Here below are the results of the normblog composers poll. In one respect these results - based on the votes of 143 people - are exactly as you'd have anticipated. The occupants of the top three places shouldn't surprise anyone. But in another respect I found the results quite remarkable.
I explained the scoring system in announcing the poll. On that basis, the top three composers are not just way out in front of everyone else, they are altogether out of sight. It's like with the greats of rock n roll, only more so - with Beethoven, Mozart and Bach now, rather than the Beatles, the Stones and Dylan, as the joint Bradman of their sphere. Moreover, when you look at how far ahead of everyone else these three composers are in the estimation of the voters, and how close together they are, I'm not sure if the tiny differences between them are statistically significant. Maybe this should be counted as a three-way tie for first place. Similarly with places 5 to 11; they're close. In fact, 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. (Attention Dave Weeden.) Beethoven, Mozart and Bach are way ahead of him, and he's way ahead of all the rest. Anyhow, here are the results, with the number of points scored by each composer in brackets after the place number.
The normblog top 30 composers
01 (345) - Beethoven
02 (340) - Mozart
03 (335) - J.S. Bach
04 (119) - Schubert
05 (59) - Chopin
06 (57) - Wagner
07 (54) - Mahler
08 (52) - Brahms
09 (51) - Haydn
10 (50) - Handel
11 (49) - Shostakovich
12 (46) - Tchaikovsky
13 (44) - Verdi
14 (33) - Debussy
14 (33) - Rachmaninov
16 (27) - Sibelius
17 (26) - Vivaldi
18 (21) - Puccini
19 (19) - Gershwin
19 (19) - Purcell
21 (15) - Elgar
21 (15) - Rossini
23 (14) - Bartok
23 (14) - Schumann
23 (14) - Stravinsky
26 (13) - Dvorak
27 (12) - Ravel
27 (12) - R. Strauss
29 (11) - Mendelssohn
30 (10) - Britten
Thanks y'all for taking part. As ever, I give below the bloggerentry. (Apologies for any omissions if there are. Email me and I'll make amends.)
Paul Anderson, Be, F.C. Bearded, Ophelia Benson, Chris Brooke, François Brutsch, Bill Cameron, Anthony Cox, Marc Danziger, Clive Davis, Jonathan Derbyshire, Andrew Ian Dodge, Stuart Elliott, Norman Geras, James Hamilton, Mick Hartley, Michael Hussey, Tamar Jacobson, Oliver Kamm, Mark Kaplan, Steve Kingston, Marcus Laughton, Hak Mao, Sophie Masson, David McDuff, Neo-Neocon, Tim Newman, John-Paul Pagano, Mike Power, Gareth Api Richards, Lisa Rullsenberg, Maita Sayo, Richard Schwartz, Philip Stott, Chan Stroman, David T, Thor, Dave Weeden, Wilson.