Best Modern Composers

[Igro]

compressor

[MikeInOttawa]

Wow- I've never seen Johannes Ockeghem mentioned ANYWHERE before. Cool. I have a motet or two of his on CD. Amazing stuff.

Nonetheless, I'm with Bartok/Schoenberg/Stravinsky as some of the best modern composers.

But what do you mean by "modern"? If it's "modern" with respect to era, not with respect to genre, you've gotta say that one of the very best was George Gershwin. Not classical, not jazz, not pop, but a blend of it all. I can't believe his name hasn't been mentioned yet.

[yemski]

A long and heavily revised list,with a lot of ommissions that I will remember later.This is some of the stuff that gives me pleasure and I rarely get bored of:

Scott Bradley (That bloke that wrote that Tom & Jerry Music)
Frank Zappa.
Gentle Giant.
Bill Bruford.
Charlie Parker.
Public Enemy.
Bernard Hermman.
John Coltrane.
Chic Corea.
Joni Mitchell.
David Axelrod.
Aphex Twin.
Robert Wyatt.
Radiohead.
Lalo Schifrin.
Orbital.
John Adams.
Michael Nyman.
Pharaoh Sanders.
Ravel.
Stravinsky.
Hatfield North.
George Clinton.
James Brown.
Boards of Canada.
Fela Kuti.
Jan Garbarek.
Weather Report\Joe Zawinul\Wayne Shorter.
Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Magma (Very wierd French Jazz Fusion/Prog Band,that make all these artists I've listed so far look tamely mainstream).
Matthew Herbert.
Stereolab.
Radiophonic Workshop (Warped my childhood in a good way).
Sufjan Stevens
Airto Moiera.
Hermeto Pascoal.
David Bowie.
Brian Eno.
Mark Snow.
John Keane
Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman
(The last three are awful unspeakable hacks apparently,since they write for popular TV shows,so I've made a terrible faux pas.But I like them,so f**k it).
Aretha Franklin.
Flora Purim.
Forest Fang.
Mother Mallard.
The Claudia Quintet.
Roy Ayers.
Curtis Mayfield.
Bird Songs of the Mesozoic.
Herbie Hancock.
Richard Pinhas.
Terje Rypdal
Bob James.
Geri Allen.
Erik Satie.
Autechre.
The Beatles.
John Williams.
Bartok.
Poulenc.
John Lucien.
Cassandra Wilson.
Mcoy Tyner.
Antoine Dufour.

Plus,loads more Hip Hop,Electronic,female,Latin,Jazz,Prog artists and Film/TV Composers whose names temporarily escape me.

This list is also a testament to how boring,ennervating and tedious (but thankfully largely unsupervised my present job is).

[yemski]

I am a fantastic dancer, I just don't require a metronome to keep time is all. This is the basis for my objection, BEAT subs for RHYTHM. I like a lot of African rhythm for instance, it makes me want to get a real groove on.

Hunching isn't always actual dancing, IMO.

So go on then, give us a clue. Name a piece of 13th century music that "far outstrips this hunch-to-the-metronome excuse for rhythm you got in some of this amped-up dancefloor action, that you'd think it was 8 centuries ahead not behind".

Just for the hell of it, I am going to kind of agree with jancivil here.

'Kind of' because I far prefer the music of a few centuries later to the early days of Machaut and the Ars Nova.

But Ockeghem and Des Prez did do some things with rhythm that would confuse the hell out of many people living today. And although the nature of their music precludes 'dancing' in the 'drunk and in a club' sense, that doesn't change the fact that it is often much more rhythmically complex than most music that does pass the 'makes people want to shake it' litmus test.

Most of the principles of this ancient music could easily be incorporated into 'dance' music without interfering with anyone's frenzied rump grinding.

It might, though, make it more interesting to listen to the next day, after the hangover has worn off.

Although I have my reservations with Jancivil's initial statement that,'there is music from the 13th century that so far outstrips this hunch-to-the-metronome excuse for rhythm you got in some of this amped-up dancefloor action, that you'd think it was 8 centuries ahead not behind, if you were dealing in the technology of thought',since it seems to propose that music advances in some sort of linear historical progression and that somehow we should be more 'advanced' now than in the past,I find myself in general sympathy with the sentiments expressed by her and Herodotus.

