Classical Music

My musical tastes drive other people crazy, because I like a lot of different genre of music–including rock. Whose compositions give you goose pimples or have you humming their music through the day?

(Right now the fourth movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique is stuck in my head. If you know the music you know that movement is populated by witches. Does this say anything about me?)
I see a lot of composers mentioned that I overlooked and a few I will have to become acquainted with.

My other musical tastes include Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Horton (one of the all-time BEST country artists), the Animals and–of course–the Beatles. I also like the various efforts by Kris Kristoffersen and Texas’ own Willie Nelson–good performing artists, but also prolific music writers.

As I grow older I more appreciate that good music does not favor any one genre. You find it in church music, gospel, classical, rock, country and many other kinds of folk and other music.

When I was a radio disk jockey–before I landed in the news department–I liked to really mix it up. Some listeners loved it, some hated it. Fortunately we weren’t going for Nielsen ratings.
Katie, one of the problems with Country is what we see and hear of it does have a “sameness” about it that even country fans don’t always like.

But there are many kinds of Country. I cited Johnny Horton, who was killed in an auto accident in 1960. I met him about a year before his death. His music was distinctive and had a lot of character. Bluegrass is different from most of today’s Pop Country. Johnny Cash did some things that were absolutely brilliant musically. Today’s Country artists are too heavy into multi voice tracking and synthesizing music for my tastes. A lot of Country is good down to earth music, but a lot of it is just another form of Pop. You have to take it song by song–not as an entire genre. Oh, and did I mention, you are one very cool kid. Thanks for your good input.

(I like Bach and Tchaikovsky, too, of course, but also Mozart. And thanks for mentioning Grieg.)
Sibelius, YES! And Vivaldi, too. So many good composers. So much good music. Liszt, Prokofiev, Brahms, Mahler, and more. Such good inputs. It may take me a while to pick a best answer.
Let me note here that these Thumbs Downs didn’t come from me. I don’t know who’s throwing them out, but I don’t think any of them are deserved.
Miss Smiley, Josh Groban’s rendering of “You Raise Me Up” is awesome. It isn’t quite what I was thinking about in this question, but the song has a lot of merit. I think of it as a gospel song, but I can see it as a pop rendering as well. Thanks for submitting it.