Thread: Major 20th century composers

OK this is the poll of the century! Stay focused and choose your most favorite among the considered 'Major'.
My answer is obvious ... Sibelius!

No Schnittke? (mad) Well not sure who to pick I guess. I will just pick Early 20th Century and Late 20th Century.
Early 20th Century. Sibelius
Late 20th Century. Ligeti. (Beats Schnittke out slightly)

This is really hard, since it's too broad. There are simply too many and diverse composers in this period. Anyway, for the first half, Ravel, for the second half, Ligeti.

@neoshredder
No poll has ever been perfect. .. unless the option 1 is: 'Yes' and option 2 is: 'No' and option 3 is something not Yes or No!

lol just someone I forgot ... nevermind *hides*

I don't understand the inclusion of Barber, Hovhaness and Williams. I don't understand the omission of Stockhausen, Webern, Carter, Cage, Schnittke and Mahler, the last of which is doubly odd considering the inclusion of Strauss. Lastly, why no Ravel? Why no Debussy?

tl;dr: this list seems to have little or no thought put in to it.

Yeah a lot of errors lately on polls. Oh well.

Originally Posted by Crudblud

I don't understand the inclusion of Barber, Hovhaness and Williams. I don't understand the omission of Stockhausen, Webern, Carter, Cage, Schnittke and Mahler, the last of which is doubly odd considering the inclusion of Strauss. Lastly, why no Ravel? Why no Debussy?

tl;dr: this list seems to have little or no thought put in to it.

Oh the major ones...

Barber, Hovhaness and Williams are there because the music isn't just atonal in 20th century.

Stockhausen is a joke.

Cage? only one tenth or less of his works do worth listening, others are lame pieces of boring.

Schnittke ... he couldn't be that major, because no one where I live knows anything about him, neither do I!

Mahler died before WW1.

Strauss is there to oppose Schoenberg! Can't you see!

I'm a very good apologist!

Also I put Xenakis, Ligeti and Messiaen because if I didn't their cults would terrorize me as well!

Originally Posted by Arsakes

Oh the major ones...

Barber, Hovhaness and Williams are there because the music isn't just atonal in 20th century.

Stockhausen is a joke.

Cage? only one tenth or less of his works do worth listening, others are lame pieces of boring.

Schnittke ... he couldn't be that major, because no one where I live knows anything about him, neither do I!

Mahler died before WW1.

Strauss is there to oppose Schoenberg! Can't you see!

I'm a very good apologist!

Originally Posted by Arsakes

Oh the major ones...

Barber, Hovhaness and Williams are there because the music isn't just atonal in 20th century.

Stockhausen is a joke.

Cage? only one tenth or less of his works do worth listening, others are lame pieces of boring.

Schnittke ... he couldn't be that major, because no one where I live knows anything about him, neither do I!

Mahler died before WW1.

Strauss is there to oppose Schoenberg! Can't you see!

I'm a very good apologist!

Also I put Xenakis, Ligeti and Messiaen because if I didn't their cults would terrorize me as well!

I thought you did it to be fair to the second half of the 20th Century. And Schnittke was heavily influenced by Shostakovich and Mahler. Of course he does have a modern twist but uses tonal quite often. To me, he is one of the more accessible late 20th Century Composers. You should know that popularity isn't an end all decision of how good they are.

Originally Posted by aleazk

Thanks for participating in the polls. They're there to ruin your day!

Originally Posted by Arsakes

Oh the major ones...

Barber, Hovhaness and Williams are there because the music isn't just atonal in 20th century.

Stockhausen is a joke.

Cage? only one tenth or less of his works do worth listening, others are lame pieces of boring.

Schnittke ... he couldn't be that major, because no one where I live knows anything about him, neither do I!

Mahler died before WW1.

Strauss is there to oppose Schoenberg! Can't you see!

I'm a very good apologist!

Also I put Xenakis, Ligeti and Messiaen because if I didn't their cults would terrorize me as well!

1. Irrelevant, they aren't major.

2. Irrelevant, he is major.

3. Irrelevant, he is major.

4. Irrelevant, he is major.

5. The 20th century started in 1900, not at the end of World War I.

6. I never asked why Strauss was there, just why Mahler wasn't included despite writing several major works in the 1900s.

7. Xenakis, Ligeti and Messiaen are major, though if the rest of the list is anything to go by their inclusion was something of a freak occurrence.

If your intention was simply to troll, which seems to be the case, you should have kept it to yourself.

1. Irrelevant, they aren't major.

To suggest that Vaughan Williams isn't major is frankly ridiculous.
There is a lot of omissions (e.g. Prokofiev) from the list, but with such a vast remit that's going to be inevitable. Therefore arguing over who is/is not included is irrelevant.

Originally Posted by techniquest

To suggest that Vaughan Williams isn't major is frankly ridiculous.
There is a lot of omissions (e.g. Prokofiev) from the list, but with such a vast remit that's going to be inevitable. Therefore arguing over who is/is not included is irrelevant.

I don't know about that. If we were to be very picky with the word "major" and which composers qualify as a major composer, I think Vaughan Williams doesn't quite make it. That is if we are being picky.

Maurice Ravel.

Every list is wrong. Classical Music -and any Artform, in general- was not created to become object of any list. We are fortunate enough to have numerous composers and a great number of wonderful works, even in 20th century.
Judging from the actual output of the composers of the past century, Shostakovich, almost by far, is the greatest, the most complete and versatile. 15 Symphonies of immense proportions, inventive orchestrations, superb form, emotionally profound and at the same time enigmatic. Another 15 String Quartets of the utmost interest, almost the only "equivalent" of the Beethoven's 16. Great and influential Piano Music, pivotal Concertos and beautiful to even memorable Suites, Ballets, Film Music and more...
Bartok comes very close with some very substantive, truly 20th century music. At least some of his Orchestral music (Concerto for Orchestra) and his outstanding String Quartets are of paramount importance. His Piano Music, uneven, but with extremely great moments too. And a memorable Opera.
Sibelius, as a Symphonist only, could be, for some, the 20th century composer, but even out of his 7 Symhonies, few agree that all of them are of great importance. Normally, the 2nd and 5th pass all the tests. The 1st comes close and, then...His Chamber and Piano Music are at least uneven, though he was prolific enough. The Violin Concerto cannot save the day...
Finally, Britten composed some magnificent works for the voice, maybe or arguably the best vocal music in the past century. Apart from his very original and influential Vocal work (e.g. War Requiem, Peter Grimes, etc.), he wrote some significant Orchestral works (Sinfonia da Requiem) and substantive Chamber and Instrumental Music (some of the most intriguing String Quartets and the three superb Cello Suites).
Of course, there is Stravinsky (l'enfant-terrible), Prokofiev (with some of the most beautiful Ballets, very interesting Orchestral Music and great Piano Music), Richard Strauss, even if he looked backwards...and many more.
Maybe, we can debate on the actual beauty and richness of the music of each and every great composer of the past century rather voting for a "wrong" one in a forum poll.

Principe