is this really possible to rank "classical music composers"?

Answer 1

Yes, well... and no. There are no standards by which to judge them, but bearing in mind such rankings are subjective and often arbitrary, you can give your personal opinion. The obvious rhetorical answer is "what is the point?" There are obvious reasons for ranking certain composers but how they rate compared to their nearest rivals is far more indistinct.

Answer 2

My ten best classical music composers
1. Ludwig Van Beethoven
2. Johann Sebastian Bach
3. Johannes Brahms
4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
5. Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky
6. Sergei Rachmaninoff
7. Gioacchino Rossini
8. Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
9. Richard Wagner
10. Robert Schumann

Answer 3

If your picking just from one period (i.e. Classical) then it is possible. It might be VERY hard basing it on pure statistics and not letting your personal thoughts get in the way. You would look at things like number of compositions created, how many shows they had, if they're still in performance today, popularity during time composed/popularity today, or something as simple as quality of the overall work. I hope I helped. My example is, I love Mozart and I would rank him no. 1 on any music list however, statistcally Bach is probably better>>he wrote more songs, came up with many theories for music and so much of his music is recognized even today!

Answer 4

potentially, it depends what would deem as ranking, is it proficiancy of writting, instruments used, or even composers that have "broken the mold in some way" by this i mean that beethoven was first to use the trombone in a symphony (beethoven 5), or the first to use 4 movements to a symphony Hayden). if its profficency, then Mozart would have to be top as he wrote 3 quarters of his symphonies, and all of his operas by the time he was 25. so i think it's quite open to debate but difficult to actually achieve as i think you'd needto be more specific

Answer 5

Yes, in a very general way. There are questions posed on this board from time to time asking e.g. who is greater - Beethoven or Mozart. That kind of question should not be asked and is unanswerable. However, you can say that Haydn and Mozart are ranked greater than their contemporary, Karl Dittersdorf, or that Beethoven and Schubert are greater than his contemporaries, Hummel and Kalkbrenner. There are always a few very great composers and and many minor ones. My wife and I collect a series of CDs on which are performed virtuoso piano concertos by many composers who, in many cases, have been forgotten over time. No one would say their works are the equal of the concertos by Mozart, Beethoven or Rachmaninov. But they are worth listening to.

Answer 6

Yes:
1. Mahler
2. Beethoven
3. Wagner
4. Shostakovich
5. Schoenberg (+Berg, Webern)
6-1,000,000,000. Everyone Else
1,000,000,001. Phillip Glass

Answer 7

I usually only list what I like, never rank the music I like!

Answer 8

Yes it's possible. But you need to distill all the answers.
Some are not so serious about answering, they just do it for getting points.
This greatly depends on the type of questions, the clarity and way you state your questions.

Good Luck.

Answer 9

yes it is possible to rank classical composers but each list is truly meaningless unless you personally agree with it ... it really is a personal thing ... how do you compare Verdi to Stravinsky or Barber to Dvorak?

Answer 10

Some people might say that it is impossible to compare composers of different time periods.