Best Modern Composers

[89]

Ian Anderson.
His baroque-folk-rock style has always amazed me.

[AndreasKrebs]

Some modern composers (whose work I love very much) have not been mentioned yet:

Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagn_Holmboe

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Nielsen

Dmitri Shostakovich (1909-1975)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Shostakovich

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Sibelius

Robert Simpson (1921-1997)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sim ... omposer%29

Cheers,
Andreas

[Mr Arkadin]

Morton subotnick
karlheinz stockhausen
iannis Xenakis
curtis roads
jonty harrison
harry partch
james tenney
steve reich
takemitsu
Olivier Messiaen
george crumb
luciano berio
Gyorgi ligeti

Wow, someone who's heard of Jonty Harrison. i actually did a number of courses under him at Birmingham University - didn't think anyone else was aware of him.

i'll add Glenn Branca as my contribution.

[shadoe42]

We performed Arvo Pärt's Manificant(eek think I mangled that spelling) in college and it is an amazing piece of work. Starts with this brutal dissonant interval but by the end you are just blown away.

Sorry that was a bit off topic but that is only like the second reference to Part I have seen in the 10 years since I graduated college heh.

[bugs]

Some of my favorites…

Post-1950

Adams
Adler
Brown
Carter
Crumb
Del Tredici
Foss
Glass
Gorecki
Harrison
Ligeti
Part
Stockhausen
Subotnick
Ussachevsky
Xenakis

…and a little earlier

Barber
Berg
Bernstein
Britten
Copland
Herrmann
Messiaen
Poulenc
Prokoviev
Ravel
Shostakovich
Stravinsky
Varese
Webern

…and maybe one other

Debussy

[jamesmcfadyen]

Stravinsky
John Adams
Steve Reich
Michael Torke
Joan Tower

[jancivil]

frank zappa ...

emphasis added

[jancivil]

Btw, I hope you'll agree that The Miraculous Mandarin is a must-hear piece, along with the quartets.

Oh yeah!

The Miraculous Mandarin is probably my favorite composition ever.

And Boulez nailed it.

that's right! fabulous disc

[tee boy]

1930-2007 or so

Hmmm...

I love Russian music, and although these arent my favorite (over all) Russian composers, I do like a lot of what Prokofiev and Stravinsky wrote. Firebird is one of my favorite ballet scores. I think that Britten is worth mentioning, definately. I love his 2nd Piano Concerto (sounds a bit like Prokofiev at times too).

Could Ravel sneak in there? If so, then he gets a vote definately.

TB

[Zombie Queen]

Harry Partch, Glenn Branca (both mentioned already).
Plus I'd add Igor Wakhevitch.

[tee boy]

I really like Rachmaninoff. Not a 'modernist', but still alive in 1930.

TB

[Voidoid Surrealist]

Plus I'd add Igor Wakhevitch.

Docteur Faust is fun stuff.

[mellotronaut]

Ligeti

[X-Soul]

James Horner.
Listen his soundtracks from A Beatiful Mind (A Kaleidoscope of Mathematics track) and The Bicentennial Man (The Machine Age track) movies. And watch the movies, they're also great. Legends Of The Fall Theme also good.

Actually, very interesting topic. I know almost nothing about modern orchestral music (but God knows, how I love orchestral), so I'll try to listen all composers mentionied above.

[beboop]

James Horner.
Listen his soundtracks from A Beatiful Mind (A Kaleidoscope of Mathematics track) and The Bicentennial Man (The Machine Age track) movies. And watch the movies, they're also great. Legends Of The Fall Theme also good.

yeah the Aliens score has some nice stuff too.

speaking of movies, Nino Rota, especially Amarcord and 8 1/2

another fave, Howard Shore's score to Crash (the Cronenberg flick, not the recent thing of the same title).