I think Handel is really considered English. He was born in Germany, but moved to England, because a Britisch citizen and dropped the ä in favour of a in Handel.

Hindemith, too, left Germany and became an American (I think).

 

Trying to think of important German composers left off of this list. Perhaps Schütz, Telemann, Humperdinck, Henze, Hartmann, Stockhausen, and Lachenmann?

I'd include Telemann over Orff, and Stockhausen over Spohr, simply because of their relative prominence and importance to music as a whole.

The real question is, do we count the country of one's birth or the country of one's childhood? Mahler was born in Bohemia (which was then part of the Austrian Empire) but his family moved to the Czech Republic before he was even a year old. Do you consider Mahler a Czech composer?

 

Bach
Beethoven
Schumann

 

I wouldn't consider Mahler Czech. I think he maintained his German identity and he was active in Vienna for his life. I'm not sure about Handel. I used to call him German, but have been corrected countless times. Hindemith does seem German, even though he did become American (as did Schoenberg... hey, where's Schoenberg in this poll!?).

I have even had some people get upset when I refer to all the German composers as German. Many insist that many of them are Austrian. Well, at one time, Austria was part of Germany and is to this day part of the German Sprachraum (linguistic region) and shares the German culture. It is a quirk of history that caused them to separate.

 

(as did Schoenberg... hey, where's Schoenberg in this poll!?).

Next door in Vienna, of course, along with Mozart, Haydn, Mahler, and Schubert.

 

Beethoven
Brahms
Bach

 

After clocking the egregious ommission of Karlheinz Stockhausen (I'm having a bit of a Stockhausen phase at the moment haha - but yeah he definitely should be on here instead of some of those who could be better described as merely "German composers" rather than "one of the greatest German composers" *cough Spohr, cough Reger cough cough Orff*) I was thinking about other possible ommisions. And this led me to thinking of Austria's titanic contribution to music in the late 19th, 20th and 21st centuries

 

The three Bs and an S.

 

The most glaring omission might be Wagner. Not that I'm a great Wagnerian but he seems kind of quintessential, it's like leaving, say, Tchaikovsky off the Russian list. I also agree with Mahlerian's suggestions, some of these composers like Spohr and Reger don't seem to be much cop in the grand scheme of things.

 

No way!! I must have so totally not considered his ommission that I didn't notice that!!! I call an annulment

 

They're all greater composers than me. But I'll still criticize them from down-under. Bach smacks them all about the face.

 

Hey guys, it is just a TC poll. It's not as if the results will be announced on the Tonight Show.

 

Well... the first problem with this list is that it excludes composers from what is today Austria. Germany as we now know did not exist until the Prussian victory in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 which resulted in a unification of the Northern German states... and the exclusion of Austria... Prussia's most powerful adversary and a largely Catholic state. Personally I follow the same standard that is largely employed when speaking of literature. "German Literature" is than written in German... regardless of whether the author was born in what is now Germany, Poland, Austria, or the Czech Republic. If a composer's primary language was German... then I think of him as German... or as I sometimes refer to it (tongue in cheek): the Austro-Germanic Hegemony.

 

Well... Personally I follow the same standard that is largely employed when speaking of literature. "German Literature" is than written in German... regardless of whether the author was born in what is now Germany, Poland, Austria, or the Czech Republic. If a composer's primary language was German... then I think of him as German... or as I sometimes refer to it (tongue in cheek): the Austro-Germanic Hegemony.

By that logic, Britten is an American composer or Copland is an English composer. For that matter, that would make Bob Marley an English composer. I'm sure he would have agreed with that ???

I see the first Vienna school there. Where is the 2nd? And, as others have noted, no Wagner. Nor any German later than Hindemith (who was an American). There's no Kurt Weill (too low-brow?). And, once again, we exclude medieval composers (e.g. Hildegard von Bingen) and Renaissance composers (Praetorius) and early Baroque (Schutz). Why do we continue to act as if there was no music before Bach?

 

Nobody! There are no great German composers!

 

I have even had some people get upset when I refer to all the German composers as German. Many insist that many of them are Austrian. Well, at one time, Austria was part of Germany and is to this day part of the German Sprachraum (linguistic region) and shares the German culture.

As I read somewhere recently, there are those Austrians who are quick to claim Beethoven as their own... while at the same time disowning Hitler.

 

Bach
Mozart
Beethoven
Haydn
Wagner
Handel
Schubert
Brahms
Richard Strauss
Gustav Mahler

The Austro-Germanic Hegemony.

 

Wagner gets plenty of exposure. But Stockhausen, Telemann, and Humperdinck are all choices I would have included had I thought of them maybe over Reger, or Orff now that I'm thinking about it. Wagner did occur to me but I just did a whole thread about him and I thought the inclusion of some lesser under appreciated composers would be nice for a change.

 

Wagner did occur to me but I just did a whole thread about him and I thought the inclusion of some lesser under appreciated composers would be nice for a change.

So you included Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms? Sounds more like an agenda

 

Germany annexed Austria in the anschluss. Using that as my historical guide, Haydn, Mozart and Mahler.

 

The Austrian ones! (I thought just everybody knew that.)

 

Hans Werner Henze. Actually, he wouldn't make my top three, but I'd take him over Orff and a few others.

 

I like polls like this. Dedictaed to established greats - none of the others.

I would have selected Handel, bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms,

 

Are Orff and Sphor established "greats"?

I thing Orff is mostly considered a composer who is popular because of Carmina. I've never heard or read anyone say he is a part of the "pantheon" along with Mozart or Wagner or whomever. I certainly wouldn't put him there either.

 

No Stockhausen? This thread must be destroyed.

 

It would be more aptly titled: "Which is the greatest of the German composers to whom I have no objections?"

 

View attachment 32644

We meet again master.

Sorry, I would give up Beethoven and Brahms for Mozart and perhaps Mendelssohn

 

I think Wagner, because he was the most German. He did the smart thing and disowned all of his earlier Italianate works. Those other Germans up there, too many of them were Italian.

 

I'm interested in the possibility that 'nationality' is of no significance at all in consideration of a composer's greatness. Who cares what the geo-political situation was at the time of Beethoven or Wagner...they wrote music in no language - that's why we can all listen to it and enjoy it without anyone having to translate.

 

I'm interested in the possibility that 'nationality' is of no significance at all in consideration of a composer's greatness. Who cares what the geo-political situation was at the time of Beethoven or Wagner...they wrote music in no language - that's why we can all listen to it and enjoy it without anyone having to translate.

Don't quite agree with this. When it comes to Classical Music, there have always been stylistic differences between different countries and cultures and they seemed to become greater as time went on. I think if you spend enough time listening to different composers you can start to hear the "German" "French or whatever accents in the music (unless of course a Russian composer is deliberately writing in a German style, for example).

 

Taking the nationalism out of Romantic music is like taking the flour out of bread.

Also Beethoven and Wagner wrote librettos in German.

But we can dissolve imaginary political fences if we really need to. The important thing to acknowledge is that they were all men, they have that in common: not being women.