# Greatest piece of music since 1945



## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

This is one of my occasional, likely doomed attempts to move discussion of modern music in a substantive and positive direction, rather than arguing about whether Modern Music Is Bad.

Of course the question is silly. There is no consensus definition of great, the usefulness of the concept is limited, there is no way to choose a single piece, etc etc. We all know that already, so there's no need to tell us here!

I'm just curious how people respond to the prompt, interpreted however one chooses: What's the greatest piece of music since 1945? Explanations welcome.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

Nice idea for a thread celebrating modern / contemporary music.

As a chamber music fan I could pick one of any number of Kurtág works, but I do especially like his 6 Moments Musicaux for string quartet. I've heard it played live at our regional music college, which brought it to vivid life.

I'll take the considerable liberty of quoting myself:

*György Kurtág*
6 Moments musicaux, op. 44 for string quartet (2005) - à mon fils 
I. Invocacio [un fragment]
II. Footfalls 
III. Capriccio
IV. In memoriam György Sebök
V. ...rappel les oiseaux...[l'etude pour les harmoniques]
VI. Les Adieux [in Janacek's Manier]

Each section of this string quartet is extremely brief and aphoristic, somewhat in the manner of Webern.

A tense, explosive 'Invocacio' gives way to the hesitant "faltering heartbeats" of 'Footfalls' where brief bursts of sound are separated by equally brief pauses. This is interrupted by a mournful central slow section, before the 'footfalls' start up again, this time more urgent and insistent. In the capriccio the cello strikes eerie ringing notes amidst fluttering accompaniments from the higher instruments. A lugubrious and heavy 'In memoriam...' based on the notes B-A-C-H (Bb) follows, but this in turn quickly gives way to the ...rappel des oiseaux...with a succession of high pitched, bird-like notes on the violin above the other instruments. A lush harmonically complex 'Les Adieux' sees the quartet playing in ensemble for the final section.

The whole is exquisite, and leaves the listener wanting much more of this highly moving and expressive music. This is my favourite of Kurtag's works for string quartet.


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

Modern music is bad and there is no consensus definition of "great." What does that mean anyway?

V


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Quite a few contenders:

William Schuman Symphony No. 6

Peter Mennin Symphony No. 7

Vincent Persichetti Piano Sonata No. 10

Shostakovich Symphony No. 10

Shostakovich Symphony No. 14


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Sticking purely to "classical music" I would go with this off the top of my head:










These would all be close contenders:


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Two words, War Requiem..


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

Górecki : Symphony No. 3


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

The seventh symphony, the Sinfonia antartica (1952) by Vaughn-Williams.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I have a very good sense of what works I would rate near the top for all classical music but a poor sense of post-1945 works. There are many I strongly like, but I have trouble rating them. Maybe: 

Messiaen: Turangalila Symphony
Dutilleux: Tout un monde lointain
Carter: A Symphony Of Three Orchestras
Haas: Limited Approximations
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Of course I haven't heard all of even the most well known post 1945 works, but for what I do know Ligeti's Requiem takes the prize.

Or rather the prize is mine for getting to hear it.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

Super awesome thread.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

TurnaboutVox said:


> As a chamber music fan I could pick one of any number of Kurtág works, but I do especially like his 6 Moments Musicaux for string quartet.


I listened to it a few times tonight--great recommendation. I heard it via Youtube in a performance by the Athena Quartet. Is that your preferred version?


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

My answer: I'm going to cheat a little bit and say Ligeti's piano etudes. They form a cycle and I think can be regarded as one work. If I have to pick one of the three volumes it would be the first (1985). A lot of postwar music seems to focus on dimensions of music that had been neglected before: rhythm and, especially, timbre. Ligeti's etudes do that too, but without diminishing the importance and meaning of harmony and melody (this isn't a knock on other composers who pursue other avenues, but it's something that makes Ligeti stand out for me). The influence of African and Latin American polyrhythms furnishes their irresistible rhythmic drive. They're a synthesis of just about everything in 20th century music, with an absolutely unique voice of their own.

A runner up would be Takemitsu's _From Me Flows What You Call Time_.

Edit to add: another runner up would be Reich's _Music for 18 Musicians_, at which some of you will probably look askance.


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

I'm in no position to say what was the greatest work. That would take much more listening experience than I have. I can say what is my favourite piece. I consider it one of the most beautiful and sublime works every written. Published in 1947. the Duruflé Requiem.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Varick said:


> Modern music is bad and there is no consensus definition of "great." What does that mean anyway?
> 
> V


Exactly, it's all in the ears from the listener .


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

isorhythm said:


> Takemitsu's _From Me Flows What You Call Time_.


The Takemitsu work is a good choice. I will list 3 others that I think are deserving based on my tastes:

Schnittke - _Concerto for Piano and Strings_
Gubaidulina - _Viola Concerto_
Rodrigo - _Invocación y danza_


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

tdc said:


> The Takemitsu work is a good choice. I will list 3 others that I think are deserving based on my tastes:
> 
> Schnittke - _Concerto for Piano and Strings_
> Gubaidulina - _Viola Concerto_
> Rodrigo - _Invocación y danza_


In my haste there was an omission of a great post 1945 work so glaring it deserves a full extra post, not merely an edit...

