Favorite Classical Composers

Maybe I'm expecting too much from OT with this one, but I'm really digging Chopin at the moment. Prelude Op. 28 No. 2 is nice and brooding, and I love its use in Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata.

That's not to say he's the only one...

I can never remember their names :lol:

I like the suspencful orchestra though. Featured in movie trailers like Babylon AD. I'd LOVE to get some of that.

There are so many that I adore. Brahms is my personal favourite, but I'm a big fan of the Romantic era in general, and I like a lot of composers and works from other eras as well.pianist

[QUOTE="pianist"]There are so many that I adore. Brahms is my personal favourite, but I'm a big fan of the Romantic era in general, and I like a lot of composers and works from other eras as well.LJS9502_basic

[QUOTE="pianist"]There are so many that I adore. Brahms is my personal favourite, but I'm a big fan of the Romantic era in general, and I like a lot of composers and works from other eras as well.LJS9502_basic

Interesting... but why? Brahms's compositional philosophy and his resulting work is about as far removed from pop as you can get...

"Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind."

Pop composers are all about finding a catchy tune and sticking it in a simplistic form. They tend to write pieces very quickly and with little intensive revision, and they could give a damn about the formal workings of their compositions. It's the effect they're after. Brahms, like Beethoven, was all about the inner workings of a composition, especially with respect to motive and counterpoint. He was every bit as skilled with the use of form as Beethoven, and is one of the greatest contrapuntalists since Bach.

You could more accurately describe Schubert or Mozart as pop, except that pop composers aren't able to match the ingenuity of their ideas. So instead of writing complex music that sounds simple, they write simple music that sounds simplistic.

I think if Brahms were alive today, he'd probably be writing cIassical music, inspired by cIassical music of earlier eras, but with his own brand of innovation. Just like he actually did. :P

Pachelbel would write gangsta rap...A_Tarkovsky

:lol:

Oh my... that actually made me laugh out loud. I guess you do have quite a bit of repetition in the one and only piece anybody cares about that he wrote.

Interesting... but why? Brahms's compositional philosophy and his resulting work is about as far removed from pop as you can get...

"Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind."

Pop composers are all about finding a catchy tune and sticking it in a simplistic form. They tend to write pieces very quickly and with little intensive revision, and they could give a damn about the formal workings of their compositions. It's the effect they're after. Brahms, like Beethoven, was all about the inner workings of a composition, especially with respect to motive and counterpoint. He was every bit as skilled with the use of form as Beethoven, and is one of the greatest contrapuntalists since Bach.

You could more accurately describe Schubert or Mozart as pop, except that pop composers aren't able to match the ingenuity of their ideas. So instead of writing complex music that sounds simple, they write simple music that sounds simplistic.

I think if Brahms were alive today, he'd probably be writing cIassical music, inspired by cIassical music of earlier eras, but with his own brand of innovation. Just like he actually did. :P

pianist

[QUOTE="pianist"]

Interesting... but why? Brahms's compositional philosophy and his resulting work is about as far removed from pop as you can get...

"Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind."

Pop composers are all about finding a catchy tune and sticking it in a simplistic form. They tend to write pieces very quickly and with little intensive revision, and they could give a damn about the formal workings of their compositions. It's the effect they're after. Brahms, like Beethoven, was all about the inner workings of a composition, especially with respect to motive and counterpoint. He was every bit as skilled with the use of form as Beethoven, and is one of the greatest contrapuntalists since Bach.

You could more accurately describe Schubert or Mozart as pop, except that pop composers aren't able to match the ingenuity of their ideas. So instead of writing complex music that sounds simple, they write simple music that sounds simplistic.

I think if Brahms were alive today, he'd probably be writing cIassical music, inspired by cIassical music of earlier eras, but with his own brand of innovation. Just like he actually did. :P

LJS9502_basic

Edit: Also, he would make nothing but concept albums.

my top 2 are stravinsky and shostakovich. i like stravinsky for his more expansive works such as those in his ballets. while i like shostakovich's symphonies, im more of a fan of his more intimate works like string quartets.

i do like some brahms that ive checked out, though i havent really checked out enough.

Beethoven and Mozart - wish they put those MIDIs from Windows 98 to Windows Vista. :(

In terms of classical music nowadays, I pretty much think scores from movies such as King Kong, Forrest Gump are excellent.

Thorpe89

Gosh there's so many that I like for different reasons and moods it's hard to pick favorites without creating quite a long list. I suppose my stand out favorite would be Dmitri Shostakovich and after that I would cluster together Henry Purcel, Antonin Dvorak, Witold Lutoslawski, Gyorgy Ligeti, J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel, Jean Sibelius, Leos Janacek, Claudio Monteverdi, and Beethoven as my next favorites depending upon my immediate mood.

[QUOTE="A_Tarkovsky"]Pachelbel would write gangsta rap...pianist

:lol:

Oh my... that actually made me laugh out loud. I guess you do have quite a bit of repetition in the one and only piece anybody cares about that he wrote.

Haha, Canon in D is a nice piece, but yeah, it is very repetitve and pop music compatible.

I actually forget. He came up with Brahms. I think Mozart would be symphonic metal.:PLJS9502_basic

Hm... With all this, you just have to wonder what the universe would be like today if Beethoven joined Iron Maiden...

Beethoven !--Anna--

What is your avatar of? I've seen it before...

Brahms, for his counterpoint.

Rimsky-Korsakov, for Scheherazade, one of my favorites.

And the film Russian Ark turned me on to Mikhail Glinka.



A_Tarkovsky, you really should watch it as soon as you get the chance.crucifine

Gosh there's so many that I like for different reasons and moods it's hard to pick favorites without creating quite a long list. I suppose my stand out favorite would be Dmitri Shostakovich and after that I would cluster together Henry Purcel, Antonin Dvorak, Witold Lutoslawski, Gyorgy Ligeti, J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel, Jean Sibelius, Leos Janacek, Claudio Monteverdi, and Beethoven as my next favorites depending upon my immediate mood.

Lord_Daemon

You know, when most people think of the 2001 soundtrack, they thing of Holst and Strauss. Not me though. Ligeti owned that soundtrack.A_Tarkovsky

Indeed I agree. The movie 2001: A Space Odyssey was the first walk-in theatre movie I watched as a child. My father bought the soundtrack and I became completely enraptured in Ligeti's vocal works on that soundtrack although, being still very young, I never remembered who the composer was. During Hallowe'en my parents allowed me to blast the Ligeti pieces very loud as they felt the overall "spooky" sound seemed appropriate.:lol:

Flash forward to high school and I'm finally trying to figure out what kind of music I want to listen to after years of eating what the radio and TV had force fed me. There used to be a great classical station in LA in which the DJ had no program to follow from 11pm to 5am. Instead of irritating highlights, he would play entire pieces of composers I've never heard of.

One night I hear this very odd but extremely compelling string quartet by Ligeti. I start exploring more from this composer and suddenly I'm confronted with a soundtrack from my earliest memories. Strange how things come around again.