Favorite 20th Century composers

[zeitblom]

Top level:
Ives, Scelsi, Ligeti, Messiaen, Bartók

Followed by:
Hindemith, Henze, Allan Petterson, Mahler, Varèse, Hartmann

And, why not:
Ravel, Reger, Mahler, Magnard

Other kind of composers, great as well:
Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy

Definitely not:
Richard Strauss, Andrew Lloyd Webber :-)

[reith]

Originally Posted by zeitblom

Definitely not:
Richard Strauss, Andrew Lloyd Webber :-)

Ha!!! Agreed, in particular the spoiled brat of the two.

William Lloyd Webber, though never a composer of the colossal, left a few pleasant if slight works behind.

I also heard a beautiful recording of his other son, Julian, doing Bridge's Oration - a powerful work that shows Bridge in a rather different light.

[Student]

Igor Stravinsky, Bela Bartók, Todd Levin (anyone else know of him?), Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, Dominick Argento, Michael Tippett, Benjamin Britten, Antón Webern, Arnold Schoenberg, Samuel Barber, V.W, Jonathan Harvey (how about him?), William Bolcom and so many others I can't count.

[salv]

i know about jonathan harvey, saw some works by him this year. one was very interesting, symphonic and electronic.

[Anders]

I have a fondness for lesser known Norwegian composers like Klaus Egge, Geirr Tveitt and Harald Sæverud (to name just a few). Can't live without the frenchies, either! Messiaen, Honegger and Poulenc are among my favorites from that camp. I'm also slowly but surely getting into Dutilleux.

PS: Lloyd webber is hillarious. (notice how I didn't give his name a pretty, italic embellishment)

[VicDiesel]

Originally Posted by TheFrogPrince

Oh man
No body mention Arvo Part's Te Deum?

Great piece, yes.

but of course Debussy and Ravel and Stravinsky.

As we get deeper and deeper into the 21st century, should we maybe start asking about "Composers from the last 100 years?" To me, Debussy & Ravel (much as I like them, both for listening and playing their piano music) are almost 19th century in spirit. Saying "20th c." conveys a notion of being modern, but these composers are several generations behind "modern" music.

I propose a floating cut-off date of 100 years before whatever the current date is. So Stravinsky is still modern, but some of the early Ives works start to fall outside the range.

Oh, my favourites are probably Andriessen (Louis, not Hendrik or Jurriaan) and Messiaen (there's only one of him!)

Victor.

[sax_appeal]

For me it's definately Philip Glass.

Someone mentioned that they like his film music, but for me his greatest works are:

- Akhnaten
- Einstein on the Beach
- Symphony no.2
- Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra

[sean009]

John Admas , yeah, i also like him a lot.I also like Beethoven.

[Harry Hayfield]

Originally Posted by Shiva

Well, who?

Holst, closely followed by Grieg