This is a really personal opinionated topic and I thought about it for a bit. I just couldn't called it "greatest composer" so I had to call it "Personal favorite composer". I think its such a subjective matter and you simply cannot say which is the best or the greatest. But, in order to get closer to this conclusion we can discuss our personal favorites and why they our are favorites. I like to call these bad boys, "The Big Three".

I personally will not vote because I don't think I can make a educated enough decision, as much as I play and listen to these composers I can not decide... Maybe in a couple years. Anyways, I'm not sure how big of a classical crowd we have here or how big you guys are on classical music, or if you know enough to make a vote. I am thinking there will be "I have only heard a couple Beethoven songs, and never heard Mozart so I will vote for Beethoven" kind of votes. But, that is acceptable, just say why you favor one composer over another. If you vote and don't know why... don't vote.

I chose these three composers because they are definitely known to be the most famous and common. All three undoubtedly gifted.

I love Bach's unparalleled contrapuntal technique, I love Mozart's unique phrasing, and I love Beethoven's straight up virtuoso composing abilities.

Who did you vote for and why? :P

Oh, and if you click view results, before you place you vote, it will not allow you to vote, so make sure you vote first.

I gotta go with Bach but I'm biased. I like the Baroque Period the best. Beethoven is probably my second pick.

Can you elaborate Sir. Neoshredder? What pulls you toward Bach so much? Why not Mozart?

Alright I haven't listened to a ton of any of those choices but what I've heard, I've liked Bach the most. It seems more melodic and more focused towards Neo-Classical Metal of today that Yngwie and Vinnie Moore copied. Mozart has some nice stuff as well like Turkish March. I got kinda bored with Mozart's Violin Concertos though I guess I need to listen to it more. I just think Bach stuff stands out more as being melodic. Beethoven also I would give the edge to for this.

I voted for Beethoven......symphonies 5,7 and 9 are excellent. I love Bach and Mozart as well to though.

mmm what wonderful Symphonies indeed, as well as his 3rd! Welcome to the forum, introduce yourself in the intro section!

he did dev, also lets not for get the intense 30 or so symphonies of mozart and the large amount of bach. In my opinion though, they are all from a different generation, it is like compairing jimi hendrix to michael Schenker then to Vinnie Moore, it just wouldn't work because of the different styles they play.

No point for the correction but w/e, I agree with your point their 100%, but... I do believe Bach didn't make any Symphonies... at least that I know of.

i meant beethoven :(

Beethoven, because his music feels more like a labor of love to me than Bach or Mozart.

in my opinion, it is impossible to choose. because Bach was the best Baroque musician, Mozart was the best Classical, and Beethoveen was the best Romantic. choosing which is better is like choosing between Black Sabbath and Metallica, both awesome metal band, but from different periods.

now that I look back at this thread I see how big of a mistake it was. I just needed more topics to get this place going. There is no best... just different.

Jonny Bach for me. He was one of the main innovators of polypony and counterpoint and his Well Tempered Clavier is still cited as being groundbreaking today. I also prefer Bach's music as I'm more into the Baroque era as opposed to Romanticsm which was Mozart and Beethoven's (a pupil of Mozart's) time.

Mozart is probably the greatest musician to have ever lived and I like some of his stuff but I love everything Bach ever wrote. I also love Beethoven's brusque style. His 9th symphony is the Blue Ribbon piece of the Classical genre IMHO.

I'm not a big Mozart fan really. His music is a bit flowery for my taste. However, his clarinet concerto and requiem mass are music for the gods.

No one can deny the genius of Bach, however I haven't really listened to a vast amount of his music. The cello concerti are probabley my favourites. Any recommendations welcome!

Beethoven is probabley my favourite of the three, because to me it seems really elemental.

Speaking of Bach - I went to the symphony hall in Birmingham last wednesday night to see a concert called 'Inspired by Bach' played by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

It was a pretty awesome concert - starting with Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in C minor arranged by Edward Elgar. I'd not heard this peice before but I will definately be hunting it down on CD soon. It completely blew me away.

Next was Allan Berg's Violin Concerto which was a bit more challenging on the old ears! Not usually my cup of tea but still really enjoyed the performance anyway.

After that came Arvo Part's Concerto Piccolo on B-A-C-H which was really interesting as it combined Harpsichord fuelled Baroque-esque sections contrasted with Atonal 20th century parts.

Last was Brahms' symphony no4 which was pretty powerful stuff. I've sat in a few different place around the symphony hall in the past, but this was the first time I'd been in the choir seating behind the orchestra. It was pretty cool though as we could see every gesture and facial expresion of the conductor Andris Nelsons who was going pretty mental most of the time.

Really great concert all round. :D

That must have been a great night HK. The power of an full orchestra in full flight is definitely something to behold. Nice one mate! :)

Looking back at this topic, I still seem to prefer Bach and Beethoven. I agree with Mozart being too flowery sounding. Just heard the Requiem piece. That is amazing and terribly depressing though. I've bought a ton of classical music lately. Just gotta listen to it and study it more. And you could make it a big 5 with Vivaldi and Chopin.