Favourite Composers? (Page 1 of 2)

I discovered Aaron Copland while taking a Music History class in college and found his composition Fanfare For The Common Man inspiring. Hope your Topic gains some legs.

                                                                                    Think Green,

                                                                                    J Dawg

Eric Czar is one of my favorite composers right now.  I listen to his music just for that reason, to see what he comes up with next. 

I think one of the more famous ones is John Williams, the movie composer.  He has scored a lot Steven Spielberg's with my favorite being "Jaws".  I didn't know this until I looked it up, but he had composed the music to the TV series "Lost in Space".  Now when I listen to it, I see where it does sound like something he came up with.  I think he adapts his music scores so well to the type of movie he is composing for.  It's interesting just to go thru his career because he has done so much.

Another person that comes to mind is Danny Elfman.  For me, because I first heard him as a member of Oingo Boingo.  Then he went on to really become more famous as a TV/movie composer.

Great topic and interested to see more responses.

I think I'll always have a fondness for Edvard Grieg and his Peer Gynt Suite No 1. My middle name before I was married, Anitra, is from the third movement of that suite, entitled "Anitra's Dance". The first movement, "Morning", is such a beautiful piece, and who cannot like the fourth movement, "In The Hall of The Mountain King."

Thanks everyone for your replies, i'll be looking into all your suggestions over the next hour.

Hey Robin as far as the criteria for 'Composer' as opposed to 'Songwriters', i suppose i'd include the distinction of a Composer usually writes the parts for other instruments in the ensemble (or in a lot of cases, an orchestra, where there'll be many instruments they have to write music for despite not being able to play them, ie: the harp), and generally focuses more on the instrumentation/melody/accompaniment etc rather than just lyrics & chords (which is what would constitute a songwriters main role).
Some Composers even venture into Orchestration & Arranging which is an art in itself (it can be equated to a Director editing his/her own film, instead of letting someone else do it), and that deals with deciding what notes of a chord each instrument can play in order to create harmony & texture, they also have a deep knowledge of the 'timbre' of all the instruments & know which types of brass & woodwind etc (and what quantities) sound best together etc.

So yea that's a basic idea of the distinction between Composers & Songwriters, the lines can be blurred now & again though.

Ian I totally know what you mean, the way the strings all blend in certain pieces and the textures & moods created in Orchestral music is amazing. For example, some of Mozart's most famous symphonies could be played on a single Classical guitar whilst retaining all of the main voices, but when it's played by an orchestra, it just becomes a completely different animal.
Also i like what Hans Zimmer says about an Orchestra and how it can never be fully imitated or replicated by technology, he says there's nothing like a group of mabye 60 musicians all playing together & having a Conductor steering & aiming their collective intent in one direction, hence the importance of a good Conductor.

Been coming across quite a few (commercially) unknown composers recently who are quite skilled, check out this film composer i discovered on Facebook, really like this piece in particular

https://soundcloud.com/anita-andreis/hiraeth

Oi! Oi!

Outside of classical music which seems to fit the composer label the best,I like some of the 70's jazz rock titans.Chick Corea,Al DiMeola.Herbie Hancock,Jean Luc Ponty.Klause Doldinger(Passport) The whole Weather Report Band,and Spyro Gyra come to mind.Also Stanley Clarke.Grover Washington Jr.Jan Hammer.

I don't listen to tons of classical, but I do like the standardbearers: Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Pagannini, Mahler (yes, I do like Mahler).

For jazz, Charlie Parker, Chick Corea, Dave Brubek, Coltrane, Miles, Herbie Hancock.

Frank Zappa is one of the few rock guys I'd feel comfortable putting in the "composer" category, and I love Frank's music, although some folks like Steve Vai have written for orchestras and their style is more compositional... I know it's a blurry line, I wouldn't begrudge others their choices, and I'm sure there are lots of others out there.