Favorite 20th/21st-century Composers

[desanto]

Hello,
This is a really general question, but I'm curious who are your favorite composers of the 20th/21st-century? Maybe you could also include a short explanation for each composer. The reason I ask is that there are so many composers to explore for this time period and I'd like to listen to and study a wider variety of composers.

Thanks!

[retrouvailles]

I wouldn't even know where to start. Here is a short list off the top of my head:

Antheil
Crumb
Ginastera
Kapustin
Ligeti
Messiaen
Pärt
Penderecki
Schnittke

I've left out many of my real favorites. That is just a quick list I made.

[pita bread]

For chamber/ensemble/orchestral stuff:

Barber - Andromache's Farewell
Bartok - Viola Concerto, String Quartets
Danielpour - A Child's Reliquary
Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet pieces, Sonata for Violin and Piano nos. 1, 2
Ravel - Left Hand Concerto, Scheherezade, Trois poemes de Stephane Mallame 
Shostakovitch - Sonata for Viola and Piano
Strauss (Richard) - Salome

Piano solo:

Cage - In A Landscape
Prokofiev - Sonata no. 8
Scriabin - Sonata no. 5
Stravinsky - Petrouchka

[pies]

a

[invictious]

Scriabin
Rachmaninov
Prokofiev
Stravinsky (for his firebird)

Can't think of any others yet..

[indutrial]

I adore or at least appreciate something in almost all of the twentieth century composers out there, except for minimalists like Philip Glass, who is a half-assed soundtrack writer who people keep confusing for a hard-working composer. There are some uber-avantguardians, like Christian Wolff, who I've not quite fully embraced, but I haven't heard everything by them yet. As with poets, writers, and visual artists, I'm not into the stuff that seems to try too hard to be more dadaist than everything else (like that *** who composed a violin solo piece that consists of standing in silence for two minutes before smashing the violin against a table-top).

[retrouvailles]

I adore or at least appreciate something in almost all of the twentieth century composers out there, except for minimalists like Philip Glass, who is a half-assed soundtrack writer who people keep confusing for a hard-working composer. There are some uber-avantguardians, like Christian Wolff, who I've not quite fully embraced, but I haven't heard everything by them yet. As with poets, writers, and visual artists, I'm not into the stuff that seems to try too hard to be more dadaist than everything else (like that *** who composed a violin solo piece that consists of standing in silence for two minutes before smashing the violin against a table-top).

That's basically my 20/21st century tastes in a nutshell.

[jakev2.0]

BEEE BA BA BADDA BO

BA BA BA BADDA BO

[counterpoint]

Strawinsky, Gershwin, Prokofieff, Schönberg, Eisler, Poulenc, Messiaen, Lutoslawski, Ligeti, Berio, Steve Reich, Kapustin, Kagel, Hespos

to name only a few

[thalbergmad]

Awaits the list from the Pace website

[ahinton]

BEEE BA BA BADDA BO

BA BA BA BADDA BO

Never heard of either of them. Are they related? What works have they written?

Best,

Alistair

[soliloquy]

Bussotti, Boucourechliev, Mosolov, Kurtag, Xenakis, Dutilleux, Ginastera, Finnissy, Schnittke, Rautavaara, Ghelhaar, Murail, Balada, Sciarrino, Taira, Bartok, Barraque, Prin

[thalbergmad]

Not listened a great deal to this era, but have enjoyed works by Ginastera, Corigliano & Sorabji. Recently a symphony by Brian pleased my ears considerably.

There is a piece by Finissy that sounds like 10 foxes attacking a trashcan that is mildly interesting.

I need to escape from the romantics more often.

Thal

[retrouvailles]

Ah yes, I forgot to mention Havergal Brian. He wasn't the greatest at writing for piano, but his massive symphonies, particularly the Gothic and the 3rd, are quite profound and enjoyable to listen to.

There is a piece by Finissy that sounds like 10 foxes attacking a trashcan that is mildly interesting.

Hahaha, which piece is that?

[ahinton]

Ah yes, I forgot to mention Havergal Brian. He wasn't the greatest at writing for piano, but his massive symphonies, particularly the Gothic and the 3rd, are quite profound and enjoyable to listen to.

Brian was a fairly useless piano composer and I have fairly grave reservations about some of his later symphonies, but there can be no doubt, I think, that the one known as his first (although actually his second) - in other words the "Gothic" - is one of the very finest symphonies ever written by a British composer; it's not yet had the performance that it deserves (the one by Ole Schmidt more than a quarter century ago is probably the best to date), but let's hope that it finally does get it. Who? Not sure. Mark Elder? Daniel Barenboim? Mariss Jansons? Maybe Leif Segerstam...

Best,

Alistair

[mephisto]

BEEE BA BA BADDA BO

BA BA BA BADDA BO

I love that song too

Too many great composers to mention so I will mention one dead and one living:

Messiaen and Rautavaara.