There are many rhythmic schemata,both historical and outside of contemporary Western Culture (African,South American,Asian,take your pick),that could be integrated into Modern Dance Music,taking in into far more interesting areas than it currently occupies.

[VicDiesel]

But Ockeghem and Des Prez did do some things with rhythm that would confuse the hell out of many people living today.

Have you ever come across The Baldwin Manuscript? That stuff dates to 1500 or so, and is rhythmically beyond anything this side of Zappa. I've been meaning to practice some of it. The notes are trivial, the rhythm pure hell.

Victor.

[scottkane]

definately Charlie clouser in electronica film music 2007
also Jesper Kyd in electronica too

[jancivil]

If somebody gonna vote for Phil Glass, shit, I vote ME.

[jancivil]

But Ockeghem and Des Prez did do some things with rhythm that would confuse the hell out of many people living today.

Have you ever come across The Baldwin Manuscript? That stuff dates to 1500 or so, and is rhythmically beyond anything this side of Zappa. I've been meaning to practice some of it. The notes are trivial, the rhythm pure hell.

Victor.

yeah that's all before the Church got wise and said No Go, Don't Work.

[jancivil]

I am a fantastic dancer, I just don't require a metronome to keep time is all. This is the basis for my objection, BEAT subs for RHYTHM. I like a lot of African rhythm for instance, it makes me want to get a real groove on.

Hunching isn't always actual dancing, IMO.

Although I have my reservations with Jancivil's initial statement that,'there is music from the 13th century that so far outstrips this hunch-to-the-metronome excuse for rhythm you got in some of this amped-up dancefloor action, that you'd think it was 8 centuries ahead not behind, if you were dealing in the technology of thought',since it seems to propose that music advances in some sort of linear historical progression and that somehow we should be more 'advanced' now than in the past,I find myself in general sympathy with the sentiments expressed by her and Herodotus.

There are many rhythmic schemata,both historical and outside of contemporary Western Culture (African,South American,Asian,take your pick),that could be integrated into Modern Dance Music,taking in into far more interesting areas than it currently occupies.

Well, I'd think my amazing statement kinda sorta shows I see a geometric devo thing happening. but! at the same time as evolution.

Four on the floor with 16ths quantized on top ain't rhythm, it's devolved thought, was the gist of my statement. I think. I failed to eschew an exceedingly hyperbolic whole thing in there somehow though, how'd that happen. Heh.

Rhythm in these ancient times can have more to do with the rhythm of speech, is the actual idea I did not state, since I'd got my nut already I guess. this is why an Ockegham has more happening than disco or whatever metronome you depend on to more your butt.

Anyone who thinks that a 'beat' isn't less advanced than talking, is totally unclear on the concept of what is rhythm. And surely has never attempted to transcribe a conversation in terms of standard rhythmic notation.

[yellowfever]

Martin Gore
Vince Clarke

[PaulSC]

Interesting thread to scan through! (Although it's one of those threads where the simple lists are actually more interesting than the ensuing debates, I think.)

Seconding some already named:
Pierre Boulez
Elliott Carter
Gyorgy Ligeti
Curtis Roads
Morton Subotnik

And adding a few personal favorites:
Mario Davidovsky
Brian Ferneyhough
Arthur Kreiger <======== my hero these days (http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/composer.pl?comp=131)
Mel Powell
Denis Smalley
Stefan Wolpe

[RyanG]

I'm probably going to get a lot of flak for this list, but let's see how this rolls...

John Williams
Danny Elfman
Michael Giacchino
Hans Zimmer
Jeremy Soule
Howard Shore
Inon Zur

[eduardo_b]

But Ockeghem and Des Prez did do some things with rhythm that would confuse the hell out of many people living today.

Don't see this attribute as a defining factor. It's like blaming listeners for being intellectually lazy when they don't like non-mainstream work. Confusing the hell out of people is not, in my mind, a hallmark of excellence.

[jancivil]

I'm probably going to get a lot of flak for this list, but let's see how this rolls...

John Williams
Danny Elfman
Michael Giacchino
Hans Zimmer
Jeremy Soule
Howard Shore
Inon Zur

Howard Shore is good, sort of the Anti-John Williams.

[Nokenoku]

Joe Hisaishi

YESSSS

And I'd add Nobuo Uematsu as well.