Who is the best composer of all time? Look inside please!

I think the best composer of all time is Bela Bartok.

He collected so many undiscovered folk tunes and added unusual quirky twists to them that make them surprising and unique to listen to and play. His sound is also very different and interesting. His music speaks to me and that is probably the highest compliment I can give to a composer. Since I mostly play folk tunes its always fascinating for me to hear what you can do with them. Debussy and Bach were close behind in best composer but I just don't have the same connection when I listen to their music that I have with Bartok.

Gy

So I need to give an exceedingly restricted opinion AND justify it in some way shape or fashion? All right, bearing in mind that by selecting just one I am by definition lying to you all, I choose JS Bach (Pikachu, I choose you!) for the reason that I have heard so many people interpreting Bach and it always sounds different, yet the original composer shines through. I find joy in rearranging material from the Well Tempered Clavier: it doesn't seem to matter what I throw at it. If it sounds less than ideal, I need to work harder. If it sounds good, I am allowing what is already in the music to shine through. The other composers mentioned here are great, but the quality I will call inevitability shines through the best in Bach. What he wrote had to exist. Maybe the world might not have produced a Shastakovitch or a Mussorgsky but it HAD to create a Bach. There! Now you have a set of truthful lies. OK?

Igor Stravinsky

I think he's at least the best composer in the last century. His scope of musical styles is amazing. He's more than capable of laying on that scrumptious Romantic jam (viz. Firebird), but with The Rite of Spring etc he also proved (to me anyway) that dissonace can sound nice! Just looking at my score for the Rite mates me go weak at the knees :angry:

I'm going to say Dvorak.... Mainly becuase he is my inspiration. he came from a small town in Czech... His father was a butcher and the last thing his father wanted him to do was study music... Despite his father's wishes he started learning violin and soon several other instruments.... He entered a composing contest and Brahms (sorry bout mentioning another composer...) was on the judging pannel and reconized his talent soon he had several slavonic dances that were published and a sucess.

For his music... I love how he incorporates several different thoughts together so quickly and then uses them again later but so that it isn't just alike but is still familiar. He music also motivates me to compose music that is dynamic and not just repeating itself

BACH IS THE GREATEST COMPOSER OF ALL TIMES for the simple reason that he was perhaps the most practical composer (that I know of) Everything he wrote made sense musically and everything he wrote is of the utmost beauty and perfect structure. It boggles my mind every time I see a score of a bach fugue. I ask myself, how could one write such godly music? and I come away with the conclusion that it was Bach's inclination to make pure abstract music. (music that has no particular meaning (unlike opera) and therefore could mean anything) I believe he was also one of the most confident and righteously independent composers. Even though he adopted form of music that had been used by countless other composers, he showed that there is no limit to some of these forms (the fugue in particular) and that if you put your mind to something (with the utmost care and utter patience) anything can be done

Even though I love Stravinsky, and I see him like "The Beethoven" of the XX-th century, George Enescu is "The Mozart"of the XX-th century.

I'm saying this because of some strong similarities between the two composers that Pablo Casals also noticed:

- the precociousness,

- the huge amount of genius in composing, in playing violin and piano and in conducting...

- and other similarities...

His music is one of the most profound, I've never heard something similar... His Op. 10 Suite for Piano is A M A Z I N G! Not to mention his 3 symphonies (he has 5 symphonies but the last 2 are unfinished)...

Even his Study Symphonies are breathtaking, and he composed them when he was still a teenager! Unfortunately I didn't listen his masterpiece: Oedipe (his opera).

Even if he has only 33 Opuses, his music is unique and very different in styles! He never stopped believing in the sanctity of the "melody" (theme) and he was against the dissociated melody, method that was used in his time and it still is, of course...

For me, he is a one-of-a-kind composer, blessed with an enormous amount of geniality, kindness and sensibility...

As some people said, I think it is impossible to name only one composer. One that I find especially great is Gerald Finzi, please take a listen to the 5 bagatelles for clarinet and piano... He's one of the rare "modern" composer able to create something new IN CONTINUATION with the past. Most of modern or contemporary music is just "I-want-to-go-farther-no-one-ever-went" or "Mathemically-my-work-is-great"...Finzi's music uses different meters, unorthodox melodies with pretty traditionnal harmony (some parallel fifths here and there)...and it sounds good.

You're a moron, Christian. :P Let me illustrate just why you are a moron

As some people said' date=' it is positively [i']impossible[/i] to name just one composer.

One that I find especially great is Carl Firenze, please take a listen to the 5 contradances for orchestra...

