Who is your favourite living composer?

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I honestly don't get Carter's music at all.Which composition would you suggest to a Carter beginner? And what should I listen for in his music? To me it all sounds very random,even after repeated listenings ,but I would really like to learn to appreciate it.

I honestly don't get Carter's music at all.Which composition would you suggest to a Carter beginner? And what should I listen for in his music? To me it all sounds very random,even after repeated listenings ,but I would really like to learn to appreciate it.

Elegy by Elliot Carter is quite nice, but I wouldn't really worry too much if you don't like his 'challenging' pieces.

Really? Seriously? Why, because the brilliant and innovative colors he uses just happen to be clangorous and dissonant instead of nice and pretty and unchallenging?

But was it just dissonant to be challenging, or because what he was trying to say made musical sense and the dissonance was part of his form and structure? I think the latter, but what you wrote seems to me much like the former.

I am my favorite living composer! :happy:

It shows.

Tristan Murail!

He's even good compared to non-living composers ;)

I'm studying with Joshua Fineberg, Murail's protege. Do you know of him? You're the first person to make a mention of any composers of the so-called "spectral" school.

I honestly don't get Carter's music at all.Which composition would you suggest to a Carter beginner? And what should I listen for in his music? To me it all sounds very random,even after repeated listenings ,but I would really like to learn to appreciate it.

Gestures. Try to listen for musical gestures, as well as lines which are set off against the other voices. Listen to his first string quartet and in the first movement already you will eventually come to hear a line playing pizzicato in a continuous way, juxtaposing it against the highly contrapuntal and intricate surrounding music.

What's you favourite living composer?

Something's not right with this sentence.

Socially inept criticism -----> suggests your way too uptight and punctilious.

You know what he meant, tell him to change it in PM.

(I know I used your and not you're)

Actually right now I am too my favorite living composer - not because I am so great or anything ... but I find my own mistakes and earlier efforts quite interesting and educational.

Now, for sheer appreciation of total ouevre? No one living or dead. I love though many works from living and dead composers. Living composers -

A few pieces by Sierra, Brian Eno, Lachenmann, Carter, my comp teacher Conrad Cummings ( a few arias from one of his first baroque inspired operas), Babbit, oh and two pieces from a fellow student of mine Danny Leo

Eric Whitacre and Arvo Part are my two favourite living composers at the moment.

Spectralism is cool. Kaija Saariaho for the win.

Continuing Nikolas's list...

Xenakis...Dead!

Dello Joio...Dead!

Yeah, too many composers have died recently.

On the other hand, Carter and Boulez are clearly immortal.

Christopher Rouse is a name that is pretty new to me, so his music might not really pass the test of time, but for the moment I am really digging it.

Psh, who cares about "the test of time"? :P

It shows.

bwahahaha.

Psh, who cares about "the test of time"? :P

I only mean that i don't know if he'll still be on my list of 'favorites' in a month or two..

Rouse is the Stephen King of composers. His music is usually extremely loud, traumatically inspired, and colorfully dissonant. Surely he will pass the test of time.

Higdon is still > than Rouse though.

Rouse is quite amazing. hes up there too, with higdon!

Personally, I wouldn't call being "the Stephen King of composers" much of a praise, but I guess that's just me!

I forgot to add Gloria Coates - you simply must hear her string quartet w/ organ (it is her 7th one)

David Maslanka seems pretty darned cool. I played horn in one of his symphonies for wind ensemble - it was a really tight group and the piece was AWESOME. Whitacre's cool, but his music doesn't have much variety in it. I keep forgetting Glass is still around - I like some of his music, but same thing, not always a ton of variety. I don't think I've heard Corigliano. :hmmm: I also like some of Micheal Daugherty's stuff. and DAVID GILLINGHAM. I played No Shadow of Turning... absolutely BEAUTIFUL piece. You can see most of my favourites are band composers. :toothygrin:

Edit: Yeah, Howard Shore, too, though I don't know a lot about him.

How the hell do you go without even MENTIONING Rutter? Jesus Christ! I know you better than you do.

Alexander Goehr and Harrison Birtwistle.

Personally, I wouldn't call being "the Stephen King of composers" much of a praise, but I guess that's just me!

Me either...

A 'Stephen King' to me would be someone who writes music that is fun while it lasts but is never worth a second listen. (opinion of course ;) )

Eric Whitacre (me too!), John Williams, and Joe Hisaishi.

Could someone please correct the thread title?

Ned Rorem is also a cool composer, I love his Symphonies and songs! :)

Living? Bloody hell, that's a tricky one.

Possibly Richard D. James, or perhaps Pink Floyd (they count as one person :ninja:).

Possibly Richard D. James.

Extremely underrated as a composer. That man has amazing musical intuition.

Hell yeah. There is a large proportion of his output I really can't get into (I find a lot of it far too unnerving - I don't like to be scared by music :laugh:) but Selected Ambient Works 89-92 is one of my msot listened to albums, and contains some of my favourite pieces of music.

I like Leo Balada an awful lot. And an obligatory shout out to Nancy Galbraith (hooray my professors!)

On a more national scale (though they both get a fair bit of play) I like John Adams, Michael Daugherty, Jennifer Higdon and Christopher Theofanidis. I think the common bond is a good knowledge of how to combine consonance and dissonance as well as their expert use of the orchestra.

I'm really not a fan of Corigliano's music, though. No, it's not because he's "unchallenging" (bee tea dubs, pretentious much, Ex?) but because I think he has some interesting formal ideas but very little in the way of interesting content. Also, he's kind of a jackass.