And your favorite composer is...

Stravinsky and Martinu.

It's interesting that Shostakovich is so liked by everyone... He's kind of pushed aside because of the so called "avant-garde" movements.. A shame of course.

My favourite composers, in a roughly chronological form:

Gesualdo, Palestrina, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartok, Penderecki, Ligeti, Schnittke, Gorecki, Rochberg, Reich, Ades.

*points to avatar*

Well this is rather dumb; John Williams is in a league of his own out of these fellows. Their pieces are nice and all but they don't hold a candle to most of Williams' work. Not even dear Nobuo, though he is a great composer.

I like...

David Holsinger

Eric Whitacre

Herbie Hancock

Stravinsky (who doesn't?)

Grover Washington Jr.

Just to name a few...

Songjun, the first few composers you named sound like car manufacturors. You're third choice should've been Toyota or something...

Well, here they are, just a few of the heavies

Carla Bley

Also,

Kenny Wheeler

Charles Mingus

Ornette Coleman

Tom Waits

John Coltrane

John Zorn

...

*Edit*

Just noticed Keerakh Kal Keerakh Kal's Grover Washington Jr.... :huh:

He's not exactly known as a composer...just seems like a slightly odd choice. Maybe I'll check him out a bit more. Mostly seems to be smooth-jazz, although much more creative than Kenny G, still not pure genius either...

'tis a tie between the great Ludvig van and Joe Hisashi. And Alfred Schnittke...

A list of some composers I like and get inspired by:

Danny Elfman

John Adams

Thomas Newman

Hector Berlioz

Claude Debussy

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Frederick Chopin

Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Duke Ellington

Count Basie

Violaine Corradi

Vincent Persechetti

Loreena McKinnett

Lisa Gerrard

Aaron Copland

Alfred Reed

Johann Sebastian Bach

Chuck Mingus

Eric Whitacre

Glenn Miller

Howard Shore

John Mackey

Miles Davis

Koji Kondo

2Gryphon

Mark Deutsch

Buddy Rich

Gordon Goodwin

Jack Stamp

Aaron Jay Kernis

Richard Wagner

Ottorino Respighi

Paul Hindemith

Mendelssohn

Really though, Rob, what is pure genius?

Fair enough, I just mean to say his music is not the most creative, interesting, challenging...you get the picture

my favorite is probably shostakovich, arvo part being a close second.

also like stravinsky,Faur

Im more of a Nobuo Uematsu person since im aspiring to be a video game composer.

1.nobuo uematsu

2.yasunori mitsuda

3.yoko shimomura

4.hitoshi sakamoto

5.john williams

Where the bloody hell is Koji Kondo there?

Brahms, the greatest musical craftsman in history, stands alone at the top of my list.

Other than him, my favorites include the Mighty Handful, Shostakovich, Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams, Mendelssohn, Kalinnikov, Rheinberger... actually, it's hard to limit it to a few favorites. I like virtually the entire Romantic era, and a number of more recent composers (notable exception: I have yet to hear a Bartok piece that I've liked in the slightest, and I've heard almost all of his better-known stuff.)

no bartok? mmm his string quartets, music for strings, percussion and celesta, The Miraculous Mandarin, etc....very tasty in my book :D

Heard all those pieces, hated them all... :D

In no particular order...

Michael Nyman

Debussy

John Williams

Scott Joplin

Mozart

Heard all those pieces, hated them all... :D

:) to each his own:P

My favourites are the Russian composers:

1) Tchaikovsky

2) Rachmaninov

3) Rimsky Korsakov

I also like some of Gustav Holst's music like the St Paul Suite (especially the ostinato), and Jupiter- Bringer of Jollity.

By the way have you heard of Bartok's Mikrokosmos pieces for piano ( not sure of spelling), they are less avant garde. His violin concerto 3rd movement is quite nice, at the start.

Zappa

My favorite composer !? ... let's see it by period.

Antiquity : Mesomedes

Early medieval : let's say Anonymus as a joke here ! or Gregorian chant.

Late medieval : Guillaume de Machaut

Renaissance : Don Carlo de Gesualdo

Baroque : Rameau by far !

Classical : Haydn

Romantic : Wagner

Modern : Stravinsky

Contemporary : (ahaha... me?)... Claude Vivier

hmmm.

Borodin.

Holst.

John Williams

Stravinsky

Brian Balmages.

Robert W. Smith.

that's about it.

My favorites, in order of greatest to least:

Tchaikovsky

Beethoven

Prokofiev

John Williams

Mendelssohn

Brahms

Stravinsky

All I can think of right now.

Oh man, it's gonna take for ever to check out all these composers, but I'll do it!;)

Anyways, I was shocked but very happy to see someone else say Nobuo Uematsu! I'm in the same boat as you dude!:(

One game with incredible music (and also my favorite game of all time because otherwise it's an excellent game) that very few people know about is Brigandine (Playstation 1) (ebay's your only chance, it'll cost about $30-$40 + shipping) (if you want to learn more come to the Brigandine www.gamefaqs.com forum, I'm over there too). As of now at least, Nobuo's also my favorite composer!:(

I'm afraid to list any others of mine because the only ones I've known so far were Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and Nobuo.

Fair enough, I just mean to say his music is not the most creative, interesting, challenging...you get the picture

I think I'd have to disagree... I'm not a saxaphonist, so I can't say anything about it being challenging, but some of his more known pieces 'Mr. Magic, Winelight' are pretty creative and very interesting to me. I realize this site is more centered around classical music, but I use the term 'composer' a little bit more loosely here.

Besides, I like listening to stuff written by people who are still alive. (I know he's dead, but I can dream, can't I?)

I forgot to add Korn to the list.

...Just kidding.

~Kal

Berlioz

Beethoven

Mozart

Stravinsky (I LOVE some of his pieces and can't stand others, so I just put him here for his pieces I love :P)

Mendelssohn

Poulenc

Rossini