Firenze one of the rare modern composers able to create something new IN CONTINUATION with the past. Most modern or contemporary music by Mozart, the illustrious Beethoven and others is all so... what to say.. "I-want-to-go-farther-no-one-ever-went" or simply music for the ''elite'' and/or the trained ear...

Where did that come from? I didn't even understand what he was trying to say.

Wow I haven't been here forever...here goes

FRANK ZAPPA:

Yes, I chose that Modernist guy that was into the rock n roll scene. Talk about a man of a zillion paths, he mastered the art of composition in contemporary classical, jazz, rock (I'm being very broad here), doo wop, you name it. But since this forum is more geared towards classical music, I'll talk a little about that. Mr. Zappa drew inspiration to be a composer as a kid, after hearing the works of contemporary classical composers Varese, Stravinsky, and Webern (in this succession). Along with a number of other composers and eclectic influences such as doo wop and R&B, blues guitarists, jazz, Indian, electronic, etc., he forged a style all his own, all by himself. Every aspect of his composing was like nothing else. Contrapuntal lines nag and chase each other, harmonies jump from arrogant dissonance to laidback pseudo-jazz, instruments are tested in awkward but refreshingly new positions, polyrhythms stomp prententiously and unnerved (the way only a rocker and jazzer could make em). Frank Zappa was not a rock and roller who made classical music, he always was a classical guy who played rock and roll, as he intended.

Recommended listening:

Uncle Meat- The Mothers Of Invention

Ahead Of Their Time-The MOI and member of the BBC Orchestra

Hot Rats- Solo

200 Motels- The MOI and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Lather- Frank Zappa and various others

London Symphony Orchestra Vol. 1 and 2- ... cond. Kent Nagano

Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger- Boulez and Ensemble InterContemperain, Synclavier (see below album)

Jazz From Hell (not jazz, features Zappa's work with the Synclavier work, one of the first great sampling machines)

The Yellow Shark- Ensemble Modern

Watch: Frank Zappa - Peefeeyatko : Rare Austrian Doc

YouTube - Frank Zappa - Peefeeyatko : Rare Austrian Doc 1of6

"A rare peek into the compositional practices of America's most prolific and iconoclastic composer. Featuring interviews with Stockhausen, Boulez, Xenakis, John Cage, et al."

Frank Zappa.

Frank Zappa was a true genius. He truly created his own harmonic and rythymic language, which he used in many different styles, including Doo Wop, Classical, Rock, Jazz, and various combinations of the two. The ridiculous rythyms of his melodies were some of the most strinkingly original ever made, and his reckless arranging has remained unmatched. He excelled in numerous areas of composition, and was a truly original voice. His music can often be scary portraits of american society, not only lyrically, but musically, as his music frequently contained quotes from pop songs, commercials, etc, and lampooned many aspects of american society.

I would also reccomend the recording (if you can find it) Civilization: Phaze III, where, via a machine called the Synclavier, made one of the most complex orchestral recordings ever made. the synclavier allowed him to sample instruments and type melodies into a computer, which enabled him to have them playing rythyms far too complex for any human to play, and to take instruments far outside their normal range.

just to put it out there I don't think Zappa is the GREATEST composer, but he is tied with Bach (who is THE GREATEST) for my favorite

:huh:

:sick:

I don't understand! What is happening?

Someone hold me...:sadtears:

Ravel - Daybreak

Ludwig Van Beethoven.

Today we understand what a great musical genious is, thanks to him. But in his day not even beethoven knew about a beethoven perception. The man lived (after his deafness) in a fantastic world where he was a giant, where he pulled the essence of what a great composer should do. Create beauties, and create more of what does not exist, and more of what does not exist.

How great was this world of his that he managed to create a perception of the composer that did not exist at his time?

He was a brilliant man. :sadtears:

My favourite composer now is Rachmaninov/Rachmaninoff, his strength makes me want to make songs like his. I really like the strength expressed in numerous amounts of his songs so that is my answer

Beethoven

1.HE WAS DEAF!

2.He created music like no other

showpaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

Haha. Anyone want to dare to name someone who is still alive?

I suppose it's obvious of me to do so(as per my avatar), but I would nominate John Corigliano. I can't back it up with anything concrete of course except emotions and experiences I've had listening to his music. His melodies haunt me like no other.

Haha. Anyone want to dare to name someone who is still alive?

I did!

Carla Bley...

:whistling:

Whoops. Sorry Robin. I missed that one. Point to you.

Haha. Anyone want to dare to name someone who is still alive?

Christian Mcbride, Robin Jessome? ;)

Christian Mcbride, Robin Jessome? ;)

A great bassist, and certainly still alive...but one of the greatest composers of all time? :whistling:

Sean Malone is a great bassist, and certainly still alive. And he is one of the greatest composers of all time.