Thirteen favorite classical composers

Thirteen Things about Joe Norman 1…. Ludwig Van Beethoven ~ I know he is the favorite of many people, but there is something about him and his music that I really connect with. I have read 4 biographies on his life and of all the music I have played on the piano, I enjoy playing his the most. I only wish I were good enough to play all of his great piano music. 2 . Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ~ His music is also very enjoyable and he is possibly the greatest musical genius who ever lived. All his melodies were so memorable. He was not a very good person, but his music was divine. 3 . Franz Joseph Haydn ~ He was also one of the greatest and most creative composers ever. He is known as the father of the symphony and most of the music community of his day called him papa Hayden. Mozart and Beethoven both admired him and Beethoven even studied composition from him. 4 . Franz Shubert ~ This guy was probably the biggest fan of Beethoven ever. He had similar genius ability to Mozart and was a child prodigy. He died young in his late 30's and was buried next to Beethoven. His music was similar in many ways, but he wrote very lyrical melodies rather than motive themes. 5 . George Frederich Handel ~ He is best known for his Oratorio "The Messiah", but I have played some of his music for keyboard and heard many other great works of his. I have also learned and performed some great songs from Messiah and another Oratorio. His music is very lovely and lyrical and energetic as well. I like him more than Bach because it is not as busy...not sure if that makes sense to you, but that is why. 6 . Johannes Brahms ~ He was also a great composer. He wrote some of the most moving melodies I have ever heard and the complexity of his music is astounding. His piano concerto was written in the late 1800's and is still considered to be one of the most difficult pieces to play on the piano. He was also a child prodigy who began to study the piano at the age of three. 7 . Frederic Chopin ~ He is called the piano poet. His compositions were mainly for the piano. His mother was Polish and his father was French. Although his music is among the most technically demanding, it emphasized the expression of deep emotions and was extemely poetic in nature. Even today, people who want to create an atmosphere of romance, play recordings of his music...usually a Nocturne (defined as night music) 8 . Franz Liszt ~ This is another child prodigy and his music was some of the most complex and expressive ever written. It is said that he had such long fingers that he had a two octive range with one hand. He also was amazing at taking a great work written for orchestra and transposing it for piano. Transposing like that is not easy and his were so good that some of them are better known than the original work. 9 . Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky ~ He is most known for the music he wrote for the ballet The Nutcracker. He was one of the greats from Russia. His main instrument was the violin. An amazing thing is that he wrote a piano concerto that was much too difficult for him to play. It is still among the most difficult. 10. Sergei Rachmaninoff ~ He is probably my very favorite Russian composer. His music was so full of power. I had a close friend who studied piano from the same teacher I did and he could play Sergei's music extremely well. My friend's name was Brian Stalcup and Sergei was his favorite composer. Brian died at 17 yrs old and I didn't learn of it until a year after he died. Every time I hear Rachmaninoff's music, I think of my dear friend. 11. Giacomo Puccini ~ He wrote some of the most amazing Operas ever. His two most popular are Mademe Butterfly and La Boheme. I believe that Andrew Lloyd Webber mimics Puccini's style when he writes his musicals. 12. Samuel Barber ~ One of the greatest American composers in music history. He is best known for his Agagio for Strings. It was used in the movie Platoon and other movies as well. 13. Igor Stravinsky ~ Another great Russian composer. He is best known for a work called The Rite of Spring. I played a piano work of his that I fell in love with and that caused me to explore his other works as well. He was truly amazing. There are many other great composers I could list. One that I really wanted to put on the list was Felix Mendelssohn. He was another child prodigy and one of my very favorites. Anyway, there are so many wonderful classical composers that it is not easy to narrow down thirteen favorites. If there are some you are not familiar with on my list, please check them out. I think you will learn to love their music too. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

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