Sacreblue, no Berlioz??

 

True! I've momentarily forgotten about him ahaha, now he is in the poll

 

1. Ravel
2. Faure
3. Saint-Saens
4. Debussy
5. Franck
6. Berlioz
7. Magnard
8. Koechlin
9. Messiaen
10. Poulenc
11. Widor
12. Dutilleux

Une douzaine magnifique...

 

For me, it is Franck. If he's allowed as a Frenchman. Although I'm in a mini French romantic era composer exploration phase, and there are some delights, to be sure! *Favourite, not greatest.

 

Boulez is in the list twice.

 

My really short selection:

Saint-Saens
Franck
Berlioz
Debussy
Fauré
Ravel

 

My top 5:

Ravel
Debussy
Saint-Saens
Berlioz
Faure

 

1. Fauré
2. Debussy
3. Boulez
4. Messiaen
5. Poulenc
6. Koechlin
7. Vierne
8. Dutilleux
9. Onslow
10. Saint-Saëns

Just to make things a bit more exciting, here`s another Top 10 but this time without all the dead people:

1. Raphaël Cendo
2. Mark Andre
3. Philippe Manoury
4. Tristan Murail
5. Franck Bedrossian
6. Yann Robin
7. Édith Canat de Chizy
8. Hugues Dufourt
9. Pascal Dusapin
10. Gilbert Amy

 

Here are my Top 20 French composers:

Charles Koechlin
André Jolivet
André Caplet
Jean Prodromidès
Pierre Jansen
Edgard Varèse
Henri Dutilleux
Olivier Messiaen
Florent Schmitt
Antoine Duhamel
Aubert Lemeland
Marcel Landowski
Marius Constant
Charles Tournemire
Édith Canat de Chizy
Jean Cras
Serge Nigg
Gilbert Amy
Pierre Boulez
Joseph Guy Ropartz

 

My major favorites in roughly declining order:

Camille Saint-Saens
Francois Couperin
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Maurice Ravel
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Gabriel Faure
Maurice Jarre (if film composers count)
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Louis Vierne
Francis Poulenc
Cesar Franck
Claude Debussy
Jean-Francois Dandrieu
Jacques-Martin Hotteterre

 

Maurice Jarre (if film composers count)

Prior to his connection to David Lean epics, Jarre had written concert works - so I would include him as a composer of 'absolute' music, too.
This album has 5 of young Jarre's 1951->1961 vintage compositions (which include the unique and amazing Mobiles for violin and orchestra):

Film Score Monthly CD: Maurice Jarre: Concert Works

 

Debussy
Ravel
Messiaen
Varese
Boulez
Dutilleux
Koechlin
Faure
Schmitt
Franck

5 from the list, 5 missing from the list.....

 

From the list I voted for Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Poulence, Messiaen, and that man of many countries, Varèse. I didn't vote for Boulez; I think I like the idea of Boulez more than his music.

My others would be Schmitt, Dutilleux, Koechlin, Canat de Chizy.

 

I must say I’m delighted to see Fauré scoring so high. I love his music but he so often seems underappreciated or unnoticed compared to others from this era who seem to have achieved greater fame. If he is noticed at all it tends to be just for his requiem and pavane. Fauré‘s piano works, chamber works, and chansons are consistently superb, and there are a lot of them. For me, as someone who especially likes vocal music, I’d say his chansons are second only to Schubert’s lieder - and they’re completely different and complementary, so there’s never a need to choose between the two and it’s easy to enjoy both.

So, yes, I place him above Debussy. I just didn’t expect that would be such a common view as the vote so far indicates.

I actually like a lot of these composers.

 

There is no way I can add to this list except to bring up band music.

There are a few French composers that have written great band music.

Berlioz composed one work for band: Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale .

Milhaud composed some band works. The best one is the Suite Francaise.

Florent Schmitt composed one work for band: Dionysiaques. This is a very virtuosic work for Band.

Honegger composed some band works.

