Your favourite classical composer(s)?

Rocktopus wrote: Guess I'm the first to actually have a female (two, actually) composer among my favorites, and not just mention a few because because no one else have.. Top ten of the last couple of years: Dmitri Shostacovich Krzysztof Penderecki Franz Schubert Giacinto Scelsi     Morton Feldman Kaija Saariaho Johann Sebastian Bach Peteris Vasks Ludvig Van Beethoven Bela Bartok Bubbling under: Gustav Mahler Johannes Brahms Arvo Part Leon Janacek Iannis Xenakis Maurice Ravel Claude Debussy Terry Riley Sofia Gubaidulina Valentin Silvesterov

...and I guess you don´t read previous posts! High Priestess Friderike will probably enchant you!

Definitely Hildegard. About the others: The problem with Clara and Fanny is that at their time it simply was not expected of women to compose. Clara gave up composing when she married Robert to make him better known (during their time she was much more famous than her husband; not for composing but for being a virtuoso piano player. Felix did not support his sister in her compositional efforts; there is a famous letter in which he scolds her for it.
And Barbara Strozzi really does belong to my favourties, and she was well-renowned during her time.  Her melody lines are exquisite .Unfortunately she was forgotten in latter times.


Edited by BaldFriede - August 17 2010 at 14:41

I bet hardly anyone ever heard the name Barbara Strozzi, and I must admit I had not heard it myself either until a few years ago when something of her was played on WDR 3, a local radio station which broadcasts a lot of classical music. WDR 3 often dig up forgotten composers; not all of them are top of the crop, but there are some which really deserve to be rediscovered, and Barbara Strozzi is one of them.
Remember that Johann Sebastian Bach had been completely forgotten in the 19th century, and he probably would have remained that way had it not been for the efforts of Schumann and most of all Mendelssohn to make his works known again. He is now widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time; just think what treasures would have been lost for us had he really been forgotten.

At the fore of my life over the last couple of years:

Luigi Nono
Morton Feldman

These two have been my biggest musical obsessions over the last five years or so. There are many other composers that are dear to me, but that I've only heard a handful of albums by, so I'm not so well versed in many of their works.