Poll chancers

The composer votes that surprised us

Some love to play the system. John Corigliano has voted five times for Beethoven, Robin Holloway likewise for Bruckner. And, lest you think it a typo, Nicola Lefanu has plumped twice for Mozart, similarly Luke Bedford for Bach. There are, however, more surprises. Rolf Hind has opted for a blackbird (‘we have to honour birds’). On a similar theme, Jobina Tinnemans has gone for Mother Nature as one of history’s great (female) composers.

Pop musicians feature too. Donnacha Dennehy has voted for ‘Wuthering Heights’ singer Kate Bush, Dai Fujikura for David Sylvian, frontman of the 1980s group Japan. Anna Meredith has given one of her votes to Icelandic singer Björk, and electronic duo Mouse on Mars gets Mason Bates’s vote.

Jazz is well represented, too, by John Coltrane (Steve Reich and Avner Dorman),

Bill Evans (Bernard Rands), Miles Davis (Michael Daugherty and John Harle) and

Duke Ellington (Will Todd and Anna Clyne).

Some composers even appear as both voters and votees: Steve Reich, Unsuk Chin, Rachel Portman, Brian Ferneyhough, Rebecca Saunders, Joby Talbot and John Williams.