Composers Poll

Norm Geras has released the results of his latest musical poll. Norm asked for ranked votes (5 points for first,4 for second, etc.) for favorite/greatest/best classical composers. The results were mainly unsurprising, he reports. The top three way ahead of the rest finished in a virtual tie: Beethoven (350), Mozart (345) and J.S. Bach (335).

Norm boldly proclaims "the only unique position that can be said to have been established authoritatively on the basis of this poll is that Schubert is the world's fourth favourite composer."

Schubert garned 119 votes, putting him far ahead of the closely pack 6-11 finishers - Chopin (59) Wagner (57) - Mahler (54) - Brahms (52)-Haydn (51), Shostakovich (49).

My vote (unranked) was Bach, Beethoven, Gershwin, Stravinsky, and Copeland. Gershwin and Stravinsky made the Norm poll "Top 30," but Copeland didn't.

Here's another web poll, this time of the top 100 classical composers. It  puts Schubert at number seven  and tracks fairly closely with Norm's poll, though no Gershwin.