20 Favorite Composers - Alex Johnson

“CLASSICAL”
 Ludwig van Beethoven

o Beethoven is probably the first composer I remember loving. I’m not as big of a fan of
him as I was when I was younger now that I’ve heard so much music, but a lot of his
music still holds up really well for me, specifically his Eroica and 7th symphonies as well
as his Moonlight, Pathetique, and Appassionata sonatas.
 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
o Mozart is another composer who I really liked as a younger kid, but he has a special place
in my heart specifically because his Clarinet Concerto was one of the first really
challenging pieces I had success with, which was really amazing. I also really love his
40th Symphony.
 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
o I put Rimsky-Korsakov here specifically because of his piece Scheherazade. I performed
that piece in my junior year of high school (I think) and playing a piece so grand in scale
and in presentation really changed my perspective on how I viewed classical (in the
modern sense of the term) music.
 Cyril Scott
o Cyril Scott is another composer I added for one specific piece, Lotus Land. I heard a
performance of it in high school that I was absolutely enamored with and since then, it
might be my all-time favorite solo piano piece. I loved it so much that I arranged the
violin version of it for clarinet so I could play along, which also started a love for
arranging with me.
 Emmanuel Chabrier
o Yet again, I added Chabrier for his piece España, which I also performed in high school.
The way the melody intertwines with the hemiola-heavy countermelody is super
intriguing, and overall, I think it’s a really great example of just how fun classical (in the
modern sense of the term) music can be. (Also, the use of harp is really cool.)
 Camille Saint-Saëns
o I’ve had a long history with Saint-Saëns. First, Carnival of the Animals is one of the first
classical pieces I came into contact with, and even though it’s a pretty beginner-friendly
piece, it still holds up for me. Next, the first movement of his Clarinet Sonata was the
first piece I performed that could also be performed by a professional musician, which
was very cool for me at the time. Finally, I performed his Danse macabre in high school
and absolutely loved it. Saint-Saëns is very special for me. (And again, bonus points for
the harp in Danse macabre.)
 Gershwin
o As a clarinetist, I can’t in good conscience leave out Rhapsody in Blue. But also, I love
the way Gershwin brings large-scale orchestration into his jazz-inspired pieces like An
American in Paris and Piano Concerto in F, which I performed last year in orchestra.
FILM/TV
 Alexandre Desplat
o Desplat wrote maybe my favorite film score of all time, The Grand Budapest Hotel. The
way he’s able to keep the overall lightness of the film throughout the score while also
conveying so many different emotions is extremely impressive to me. He’s also worked
on such great scores as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, The Imitation
Game, and Little Women.
 Hans Zimmer
o I love Hans Zimmer because he’s able to do so much with so little, like when he based
the entirety of the Inception score on the Édith Piaf song, “Non, je ne regrette rien”. Or
how he’s able to take one simple melody and develop it over an entire movie in a way
that feels earned, like in Interstellar, The Dark Knight, and Man of Steel. Also, he’s the
only person on this list that I’ve seen live, so that’s very special too.
 Hildur Guðnadóttir
o I don’t have as much of a history with Hildur as I do with Desplat or Zimmer, but her
work is still just as amazing, if not more. Her slowly-developing and indescribably eerie
soundscapes are really unlike anything I’d heard before, and they add so, so much to the
things I was introduced to her by: the HBO mini-series Chernobyl and the movie Joker.
 Angelo Badalamenti
o Badalamenti is on this list for a similar reason to Rimsky-Korsakov and Cyril Scott, but
actually, it’s not one full score that I absolutely love by Badalamenti, but one specific
song: “Laura Palmer’s Theme” from the TV show Twin Peaks. His explanation as to how
he wrote the song in real time with director David Lynch is captivating, and the song
itself is so simple, but it’s so insanely effective and effecting that I couldn’t leave it off.
 Michael Abels
o Michael Abels is maybe the newest composer on this list, he’s really only worked on two
main things: the movies Get Out and Us. But the work he did for those movies,
specifically Us is astonishing. The way he flips the Luniz song “I Got 5 on It” into a full
horror movie score is so perfect, it makes you wonder why it hadn’t been done already.
“CONTEMPORARY”
 Kanye West
o Kanye West is always interesting to talk about, because he’s done a lot of questionable
things throughout his career, but in my opinion, it can’t be argued that he’s made some
truly incredible music. This includes not only his solo discography, which is good enough
by itself for me to mention him, but also the work he’s done for other artists like
Common, Jay-Z, Pusha T, John Legend, and Beyoncé. Songs like “Devil in a New
Dress”, “Ultralight Beam”, and “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” are just some of the many
amazing songs he’s composed.
 Tyler, the Creator
o Tyler was a talented artist for a while, but he truly came into his own as a composer with
his 2017 album, Flower Boy, which showcased his true talent as not just a rapper, but as a
multi-instrumentalist, a very talented orchestrator, and extremely conscious and
intentional about the theoretical aspects of his music. Songs like “Boredom” and
“RUNNING OUT OF TIME” are great examples of this.
 FKA twigs
o I mainly put twigs on here for her masterful 2019 album, MAGDALENE. The way she is
able to use her voice to its fullest extent possible is insane. She sings as a way to express
herself directly, but also as an instrument that is able to fill up and support very busy
mixes, but also serve as a marker of aural distance in a track. “mary magdalene” is the
song that maybe shows this the best.
 Miles Davis
o Miles Davis’ influence really can’t be overstated; the massive number of artists and
musical styles or projects that he’s inspired is crazy. I look to songs like “All Blues” and
“So What” from his landmark 1959 album Kind of Blue as examples of how he was able
to rewrite the jazz genre and start to bring it into its next freer evolution.
 Michael League
o Michael League is the composer and bassist behind the jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy.
He’s responsible for writing most of my favorite contemporary jazz album, We Like It
Here, featuring the songs “What About Me?” and the incomparable “Lingus”, which
features Cory Henry performing one of my favorite solos of all time.
 Thundercat
o Thundercat is, I think, the most talented bassist in music right now. He performs these
insane riffs and shows off his crazy chops so casually and effortlessly, but he also writes
really interesting soul and funk-inspired music that is super theoretically interesting, like
on “Them Changes” and “Uh Uh”. Also, he contributed substantially to the sound of my
favorite album of all time, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly.
 Jon Brion
o Jon Brion is a composer that I didn’t realize I loved at first. I’ve never listened to his solo
work, but he’s been at the center of some of my favorite projects: namely Kanye West’s
2005 album Late Registration, Mac Miller’s 2018 album Swimming and his 2020 album
Circles, and Frank Ocean’s 2016 album Blonde.
 Caroline Shaw
o Shaw’s 2013 work Partita for 8 Voices won a Pulitzer Prize, and for good reason, it
shows fully the extent and creativity that can be taken solely from the human voice,
which to me shows just how much can be done with one element, whatever that is. She
also did a remix of Kanye West’s 2008 song “Say You Will” that is always mind-
blowing to me, even though I’ve heard it so many times.

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“CLASSICAL”

 Ludwig van Beethoven

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