAJ-bdc