Composers you like

On my previousd thread, I asked about COMPOSERS you dislike and many got off track with listing lyrics. What I would like to know about is the melodies NOT lyrics. Put the words out of your thoughts.

Composers: Jerry Herman
Alan Menken
ALWebber - listen to some recordings of just his melodies
Jule Styne

Jason Robert Brown def makes top of my list. I think he is BRILLIANT

others I love:
-Jonathan Larson
-Duncan Sheik (I know, I know, he's only written SA so far, but I really love the score haha)
-Tom Kitt
-Scott Alan
-Elton John
-Michael Arden (I've really only heard like 2 of his songs from Easter Rising, but they're SO gorgeous!)

So yeah, I'm def a fan of contemporary, more "modern rock" composers. I just tend to relate more to them than to the more classical ones

---

Updated On: 2/22/08 at 05:09 PM

Scott Alan, Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, William Finn, Adam Guettel, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Schwartz, Marc Shaiman, Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne, Maury Yeston

Updated On: 2/22/08 at 06:37 PM

Andrew Lloyd Webber
Mogas Hogan

---

Lynn Ahrens
Leonard Bernstein
Scott Frankel
Adam Guettel
John Kander
Frank Loesser
Stephen Sondheim
Jeanine Tesori

---

How typical that the thread for composers you don’t like is three pages long, while the thread for composers you like only has a handful of responses. Hopefully it’s just because it’s a new thread and that will change, but I doubt it. Folks around here tend to dwell on the negative. Anyway here’s my list of composers I love:

Michael John LaChiusa
Stephen Sondheim
Maury Yeston
Adam Guettel
Leonard Bernstein
John Kander

Those are the first ones that come to mind. Of course there are shows by other composers that I love, but those are the composers whose shows/music I always love.

Right now I'm all about Ryan Scott Oliver, Joe Iconis and Bobby Cronin.

---

Stephen Sondheim, definitely.
Also Yann Tiersen, Michael Nyman, and Philip Glass (I'm into minimalism lately)
Tan Dun's Ghost Opera is fantastic.
And I can't get over Samuel Barber's Adaigo for strings.

So, I guess there's some specific pieces in there too... ah well.

---

musical_devotee, the discord between your avatar and answer slays me.

anyway, my answers...
Stephen Sondheim, natch
Leonard Bernstein
Adam Guettel
Maury Yeston
Lucy Simon
Scott Frankel
Jeff Blumenkrantz
John Kander
Marvin Hamlisch

and probably some more.

---

Updated On: 2/23/08 at 12:35 PM

Sondhead - I wholeheartedly agree that the 3-chord structure is becomming the death of musical theatre. Thus, less predictable music like Sondheim is a welcome change and a blessing (I like your screen name, by the way)

However, as a fan of minimalism, the 3-chord structure (or basically anything semi-repetitive) can be very effective if done correctly. I'm not sure how well it works in musical theatre (not being able to think of a good example off the top of my head) but in pop music (term used broadly) it works extremely well.

Example - The Album Leaf - songs are typically a very simple theme, usually just a few chords, that builds and builds until it morphs into something else. Beautiful and heartbreaking

Another Example - the song "Is There A Ghost" by Band of Horses - it is a rock song, but the 3 chords repeated over and over (along with the same 3 lines of lyrics over and over) is somehow extremely haunting.

---

My favourite two are pretty "generic" so to say..

Andrew Lloyd Webber
Frank Wildhorn

& I'm also a fan of Guettel!

Stephen Sondheim
Kurt Weill
Leonard Bernstein
John Kander
Claude-Michel Schönberg
Duncan Sheik

Updated On: 2/23/08 at 10:45 PM

I'm only repeating what others have said, but:

Adam Guettel
Stephen Sondheim
Frank Loesser
Leonard Bernstein

I also love Jason Robert Brown and Cole Porter, but only really if their lyrics are added into the mix.

I really need to listen to more Kurt Weill...