Who’s your favourite composer from your country?

8 comments

1. I love to listen to works from Ennio Morricone or Ludovico Einaudi, according to my mood. When my mood is bad, nothing better than Einaudi to chill down and when I feel well, Morricone makes it even better.

2. Hmmm, Sibelius or Rautavaara? Honestly, I’ve never been super into Finnish classical music. Not that there is that much to choose from anyways. So I’ll say Kerkko Koskinen, he wrote pretty much all of Ultra Bra’s songs, which was an alternative pop band in the 90s and early 00s. I love their music.

3. I really like [Fahir Atakoğlu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahir_Atako%C4%9Flu). He’s well known especially for his soundtracks. He also did a few pop-albums in the 1990s which I still listen to from time to time. That was a good time for Turkish pop music.

4. The classical music scene for the Dutch is… Sweelinck. Whose music I don’t particularly enjoy. But then there’s Anthon van der Horst, who I only know for one piece, of which only one recording exists. [But it’s the most impressive version of the Dutch national anthem possible.](https://youtu.be/_-pxuE8kcPM)

5. Probably Edvard Grieg (born in the Swedish-Norwegian city Bergen 1843) or Jean Sibelius. Sibelius was born in Finland but he had Swedish parents and had Swedish as his first language so most of his work are in Swedish.

   Otherwise we have a lot of other suspects like Carl Mikael Bellman, Björn Ulvaeus, Ted Gärdestad and Johan Helmich Roman.

6. One of Hans Zimmer, Ramin Djawadi or Nils Frahm.

   Hans Zimmer because of his work with Christopher Nolan on The Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception. But Interstellar is the one that impacted me on an emotional level in a way only a handful of musicians have. I also got to see him perform live in Frankfurt a few years ago. Had a blast, one of my favorite concert experiences.

   Ramin Djawadi mainly because of Game of Thrones. The way Djawadi managed to give each house and their several characters and locations different and unique theme songs is beyond impressive. Of course the iconic main title song stands out, but also minor tracks like [King’s Arrival](https://youtu.be/AWBZDYiqXKE) or [Needle](https://youtu.be/842IcOASvJ4) are super distinctive and catchy. Djawadi’s entire work on GoT is riddled with excellent instrumental pieces like these. Probably my all time favorite score in the Fantasy genre.

   Nils Frahm…I find it difficult to describe him. All I can say is the way he brings classical music, especially the piano, and electronic music together is uniquely creative and very stimulating. I would recommend just checking him out. It’s well worth it, I promise.

7. Arjen Lucassen, (Ayreon, Star One, Guilt Machine).
   Hardly known in NL because ‘Metal’..

   Vocalists he worked with you may have heard of..

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ayreon_guest_musicians

8. As good as the famous Arvo Pärt is (for example *[Spiegel im Spiegel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ6Mzvh3XCc)*), I think Veljo Tormis tops my list as he used old Estonian and other Finnic texts and often gave a modern twist to them. [*Lauliku lapsepõli*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXA8FkQPqAU) is a good example of his melodic music, while *[Raua needmine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhjPGGSuuNM&t)* is an absolute beast! His [instrumental pieces](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLP6fAE9cqM) are wonderful as well.