He isn't, no.........

 

No. He's toward the top, though.

 

JS Bach is just one of many of my favorites. Buxtehude, Pachelbel, Vierne, all rank equally as far as their organ music goes.

Kh

 

probably yes. If I could pick the oeuvre of just one composer to listen to for the rest of my life, I would pick Bach

 

Beethoven seems to have a comfortable lead on the “favorite composer” poll that shows up here often. For me Bach is not just my favorite; if all composers besides him disappeared I would be highly disappointed but still grateful.

 

For me Bach is not just my favorite; if all composers besides him disappeared I would be highly disappointed but still grateful.

I agree. Bach is my favorite, but he's also beyond what a favorite composer means. A woven part of all music. I've inquired before if people thought Bach lacked 'development' and 'timing' of what seems to be grander composers, but I've never found this to be so myself, as a meaningful compositional issue. I recall the thread on spotify's top composers had Bach as #1, and listed Chopin at #2 and Debussy high up there. These are composers who I don't feel suffer from development or timing either. What I've found however is that while no one can do it better, Bach can sometimes be too perfect. Everyone is human and can always look for ways to improve: Bach's harmonies sometimes fall victim to perfection of law over creative dissonance, in other words, in seeking beautiful divergences resulting from harmony he can lack the potential for expansive timings resulting from dissonances, missing opportunities for further growth. No composer has ever been able to achieve dissonance as efficiently as Bach though, he is the best at it, imo.

 

I like his organ fugues; to the rest of his music I have been, so far, indifferent. I respect him highly for his craft, and would even call him a hero of art, but if I rank him high, I rank him for his abilities, not for the actual music he settled for.

 

I'm passionate about him and his music and think in him as a kind of god of music, but there are two and only two composers that I love even more: Wagner and Beethoven.

 

He is second, just behind Beethoven for me.

 

I don't think Bach is my favourite composer, but he's certainly a composer I couldn't imagine my life without. Some kind of a foundation on which everything else lies, perhaps? Or is that going a bit far, I don't know - there are so many great composers... But certainly I find myself returning to Bach with such a frequency that it's impossible for me to exit his orbit, even if wanted to. His music has impacted me on so many levels, and fundamentally altered the way I view art and music and aesthetics, that it has become a very natural and omnipresent part of my life.

A bit off the topic: this is my 1000th post on this forum! :tiphat:

 

A worthy 1000th!

 

Some people behave as if there was never music better than Bach's, despite all those composers after his time. As if the history of classical music was that of pure descent from Bach.

Poor inventors of instruments, poor weavers of harmonies, poor perfectionists of melodies, and poor orchestral thinkers. Poor dramatic composers, trying to compose for the human psychology. They have all tried so much and still failed.

 

Is JS Bach your all time favourite composer?

Yes.

Some people behave as if there was never music better than Bach's, despite all those composers after his time. As if the history of classical music was that of pure descent from Bach....

I don't know of anyone who's knowledgeable about Bach who behaves that way. Most of us are well aware of Palestrina, Gabrieli, Gesualdo, Pachelbel, Buxtehude etc etc. But many if not most of us feel that Bach is "better", a culmination in a way. If someone prefers Palestrina, more power to them.

 

My vote would be No for any one composer. I have many favorites.

 

Second, right behind Brahms.

 

Fantasie in A minor and fugue on a Torelli theme BWV944, I consider it one of his most nostalgic pieces (also very exciting and rewarding to play) along with Chromatic fantasie and fugue, double violin concerto in D minor, Italian concerto, the Lutheran masses (the one in G minor is underrated), Partita in C minor for harpsichord, Toccatas for harpsichord BWV 910–916, etc.

 

Yes, he is. Sometimes I'd say tied with Mozart, but on reflection, Bach is my number one.

 

The greatest, but not my favorite!

 

he's not my single favorite composer but he's still one of my favorites.

 

Mozart is my acme of composers, but Bach is a close runner-up.

 

Yes, ahead of Mahler and Brahms. He does not tower over the others though, more primus inter pares.

 

I often feel like the odd one out when it comes to music from the classical era and beyond; I enjoy just a handful of pieces by Mozart and about the same with Bach (Double Violin Concerto, the Air, Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder and some of the Brandenburg Concertos), but I am totally baffled by the WTC, Art of Fugue, Goldberg Variations and B minor Mass.

Am I alone?

 

you have to work harder. I also did not like much of Bach or Mozart at first. It is an acquired taste. Take for example Goldberg Variation and listen to it once a day no matter if you like it or not. Your brain will pick it up, and after some time, you will like it.

 

Yes, always has been.

 

Bach is one of my top three or four composers but they are each so great and yet so very different that I wouldn't even try to select one above the others. It is all down to my mood. I tend to have a Bach mood (which usually lasts a few days if I don't spoil it by getting too much of it) every three or four weeks. The same is true of Beethoven and Mozart and Brahms. The rest of the time I spend with composers who are not my absolute favourites.

 

Based on my current CD count by composer in my collection, then yes Bach is some way ahead. Beethoven is trailing in second place.

 

Beethoven has always been first for me, not saying "better", just my personal favorite. Although I've heard a lot of Bach, I honestly only listen to a few Bach pieces on a regular basis (the violin concertos, Brandenburgs, and the Coffee Cantata). I acknowledge his genius but Baroque style is just not my thing.

 

I've noticed that on 80 percent of people's top 10 lists Bach is their top composer.

Quite a disparity between that 80% for Bach and this poll which, thus far (6th June 2020), has 70% saying he isn't their favourite.

 

Maybe Bach lovers really like top ten lists?

 

Feel free to see these posts for, I think, a much more advanced understanding of how to best calculate 'favorite composers.' It can't really be done with polls, because the information going into them is always based on very incomplete information, experience and recall, in regards to the thousands of pieces in the oeuvre of composers that people have a shallow capacity for weighing at a time. Hence why these poll numbers always shift around. Instead what we do is best target individuals who provide lots of experience with many composers' works throughout many instances of daily and yearly perception, and use that as a starting sample for assessing valid preferences for composers.

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