Favorite Composers
Favorite Composers
#0Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/16/05 at 6:25pm
There hasn;t been a thread like this in a while, so who are your favorite composers?
My Top Five (in order) Are:
1. Jason Robert Brown
2. Adam Guettel/Stephen Sondheim
3. Maury Yeston
4. Richard Rogers/Cole Porter
5. John Kander
Updated On: 9/18/05 at 06:25 PM
grizzabella
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/05
#1re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/16/05 at 6:38pm
Jerry Herman
Richard Rogers
Stephen Schwartz (mostly because Pippin's one of my favorite scores)
Stephen Sondheim
(I'm highly ambivilent about ALW. I love individual bits of his work, and think other bits are pure drek, so I'm including him for the bits I like.)
"And the postman sighed as he scratched his head, you really rather thought she ought to be dead..."
#2re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/16/05 at 6:40pm
1. Stephen Sondheim
2. Maury Yeston
3. Michael John LaChiusa
4. Adam Guettel
5. Richard Rodgers
6. Jason Robert Brown
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
#4re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/16/05 at 6:46pm
Sondheim
Kander & Ebb
Jule Styne
Bock & Harnick
Rodgers & Hammerstein
Cole Porter
Drought Down Under.
#5re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/16/05 at 6:46pm
Cy Coleman
Irving Berlin
George Gerswhin
Cole Porter
"My dreams, watching me said, one to the other...this life has let us down."
#6re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/16/05 at 6:54pmNo postings for Lloyd Webber or Herman, interesting!
Drought Down Under.
#7re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/16/05 at 7:27pm
Richard Rodgers
Stephen Sondheim
Jules Styne
Frederick Loewe
Jerry Herman
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#8re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/16/05 at 7:33pm
1. Stephen Sondheim- Sweeney Todd
2. Rodgers and Hammerstein- Sound of Music
3. Cole Porter- Anything Goes
4. Ahrens and Flaherty- Ragtime/Dessa Rose
5. Jerry Herman- La Cage Aux Folles/Mack and Mabel
6. Irving Berlin - Annie get your gun
7. George Gerswhin
8. Cy Coleman- Barnum
Happy...Everything!
Kaye Thompson
Updated On: 9/16/05 at 07:33 PM
wickedrentq
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/6/04
#9re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/17/05 at 4:29amWoow...not one person yet mentioned my all-time fav and 1 answer to this question, Leonard Bernstein?
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
#10re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/17/05 at 5:18am
Frank Zappa
Not in any order-
Sondheim
Schonberg & Boublil
Rodgers & Hammerstein
Kander & Ebb
Herman
Gilbert & Sullivan
Weill
Updated On: 9/17/05 at 05:18 AM
#11re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/17/05 at 5:32am
I guess I'll be the second to mention my favorite...
Leonard Bernstein
and close behind him is Stephen Sondheim...Both absolute geniuses...thank God they had the chance to work together at least once...
The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another... and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.
~Leonard Bernstein~
Sant
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/12/04
#12re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/17/05 at 7:10am
Kander & Ebb
Richard Rodgers
A. Lloyd Webber
Ahrens & Flaherty
One Song Glory
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/12/05
#13re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/17/05 at 7:30am
Joanthan Larson
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Stephen Swartz
I'm not a gay stereotype. I'm a coincidence.
AvenueQPat
Stand-by Joined: 5/9/04
#14re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/17/05 at 8:12am
Jason Robert Brown
Ahrens and Flaherty
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Adam Guettel
Stephen Sondheim
Leonard Bernstein
Kander and Ebb
You know.....come to think of it, I love almost everybody. They are all for different reasons though, like I hate Cats and Joseph, but I love Phantom and JCS.
So I guess I can't say a favorite, but a combo of the people above and the classics like R & H
You learn to play the straight man, the lines become routine - never really saying what you mean - but i know the scene will change :)
BroadwayDoc
Stand-by Joined: 9/17/05
#15re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/17/05 at 8:53amCan't believe no one has said Bill Finn! I didn't think he was that underrated.
#16re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/17/05 at 11:42am
There are a lot of composers that I think wrote 1 or 2 incredible shows, but (for me) didn't create enough of a body of work (as of now) to be on my list of all-time "favorites." I picked a small group (above) that had proven themselves with at the very least a handful of outstanding scores. That's what a "favorite" is to me. Not a one-hit wonder or a flash in the pan. Someone who hits it out of the park consistently. If I had to expand my own list to include composers I liked for just 1 or 2 shows, I would add:
Leonard Bernstein
Lionel Bart
Stephen Flaherty
Meredith Wilson
Richard Adler/Jerry Ross (co-writing their music)
Adam Guettel
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Updated On: 9/17/05 at 11:42 AM
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
worrell4077
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/04
#17re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/17/05 at 11:46am
Eric Idle/John DuPrez
Mel Brooks
Howard Ashman/Alan Menken
Robert Lopez/Jeff Marx
________________________________________________________________
"Sometimes weird stuff happens. Someone has to deal with it, and Who Ya Gonna Call?"
-Ghostbusters II
#18re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/17/05 at 2:52pm
Composer9- preach it!
Bernstein
Sondheim
Weill
Guettel
Arlen
And of course, my absolute favorite composer is Brahms, and my favorite vocal composers are Schubert, Mozart and Verdi, but that's for another board.
"WHEN is the winter of our discontent?"
"NOW is the winter of our discontent!"
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hearthatstrue
Stand-by Joined: 9/10/05
#19re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:03pm
Leonard Bernstein
George Gerswhin
Stephen Sondheim
Kander & Ebb
Rodgers & Hammerstein
Cole Porter
Jason Robert Brown
Kind of cliche, huh?
#20re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/17/05 at 6:33pm
hearthatstrue,
I love your picks...they're basically mine with a bit of tweeking to the order, and the addition of Adamn Guettel because I'm in love with Piazza...nonetheless, not cliche, absolutely great choices! Oh, and I guess I'd take JRB out and add Jerry Herman instead...I like JRB, but he's not one of my "favorites"...
The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another... and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.
~Leonard Bernstein~
#21re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/17/05 at 6:37pm
The lack of Cy Coleman on these lists is depressing.
I forgot Bernstein on mine.
#22re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/17/05 at 7:08pm
I keep wanting to revise mine too. There are just too many I like (including the amazing Mr. Coleman).
Others that haven't been mentioned yet (and easily could) are Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, and Frank Loesser... heck, even Galt MacDermot.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Labashier
Stand-by Joined: 10/9/04
#23re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/18/05 at 1:03am
Jonathan Larson
Leonard Bernstein
Jason Robert Brown
Stephen Sondheim
Alan Menken
Cy Coleman
I have a number of composers I really enjoy, but I didn't feel it was appropriate putting them down as they only have one well-known show (Damon Intrabartolo, Lopez/Marx, Kotis/Hollman, etc)
#24re: Favorite Composers
Posted: 9/18/05 at 1:06am
and Jonathan Larson.
No doubt about it...I felt like making their names pretty...
Updated On: 9/18/05 at 01:06 AM
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