Composers you’d recommend?

Question

I want to listen more to instrumental music. I dont have a lot of knowledge when it comes to beautiful pieces or great composers. What are good composers you’d recommend?

(I like pure music that contains a lot of emotion, that tells a story or that can calm you down)

Ofcourse I know about Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, etc. but what composer (or what great piece) should I give a try? Thank you!

NamerOfStars · Accepted Answer

If you haven't heard Holst's Planets suite yet, go and do that. Yes, right now. I'll wait.

Okay, now that you've taken care of that: if it's emotional intensity you're looking for, then Shostakovich is your man. It's not all instrumental, mind. String Quarter number 8 is gut-wrenching and visceral in a way I didn't think music could be, and the Gadfly suite is sweet and romantic. His ninth symphony is biting and sarcastic, the tenth is "celebrating" the death of Stalin via what can only be called Soviet rock and roll, and the fourth is that weird piece of music that gets more and more in depth the more times you listen to it, and three dozen dives into it, you're still not seeing the bottom.

His fifth, which many people call his best work, was written in response to Stalin seeing an opera he'd written and disliking it, and consequently being basically outcast from popular acceptance- and more importantly, GOVERNMENT acceptance; it's a more... not "happy", but "content with the government and the status quo" piece, but there's an undercurrent of discontent, and of fear- have you been outcast to simply remove you from the public eye, or is it to buy time for their attention to move elsewhere so you could be killed quietly, without drawing attention? It makes you wonder what he could've become in a non-Soviet world.

For good measure, I'll throw in Frank Zappa. Yes, THAT Frank Zappa. "I didn't know he did classical stuff," you're probably thinking; "what genres did he write in?".

Yes.

Most famously, he harshly criticized the "parental advisory: explicit lyrics" label, calling it akin to "use the guillotine to treat dandruff", and in response, they slapped it on his next album, "Jazz from Hell". Perhaps you think that wasn't petty retaliation, but a genuine belief that the lyrics were obscene. They weren't. Jazz from Hell is instrumental.

His best instrumentals (that I know about; I haven't heard all he did)... I'd say Blessed Relief, Peaches en Regalia, Black Napkins, Eat That Question, Crusin' for Burgers (if you're looking for a song that feels like it's beating you up), and a special mention to Watermelon in Easter Hay, which astoundingly melancholy for such a simple tune, even if you don't know the context of the opera it's in.

If you're not dead-set on instrumentals, I'd give Warren Zevon a listen, if you haven't already. That the man responsible for "Roland the headless Thompson gunner" and "Indifference of Heaven", and "Fistful of rain" is known primarily for a single stupid novelty pop hit is a travesty.

Sonorous · Accepted Answer

What about contemporary classical & even neo-classical composers? I ask because I mostly listen to the original compositions of them & also their take on classical works.

Here's are good examples of what I mean:

rachel776 · Accepted Answer

This is the world I live in.

Work your way through musical periods and see what you like best. The main ones people know are baroque, classical, romantic and modernist. Most people like the end of classical and the beginning of romantic.

Here's one roughly from that era, played by a student orchestra with one of the top conductors in the world today.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mFRwTpRL3R4

Phoenix98 · Answer

Gustav Holst- The Planets, Full Suite

Mussorgsky - Night on Bald Mountain

Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead, Symphonic poem Op. 29 - Andrew Davis

Camille Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre

Giuseppe Tartini - Devil's Trill Sonata

Claude Debussy - Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

Those are good composers to get started with and the pieces themselves are very good.

AviatorTom · Answer

Listen to John Williams. Especially the way his music has French Horn sometimes playing melody, something few other composers do.

Theodoricus · Answer

From Johann Sebastian Bach

DarkLegacy · Answer

I love composer's music and Beethoven is one of my favourite. You should also try Mozart, Elber and Wagner. Tchaikovsky is also very good.

slatyb · Answer

Debussey

Composers you’d recommend?

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