Composer Cagematch!: THE WINNER

Oh, guys. It’s been such a fun journey. Thirty-two composers (edited to add: +2 play-ins) stepped into the ring, and over the year we have slowly whittled it down to two. Before we crown our winner, let’s take a look back over composers past, shall we?

* denotes the winner of the match

ROUND ONE

1. Prokofiev vs. Stravinsky*
2. Debussy* vs. Ravel
3. Dvorak vs. Copland*
4. Britten* vs. Holst
5. Rimsky-Korsakov* vs. Mussourgsky
6. Grieg* vs. Sibelius
7. Schumann vs. Brahms*
8. Tchaikovsky* vs. Rachmaninoff
9. Mahler* vs. Wagner
10. Monteverdi vs. Verdi*
11. Schoenberg* vs. Berg
12. Bernstein vs. Gershwin*
13. Handel* vs. Haydn
14. Chopin* vs. Liszt
15. Bartok* vs. Shostakovich
16. Saint-Saens* vs. Khachaturian

ROUND TWO

1. Stravinsky* vs. Debussy
2. Copland* vs. Britten
3. Tchaikovsky* vs. Rimsky-Korsakov
4. Bartok* vs. Schoenberg
5. Saint-Saens vs. Grieg*
6. Brahms* vs. Mahler
7. Verdi* vs. Handel
8. Gershwin* vs. Chopin

ROUND THREE

1. Stravinsky* vs. Bartok
2. Copland vs. Tchaikovsky*
3. Verdi vs. Gershwin*
4. Grieg vs. Brahms*

ROUND FOUR

1. Brahms* vs. Stravinsky
2. Gershwin vs. Tchaikovsky*

ROUND FIVE (PLAY-IN ROUND)

1. Tchaikovsky vs. Mozart*
2. Beethoven* vs. Brahms

ROUND SIX

Mozart vs. Beethoven

And so we arrive here, at the end. I think we all know whose t-shirt I was wearing, but it wasn’t a question of my sartorial decisions; it all came down to the best man taking the Composer Cagematch! crown. Are you ready? And the winner is…

JOOOOOOOOOOOHAAAAAAAAAAAAAANN!

SEEEEEEEEEEEBAAAAAAAAAASTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH

Duh.