[jabbz]

I read that wrong and was like: Whoa, Messiaen is still alive??

 

[rachmaninova]

I read that wrong and was like: Whoa, Messiaen is still alive??

 

No, Rautavaara is still alive, and always amazing!

[indutrial]

I would say that it's impossible for me to actually sit down and list my favorites because the list is constantly growing. Plus, every time I investigate a new country, I usually find 4-5 new composers to dig on for a while. When I started poking around Belgian music sites, I fell in love with the chamber music of Jean Absil and Michel Quinet, two modern composers who I had never heard of but wrote brilliant pieces. Amongst Danes, I fell in love with the strong work of post-Nielson composers Niels Viggo Bentzon, Vagn Holmboe, and Holmboe's unbelievable student (still active) Per Norgard. Within a lot of these composers are uncharted wealths of material to look into. Norgard's string quartets (10 or so) and symphonic/concerto pieces are incredible, easily worthy of more discussion. I found loads of great things studying East European music histories also, ranging from the neoclassical brilliance of composers like Grazyna Bacewicz and Gyorgy Kosa to the broad experimentalism of composers like Kazimierz Serocki and K. Penderecki (spelling..)  In America, I've been studying tons of music by Roger Sessions, David Diamond (one of the best tonal composers I've ever listened to), Allen Anderson, Rand Stieger, Nicholas Maw, David Loeb, Nancy Van De Vate, and Leo Kraft.

I've been an avid follower (and now collector) of the loads of great releases put out by the CRI label and other good forward-thinking labels like Albany Records, Metier, Mode, and even Naxos, who surprise me pleasantly every time they unearth something unexpected (their release of Tansman's works for clarinet and strings was a recent treat.

[pies]

a

[indutrial]

Finnissy folklore II:
lol random piano bashing new complexity garbage

random bashing?!? Are we listening to the same recording. To me, this makes for very enjoyable listening. Earlier today I sat down and listened to Marilyn Nonken's excellent recording of Finnissy's North American Spirituals and Jonathan Powell's equally excellent performance of Concerto no. 4. I'm definitely excited to hear Ian Pace's full rendition of History of Photography in Sound, if it ever gets released. Metier's website is down and I'm really hoping that the label didn't bite the dust.

Aside from his piano works, I've not heard much by Finnissy, although some of his chamber scores look pretty wild, especially the piece for four clarinets where the clarinetists have to periodically remove their mouthpieces and speak multilingual words through the clarinet.

[mcgillcomposer]

Schoenberg
Ligeti
Boulez
Shostakovich
Sorabji
Berg
Messiaen
Ornstein
Martinu
Rzewski
Barrett
Finnissy
Fox
Bolcom
Milhaud
Webern
Stravinsky
McCabe
Stockhausen
Xenakis
Varese
Dusapin
Carter
Sciarrino
Reise
Corigliano
Ginastera
Feinberg
Cage
Hindemith
Shchedrin
Scelsi
Kurtag
Lachenmann
Kampela
Crumb
Kapustin
Ramey
Barlow
Ives
Birtwistle
Flynn
Pritchard

and others

The longer the list, the less weight carried by the word 'favorite'. I am curious to know, who is your FAVORITE?

[indutrial]

The longer the list, the less weight carried by the word 'favorite'. I am curious to know, who is your FAVORITE?

The whole idea of choosing one favorite composer in a musical period so varied and fruitful can only be a limiting mental exercise that probably will result in a forced and b.s.-laden answer. That's such a VH1 way of thinking anyway. I would leave that mode of rating musicians to stupid rock fans who like to waste time discussing the top 50 guitar solos or whatever.

[pies]

a

[ahinton]

Jonathan Powell's equally excellent performance of Concerto no. 4.

He'll be ending his recital in St Petersburg this coming Thursday with that very work; his programme on that occasion is such an extraordinary conspectus of British piano music of the past 100 years or so that it would almost certainly require Jonathan Powell to pull it off successfully! It opens with Sorabji's Sonata No. 1 and also includes my own third piano sonata, by the way. Sadly, I'll be unable to attend.

Best,

Alistair

[invictious]

Oh no, how can I forgot Astor Piazzolla? One of my most fav composers of all times, mainly for nonpiano stuff
ie Le Grand Tango for cello

[rob47]

i love Penderecki's cello concerto
uuu no liiiek? u no buy!

[dnephi]

1900-1910: Debussy/Ravel/Szymanowski
1910-1920: Stravinsky
1920-1950: Barber, Bartok, Prokofiev,
1950-1970: Messian, Cooper, Carter
1970-1990: Bolcom, Corigliano, Ginastera
1990-Present: Jody Nagel, George Crumb (Still alive and cranking), Carl Vine

[chong777]

Rachmaninov all the way. I love his musical genius.