Today’s composer

[vaio9876]

I always wonder, how long will the great classics stay fresh? 100 more years
When will there be another Chopin, lizst, and Rachmaninoff again. Does anyone else agree that classical music should have a huge comeback.

[rachlisztchopin]

you realise classical music is stilll going strong don't you? have you heard of the....contemporary era?  i just found a wonderful movie composer...elfman is his last name....his music is truely amazing

[Daniel_piano]

I always wonder, how long will the great classics stay fresh? 100 more years
When will there be another Chopin, lizst, and Rachmaninoff again. Does anyone else agree that classical music should have a huge comeback.

Great classics will be immortal
Classic music today is a misnomer
We've a lot of conteporary music from pop songs, to pop music to accademic music
I guess you're talking about accademic music
If so you should read someone about the avant-gard regime and how a minority became with money and power the establishment for anyone so has to preventing any other kind of accademical music to be created and also destrying the bridge between the adience the social life and events and accademic music
Have a look here to get a general idea of the issue
Contemporary Music

That accademical freedom should coming back I agree and it is is coming back
There are several big movements in all accademicl quarters where students and composers tired of the boring and ridicolous establishment of accademic music are taking their freedom back, their old scores that no one accepted, their old peices they wrote when they were derided because of their style and are now proposing them again for a willing to listen audience of young and old

Probably another Chopin and another Rachmaninov already existed or exist but because of impossibility to composer his music, to have his music performed and to publicize his music no one knows about him

There's a wonderful composers, Jean Chatillou, who wrote fantastic suites for piano and I consider his music genial
Unfortunately his music was not allowed to be performed during the avant-gard regime era and he was derided, threated and ridiculed
Only now we know about him and about his recitals
The problem is that people and audience lost faith in recitals and theater because of the habit of putting avant-gard music between a classical music concert or perfomance, so they started avoiding such dishonest rapresentation and got attracted by more popular music
Nevertheless, manifenstations like Masterprize show that when audience is treated properly and given something concrete not manneristic to listen they're willing to attend any accademic music performance
The truth is that audiences are a lot smarter than modernist elitists give them credit for being and to say that they don't care or can't understand is simply insulting hogwash
So, the new accademic music of 21th century has lot to do to recreate a social musical context while regaining the faith of audience

But the issue is more complicated than that
In the 50s and 60s there were no hope to find anything accademical that was not avant-gard and experimental music, now, thanks to minimalism that was the first reaction to accademic pompousness and mannerism (starting from Satie), we've had far more opportunities to hear something diffirent in accademic music till the movements of today for the reisennance of accademical music in a living social context
I keep reading, listening and attending new honest and concrete works by honest and humble not pretending to be creator of fake-intellectual noise composers and there are quite a few master in the accademical outline but I also consider many popular music to be the heritage of many masterpieces of the past
For example Musicals being the new rapresentation of Opera, or also Soundtracks composers, keyboardists of harmonic rock, jazz people like Jean Michelle Jarre, Vangelis or Medwyn Goodal 
It's not just Britney Spears, there are valid composers and beautiful music today as well

Daniel

[Daniel_piano]

By the way: I forgot to mention contemporary composers who are writing music in old era styles
Now, in art there's no time, nothing is old and new and any style can have something new to say or could be be expanded and elaborated again, so no, it's like they're plagiarizing opus from the past they're simply using a series of ahestetic rules of countepoint and harmony from the past to create something new and unique something that they feel and care for as well as the audience
At the moment there are several contemporary composers working in new composition in gregorian and baroque style but especially there's a renaissance of complex baroque counterpoint

Daniel

[pianiststrongbad]

Danny Elfman is amazing.  Nothing these days is as good as that Batman theme. 

[amanfang]

Look at Lowell Liebermann's music!!

www.lowellliebermann.com

[Daniel_piano]

Look at Lowell Liebermann's music!!

www.lowellliebermann.com

Amazing !!!
But the covers of his recording are horrible

Daniel

[Daniel_piano]

Danny Elfman is amazing.  Nothing these days is as good as that Batman theme. 

