What is your favourite classical music?

Just out of curiosity, I've compiled a list of favorite composers based on the number of musical compositions presented in this thread:

Methodology: Each time a composer is named, a single point is added to his or her total score. If a composer is named but a specific musical title or composition is not provided, the total score remains unchanged. Only composers of classical music are taken into account. For the purpose of this survey, classical music is loosely defined according to the Oxford English Dictionary :

Serious music following long-established principles rather than a folk, jazz, or popular tradition.

Results:

Anton Webern (1)
Antonín Dvořák (1)
Camille Saint-Saëns (1)
Edward Elgar (1)
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1)
Gabriel Fauré (1)
Georg Philipp Telemann (1)
Georges Bizet (1)
Giacomo Puccini (1)
Gioachino Rossini (1)
Léo Delibes (1)
Ottorino Respighi (1)
Jean Sibelius (1)
Joaquín Rodrigo (1)
Johann Pachelbel (1)
John Dowland (1)
Pierre Attaingnant (1)
Pierre Boulez (1)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1)
Steve Reich (1)
Bedřich Smetana (2)
Claude Debussy (2)
Enrique Granados (2)
Francisco Tárrega (2)
Franz Liszt (2)
Franz Peter Schubert (2)
George Frideric Handel (2)
Giuseppe Verdi (2)
Hector Berlioz (2)
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (2)
Ralph Vaughan Williams (2)
Sergei Rachmaninoff (2)
Johannes Brahms (3)
Ludwig van Beethoven (3)
Antonio Vivaldi (5)
Frédéric Chopin (8)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (9)
Johann Sebastian Bach (21)

I apologize for any (unintended) omissions or double counting.

Discussion:

About 40 composers have been identified in this quick survey, many of them originating from the periphery of classical music with the bulk of these composers receiving only one or two votes. There seems to be a large focus on relatively less known musicians from the 20th century, along with a glaring omission of eminent baroque and classical composers such as the highly influential Joseph Haydn (Mozart's friend and Beethoven's teacher).

I am surprised to see Chopin (8 points) scoring considerably higher than Beethoven (3 points); both of them were no doubt highly capable composers but...seriously...three votes for Beethoven?!?!?!




Incidentally, the above list turns out to be completely consistent with Einstein's taste of music. According to his biographer Walter Isaacson :

Einstein once said, but “Mozart's music is so pure it seems to have been ever—present in the universe.” He contrasted Beethoven with Bach: “I feel uncomfortable listening to Beethoven. I think he is too personal, almost naked. Give me Bach, rather, and then more Bach.”

- As quoted from Chapter 3 of Einstein: His Life and Universe

I love your posts. ^^

(Pretty interesting about Euler as well, btw.)

How were you come to learn about (and appreciate) classical music?

The Professor wrote: Classical music is seldom performed by street buskers in the U-Bahn; the music they play is generally too loud and horribly annoying. However, when they do play classical music, it actually sounds (surprisingly) good. Also, I never knew that the Flight of the Bumblebee could be played on the accordion and hearing this familiar piece of music again was, in fact, one of several factors that made me rediscover classical music in early adulthood, just when I was neglecting almost everything except academia.

Is it like in Dresden where they have to get a special permit to perform? I remember seeing a quartet near the Fürstenzug and it was pretty nice. I always wondered if it was as common in other parts of Germany as well.

SpamMusubi wrote: How were you come to learn about (and appreciate) classical music?

I have been playing the piano since the age of 5-6, and in my early teenage years I sat through a series of music examinations that made me very familiar with the classical repertoire. I also collected an entire shelf of classical music CDs (that was before the age of YouTube and Spotify), which complemented the musical scores I possessed.

As a trained pianist, my repertoire consists solely of classical music: I can play the fugues of Bach, the sonatas of Beethoven and Mozart, the impromptus of Schubert, the keyboard suites of Handel, and the waltzes and nocturnes of Chopin, but I have very little interest in non-classical compositions. This is probably the result of many years of formal music education coupled with a complete disdain for popular culture.

SpamMusubi wrote:

The Professor wrote: Classical music is seldom performed by street buskers in the U-Bahn; the music they play is generally too loud and horribly annoying. However, when they do play classical music, it actually sounds (surprisingly) good. Also, I never knew that the Flight of the Bumblebee could be played on the accordion and hearing this familiar piece of music again was, in fact, one of several factors that made me rediscover classical music in early adulthood, just when I was neglecting almost everything except academia.

Is it like in Dresden where they have to get a special permit to perform? I remember seeing a quartet near the Fürstenzug and it was pretty nice. I always wondered if it was as common in other parts of Germany as well.

Yes, a permit is required for most street performances but this is practically ignored by almost everyone.

Wagner for Tuesday.

The Planet composed by Gustav Holst. It is like alternative Star Wars by John Williams; And tons of film scores. It is so sad many rich composers ripped him off and he died broke.

My favorites of this week...
Bach <3
Minuet



And Mozart..
Mozart

The second movement (aria) of the orchestral suite in D major, one of Bach's numerous masterpieces

The famous Badinerie (musical joke), one of Bach's numerous masterpieces.

I remember the very first time when I heard this piece. It was through a cassette tape(yes, very long time ago indeed) where A side had Bach and Vivaldi, and B side had Dvorak and Mozart. And when this piece started to play after Bach, I actually thought that they made mistake by switching Vivaldi with Mozart because I thought this was Mozart's piece. Of course, I later found out that mistake was actually mine, and that this is indeed Vivaldi's piece. That's the thing about Vivaldi's music - they sound rather symphonic(before symphony was even developed) and classical for a baroque composition(which indicates how ahead Vivaldi was from his time). Well, here is for the first day of Spring.

"Brandenburg Concerto" is strangely delicate and grand at same time. In celebration of arguably the greatest classical composer's birthday, I give you Johann Sebastian Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 5."