Best 20th century composer?

monkspider · March 11, 2003, 14:55

So many good ones, Mahler, Stravinksy, Bartok, Debussy... My choice was Shostakovich.

Plan Austral · March 11, 2003, 15:09

My father loooooves Shostakovich, but I would go for Mahler.

DinoDoc · March 11, 2003, 15:14

Your choices are waaaaay too limiting.

monkspider · March 11, 2003, 15:17

Quote:

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Your choices are waaaaay too limiting.

Really? I was actually quite proud of my choices. Who would you suggest I add?

DinoDoc · March 11, 2003, 15:22

Quote:

Originally posted by monkspider
Really? I was actually quite proud of my choices. Who would you suggest I add?

BB King for one.

monolith94 · March 11, 2003, 15:25

I would actually vote for Phillip Glass....

Provost Harrison · March 11, 2003, 15:38

Lennon and McCartney?

loinburger · March 11, 2003, 15:41

Wasn't Rachmaninov 20th century? If so then he gets my vote. Of those listed I went with Orff, 'cause he's got one of the coolest names ever.

Master Zen · March 11, 2003, 15:58

Whatever happened to Gershwin??? Why is he not on the list?

Chemical Ollie · March 11, 2003, 16:01

Buddy Holly?

Andersson/Ulvéus (the Abba guys)?

Boris Godunov · March 11, 2003, 16:09

Uh, where is Rachmaninov? Vaughn Williams? Copland? Gershwin?

I assume you meant Webern, not Weber.

Schoenberg is missing! He was certainly the most influential of the New Vienna School composers. Also absent are Bernstein (!), Ives (!), Barber, Puccini (he didn't die until 1924), Hindemith, Honegger, Scriabin (for the loonies!), Respighi, Milhaud, Gorecki, Janacek, Kodaly, Menotti, Ginestra and Rodrigo.

And John Williams, of course.

I voted for Mahler, although Bartok and Prokofiev are greats. However, of all of those I listed, Bernstein and Williams have the most enduring popularity, due to their writing for more popular forms of entertainment (musicals and movies).

Spec · March 11, 2003, 16:13

WHERE IS THE BANANA CHOICE IN THE POLL!!!

Buck Birdseed · March 11, 2003, 16:25

If you're gonna include John Williams, where do you draw the line? People like Lalo Schifrin or Bernard Hermann did much better film scores, sure they didn't use a standard symphony orchestra but that's hardly an adequate delimiter.

And why hasn't anyone mentioned Karlheinz Stockhausen yet?

Japher · March 11, 2003, 16:34

Gershwin/Copland/Bernstein... that would make the poll a lot harder for me to chose from, and would be force to chose Ludwig van Banana.

Boris Godunov · March 11, 2003, 16:52

Williams should be considered out of sheer prolificness, popularity and recognizeability. I think it's probably indisputable that Williams' scores are the best-known film music of the later 20th Century. When you consider the ubiquitousness of his music from Star Wars, Jaws, E.T, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters, etc., it's rather amazing that he has come up with such memorable music. He may not be the most artsy-fartsy composer around, but neither were a lot of those on the list. He would be in the "populist" category of composers, like Verdi.

In terms of great film score composers, however, I don't think anyone holds a candle to Prokofiev. "Alexander Nevsky" is breathtaking.

monkspider · March 11, 2003, 17:07

I don't know how I forgot Rachmaninov, and I will concede that Gershwin and a few others should have been included.

The Andy-Man · March 11, 2003, 18:32

Frank Zappa!!!!

PLATO · March 11, 2003, 19:46

Quote:

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
Lennon and McCartney?

They get my vote. They changed the face of music and its impact on society.

Lawrence of Arabia · March 11, 2003, 19:48

U2 :doitnow:

Buck Birdseed · March 11, 2003, 19:51

Quote:

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Williams should be considered out of sheer prolificness, popularity and recognizeability.

By that account Cliff Richards is the greatest pop star who ever lived.

Let's face it, John Williams did one brilliant score in Jaws and has since done a lot of damage to bring down film scores from their high point in the seventies by helping usher back constant music based on soaring strings.

mactbone · March 11, 2003, 20:58

Frank Zappa is great.

I'm also all about Eliot Del Borgo, Harry Greggson-Williams, Robert Smith, David Holsinger, Nuobo Uematsu, but... I don't know I'd probably give it to Duke Ellington just because I've played so much of his stuff and thought it was good.

monolith94 · March 11, 2003, 22:08

Buck - did you even for one SECOND listen to his work in "Catch Me If You Can"? I think that it is Williams' best work yet!

MattyBoy · March 13, 2003, 01:03

Don Walker (of Cold Chisel)

Straybow · March 13, 2003, 05:22

I voted for Berg. Nobody would actually think he's best of anything, so obviously a vote for him is in place of the missing "banana" option.

Everyone I could think of wasn't really 20th century, such as Dvorak (who died in 1904 but probably didn't write or publish anything major in the 20th century).

Gershwin would get my vote. UAL used Rhapsody in Blue on commercials that played ceaselessly on the news channels. I never tired of it, but rather hungered for more than the bleeding, 30-second chunk cut from the flesh nearest the heart.

Ask next week it could be somebody else, but Gershwin is ear candy.

Sloth · March 13, 2003, 06:09

Roger Waters

Sikander · March 13, 2003, 06:25

I voted for Prokofiev. Not because I am willing to argue that he is the best composer of the century, but he's my favorite of those listed.

Buck Birdseed · March 13, 2003, 08:13

Now, now, don't mention Songwriters. They're in a different, and much higher, category than mere composers.

Boris Godunov · March 13, 2003, 10:25

Yeah, I'm sure 100 years from now, people will be buying Roger Waters albums in droves and no one will know who Mozart is...

Buck Birdseed · March 13, 2003, 12:26

Hey, if there was a device to wipe out Roger Waters from everyone's collective memory right now, I'd be right there repeatedly bashing the "go" button with my fist.

Boris Godunov · March 13, 2003, 13:35

Quote:

Originally posted by Straybow
Ask next week it could be somebody else, but Gershwin is ear candy.

Gershwin can't be dismissed as mere ear candy. Porgy and Bess is a wonderful opera, and his music is quite well crafted. Just because he uses the jazz idiom doesn't make his music less intelligent.

If anything, Berg is far too intellectualized. He was quite dismayed to discover that his carefully-crafted atonalism, which was build on incredibly complex systems, was audibly indistinguishable from completely randomized atonal music.

That's why Schoenberg, the founding father of atonalism, abandoned it, declaring it a dead end.