Now, it's very hard to say what is the best work of Elfman since anything he wrote is so superb and fantastic but my vote goes to Edward Scissorhands soundtrack that I think his best work ever, not to mention the fantastic dark songs of Nightmare Before Christmas, these two deserve ihmo the label of Elfman best

Daniel

[bencuri]

I think today's best composer is Anthony Phillips. Hear him play solo piano pieces on his record called SOIRÉE. You will be amazed.

He consciously claims himself a composer, too. He defines his style as an approach to melt the professionality of the classical tradition and the catchy harmonies of popular music together. He is the best!

[Piazzo22]

Penderecki and Ligeti are still alive!

[Daniel_piano]

Penderecki and Ligeti are still alive!

If you look carefully at the first message you would see that that's exactly what vaio was not looking for or had in mind

Daniel

[shasta]

Classic music today is a misnomer

??  Umm, "classical" music is alive and well.  I think you dismiss today's musicians too quickly and may not be recognizing our "classical" music because you are currently living in this era with it.  For example, when Mozart wrote Figaro, it wasn't at all considered "classical" to his audiences, but quite new and modern to them.  It may be that in 150 years from now, rap will be reminisced upon as "classical", simply because it's "old." 

The power ballades by Metallica or the solos by John Denver are no different than the leider written by Schubert or D'Indy or the troubadors in Europe.

The lavish broadway musicals of Lloyd-Webber are no different than Mozart's Figaro. 

The sweeping orchestral leitmotifs of John Williams and Danny Elfman are no different than the sweeping leitmotifs of Prokofiev.

[Daniel_piano]

??  Umm, "classical" music is alive and well.  I think you dismiss today's musicians too quickly and may not be recognizing our "classical" music because you are currently living in this era with it.  For example, when Mozart wrote Figaro, it wasn't at all considered "classical" to his audiences, but quite new and modern to them.  It may be that in 150 years from now, rap will be reminisced upon as "classical", simply because it's "old." 

Yes, that's what I mean
Classica is more an adjective based on how old a song/piece is not about is qualities and style
I know people who use "classical" term with any melodic harmonic orchestral or solo music where there are no words
So, from Bach to Stravinsky
But we know there are better less arbitrary terms to describe this music: impressionistic, romantic, neoromantic, scandinavian and so on

So when someone today ask about "new classical music" they're music about melodic orchestral or solo music that doesn't involve lyrics and that it generated through the complex knowledge of harmony and music theory

And I agree there is a lot of music like this today (you did a good example with Elfam) but is it classical the right term? I don't think so
Is classical the right term for Beethoven? I don't think so
Is classical the right term for Gershwin, Grieg, Sibelius, Rossini, Respighi, Debussy, Dukas, Dvorakl, Tchaikovsky, Telemann, Vivaldi ? I don't think so

The problem is that people should begin using less arbitrary term to describe the characteristic of musical composition, or maybe we could all start forgetting about finding a right description for that style or kind of sound and simply enjoy it

Of course when Mozart wrote "Figaro" or "Magic Flute" his music was considered modern it was the accademical counterpart of the moder paesant music that was a counterpart of our popular genres (genres from Country to Rock that shouldn't be dismissed)
That is exactly my point: if the adjective used to describe a piece or a song changes according with the time (modern when it's modern, old/classical when it is old) it is a bad and arbitrary adjective while we need something that despite the era in which you listen that composition keep describing the qualities and characteristic of the piece in the same way
Let's think about the term Impressionistic or Romantic, they keep describing that genre despite the year in which they're listened
In fact while Mozart music was not called classical in his days, Debussy music was even back then called impressionistic and Beethoven music was called even back them Romantic

It seems we haven't still found a good unvariable adjective for Haydn and Mozart music

The sweeping orchestral leitmotifs of John Williams and Danny Elfman are no different than the sweeping leitmotifs of Prokofiev.

I agree

Daniel