*Harry Partch - Delusion of the Fury*


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I'll just stick to Schnittke's Faust Cantata again. It's the most impressive and powerful work on the emotional level I've ever heard.


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## Adam Weber (Apr 9, 2015)

Some personal favorites: 

Schnittke: Cello Concerto No. 1 

Ligeti: Violin Concerto 

Berio: Sinfonia 

Silvestrov: Postludium 

:tiphat:


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## jdec (Mar 23, 2013)

For me these 3:

Metamorphosen (R. Strauss) 
Four Last Songs (R. Strauss) 
Symphony no. 10 (D. Shostakovich)


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Lots of people are mentioning Shostakovich's 10th Symphony. A deserving piece, but I'll mention also his 15th, an elusive and captivating piece that resonates in the memory in a way like no other.

And, since the cutoff is 1945, his 1st Violin Concerto and 1st Cello Concerto. What a huge collection of riches he left us!

Prokofiev? His 6th Symphony, certainly.

Oh, forgot -- DSCH's Op 87 Preludes and Fugues in all keys. There's no end to it with the 20th century Russians.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Plenty of candidates, but one that stands out for me: Gorecki's 3d.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Poeme Electronique


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

isorhythm said:


> Edit to add: another runner up would be Reich's _Music for 18 Musicians_, at which some of you will probably look askance.


That was actually my first choice, but then I remembered _oh wait, there's 30 years of music before that._
But then I looked at what might be contenders and thought _no, I'll stick with Reich._
You know my antipathy to "greatest" anyway, and it's not like I'm the only one here being subjective... :lol:


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

'cause no-one mentioned *Glass*:

_Akhnaten_, _Les Enfants Terribles_, Violin Concerto No. 1, Symphony No. 8, Symphony No. 9.

or *Rautavaara*

_Cantus Arcticus_, _Vigilia_, Piano Concerto No. 1, Violin Concerto, Symphony No. 7

*other favourites:*

Adams: _Dharma_

Reich: 18 Musicians

Schnittke: Viola concerto

Kancheli: _Mourned by the wind_

Gorecki: Symphony No. 3

Alwyn: _Lyra Angelica_

Luther Adams: _Become Ocean_


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## Resurrexit (Apr 1, 2014)

Several Stravinsky works are certainly contenders...Agon, The Rake's Progress, Orpheus are all favorites...


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Add the William Schuman Symphony No. 9 to the mix. A very moving work that Schuman wrote after he witnessed the site of a Nazi massacre in Italy.

So two Schuman symphonies are eligible for greatest work since 1945, the Sixth and the Ninth.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Lots of my very favorites have been mentioned--including works by Shostakovich, Schnittke, Gubaidulina, and Stravinsky's Orpheus--but I'll mention a favorite and comparatively neglected piece: 

Walton's Variations on a Theme by Hindemith (Szell cond.)


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

One of my favorite operas. Salvatore Sciarrino's _Luci mie traditrici_.


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## jailhouse (Sep 2, 2016)

Schnittke - Choral Concerto, Piano Quintet
Reich - Tehillim, Music for 18 Musicians, Different Trains
Messiaen - Saint François d'Assise, Turangalila, La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ
Penderecki - St. Luke's Passion
Ligeti - Etudes, musica ricercata
Georg Friedrich Haas - In Vain

a lot more obviously


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## FDR (Oct 19, 2016)

A good place to start the discussion would be with:

*The TC Top 200 Recommended Post-1950 Works List*

http://www.talkclassical.com/17996-compilation-tc-top-recommended-2.html#post942479


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> Sticking purely to "classical music" I would go with this off the top of my head:


It's nice to see Ned Rorem in the list.


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

Gerald Finzi's cello concerto, clarinet concerto and Imitations of Immortality.


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## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

I don't have nearly enough knowledge to make any claims of "greatest composition" -- but I've definitely enjoyed these composers' works:
- Shostakovich (particularly Symphonies Nos. 10 & 15 and String Quartet No. 15)
- György Ligeti
- Karl Amadeus Hartmann
- George Rochberg
- Per Nørgård


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Samuel Barber - Piano Concerto (1962)
Penderecki - Violin Concerto "Metamorphosen" (1992-1995)
Carter - A Symphony Of Three Orchestras (1976)
Barber - Medea's Dance of Vengeance (1955)
Ligeti - Violin Concerto (1992)
Carter - Double Concerto (1959)
Magnus Lindberg - Kraft (1985)
Joan Tower - Concerto for Orchestra (1991)
Takemitsu - From Me Flows What You Call Time (1990)

Way too many to list off the top of my head...