Note: Removed Reicha since he was born in Czechoslovakia.

 

Reicha: I know he was a Czech but he lived most of his adult in life in Paris. He composed 25 woodwind quintets and the Commemoration Symphony for Band.

Then Chopin is French too. Lived his entire adult life in France. Was a French citizen. Travelled on a French passport. Even had a French sounding name. It’s terrible the way all these Poles try to appropriate French culture. 😉

 

Greatest and favorite are often two different things.

 

1. Magnard, Albéric (1865 - 1914)
2. Widor, Charles-Marie (1844 - 1937)
3. Saint-Saëns, Camille (1835 - 1921)
4. Guilmant, Alexandre (1837 - 1911)
5. Rabaud, Henri (1873 - 1949)

 

Are we counting the Franco-Flemish composers as "French"?

If so, then 'numero uno' is, for me, Josquin Desprez! Followed by Guillaume Dufay, Johannes Ockeghem, Gilles Binchois, Guillaume Faugues, Philippe de Vitry, etc.

Certainly Guillaume de Machaut was 'French', so he figures high on my list too.

Otherwise, my top 15 favorite French composers are as follows:

1. Claude Debussy
2. Maurice Ravel
3. Gabriel Fauré
4. Charles Koechlin
5. Erik Satie
Albert Roussel
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Jean-Philippe Rameau
François Couperin
Camille Saint-Saens
Cesar Franck (who I primarily like for his violin sonata and piano quintet)
Joseph Guy Ropartz
Alberic Magnard
Frances Poulenc
Henri Dutilleux

Honorable mention:

Andre Jolivet, Olivier Messiaen, Jacques Offenbach, Jules Massenet, Georges Bizet...

 

I don't know about greatest but the one I'm mostly likely to want to hear on any given day is Fauré. Plenty of other great composers though.

Overall I have more affinity for French classical music than any other classical music nationality.

 

Poulenc
Messiaen
Saint-Saëns
Debussy
Fauré
Ravel
Berlioz

My "Others" votes go to Vincent d'Indy, Albert Roussel and Henri Dutilleux.

 

My Fave Five: Ravel/Poulenc/Messiaen/Berlioz/Satie.

If I was asked this a few years ago I daresay my answer would have been different. Ask me a few years from now and it may well be different again.

 

Not the most groundbreaking composer compared with the enormous impact of Debussy, Ravel and Berlioz, but Saint-Saëns has remained my favorite French composer for long. It helps that he wrote for many forms that I love (symphonies, concertos, chamber music) with remarkable consistence and variety.

Then these ones:

Poulenc, Milhaud, Roussel, Magnard, Schmitt, Ravel, Berlioz, Koechlin, Fauré, d'Indy, Debussy, Jolivet, Ropartz, Pierné and Dutilleux.

 

Faure, Messiaen, Magnard, Saint-Saens, some Poulenc, and - I'll admit appreciation for - Massenet

 

Is French Baroque not popular on this board? I would have expected Couperin, at the very least, to amass a great number of votes.

 

Jean-Baptiste Lully
(plus the other French Baroque composers - but they don't get much of a look-in.)

So - not much point in my voting, then!

 

From the most recent exercise "The TC Top 100 most favourite composers based on the personal preferences of 64 TC members (2024)", here are the French composers:

010 (010) Debussy, Claude
016 (020) Ravel, Maurice
026 (026) Berlioz, Hector
028 (033) Messiaen, Olivier
030 (041) Saint-Saëns, Camille
035 (037) Fauré, Gabriel
044 (065) Satie, Erik
049 (079) Poulenc, Francis
070 (066) Franck, César
073 (059) Dutilleux, Henr
075 (080) Koechlin, Charles
078 (000) Massenet, Jules
082 (058) Boulez, Pierre

 

I find it weird how both Bizet and Ravel called Berlioz the greatest French composer, with great genius but little talent. I don't get the dichotomy. Maybe it's a Frenchie joke?