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## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

There's truly a huge lot of great works. This are the ones that stand out to me:

Prokofiev | Violin sonata
Shostakovic | Piano concerto 2
Shostakovic | String quartet 8
Shnitke | Piano quintet
Part | Fratres
Shnitke | Viola concerto
Kancheli | Lament
Kancheli | Time... and again


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

KenOC said:


> Lots of people are mentioning Shostakovich's 10th Symphony. A deserving piece, but I'll mention also his 15th, an elusive and captivating piece that resonates in the memory in a way like no other.


Currently and for the first time in my life, I am delving seriously into 20th Century music. Sure, I have some Bartok, Stravinsky Shostakovich, Glass, etc., but only a handful of pieces from each composer. I just purchased the 22 CD set of Stravinsky's works conducted (almost all of them) by Igor himself. I just finished the 3rd CD. I'll get back to that later.

I've had Shostokovich's symphonies 10 & 15 for years and had only listened to, scratch that, "heard" each of them about twice. I finally "listened" to each the other week. Really enjoyed 10, not so much 15. I will have to sit and listen to it once again. I know those are his two most popular, but 15 dragged a bit too much for me. I found it a bit "aimless." Usually, when I've thought that about a piece, its been because I never concentrated on the structure and form of the piece, so I will have to do that with the 15.

With Stravinsky, reading about all the stories to his music has helped tremendously in appreciating the music and really enjoying the pieces. Although, I still don't enjoy The Rites (I know - arguably the most influential piece of music of the 20th Century... don't care) and I think Les Noces is dreadful, I am enjoying this "delving" if you will into the 20th Century genre. It only accounts for approx 150 - 200 or so of my 3,500 +/- Cds of classical music that I own. Heck, I only bought the Nielsen symphonies about 3 months ago and have only listened to all of them about 4 times each so far.

So, I feel that I am too much a novice of 20th Century music to ever claim "The Greatest" or even my favorite piece yet with any kind of authority. I must say though, I wonder why I rarely see Copeland mentioned anywhere on this board. Do you 20th Century aficionados think of him to "Mainstream?" "Tonal?" "Simple?" Regardless, I enjoy a lot of his works.

Thanks for letting me share!

V


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

PS: I am noting many of your favorites, so thank you everyone who has posted so far. There goes my budget again!

V


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Varick said:


> I've had Shostokovich's symphonies 10 & 15 for years ... I know those are his two most popular...


I suspect his 5th is the most popular, at any rate a good deal more popular than the 15th. Many people get into his symphonies by hearing the 5th, I believe.


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## Chordalrock (Jan 21, 2014)

Varick said:


> I must say though, I wonder why I rarely see Copeland mentioned anywhere on this board. Do you 20th Century aficionados think of him to "Mainstream?" "Tonal?" "Simple?" Regardless, I enjoy a lot of his works.
> 
> Thanks for letting me share!
> 
> V


I'm not sure he himself considered his lighter works particularly serious. From what I've read, he did compose some fine fully modernist pieces (Inscape, Piano Sonata, and something else I forget), not sure how well people know those pieces.

As for the thread as such, some works I'd like to mention would include:

Unsuk Chin: Piano Concerto
Messiaen: Livre d'Orgue
William Schuman: 10th symphony
Ligeti: Piano Concerto
Xenakis: Metastaseis
Currier: Time Machines


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Manxfeeder said:


> It's nice to see Ned Rorem in the list.


Maybe so, but I didn't hear a genuine Rorem from the TC crowd, given that fact.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

jdec said:


> For me these 3:
> 
> Metamorphosen (R. Strauss)
> Four Last Songs (R. Strauss)
> Symphony no. 10 (D. Shostakovich)


My choices were made from 1950 forward... but starting at 1945 I would most certainly add Strauss' Metamorphosen and the _Four Last Songs_ which would be my choice for the single greatest work from 1945 onward.

And the single greatest recording of that work:


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## Guest (Oct 26, 2016)

I second the choice of War Requiem! With Dutilleux's "Tout un Monde Lointain" as the best concerto. 
Shostakovich's 10th as the best symphony.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Earlier I was listening to Christopher Gunning's Cello Concerto from around 2010. There's plenty of good music being written.


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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

György KURTÁG: _Kafka-Fragmente_ (1985-86)

Had Alban Berg written an Expressionist opera about Franz Kafka, shredded the score into a thousand fragments, cherry picked the forty most poignant of them-those containing only the nth degree of the climaxes & anticlimaxes, the absolute emotional and psychological highs & lows-handed them to Anton Webern for paring down and distillation for soprano and violin, and then enlisted Pablo Picasso to help arrange them into a sort of sketchy cubist collage/portrait of Kafka … it might have ended up something like György Kurtág's _Kafka Fragments_.

In these forty fragments, which range from ten seconds to several minutes in length, Kurtág sets "snatches of text drawn from Kafka's letters, diary entries, and notebooks," each providing a brief but telling little glimpse into a different facet of the writer's psyche. Rather than providing a complete portrait, then, the crafty/artful composer provides only the crucial elements, the highlights of the highlights, and relies on the listener to infer that what's implied/intimated/insinuated and to flesh out the sketchy portrait in his/her mind.

Superficially, _Kafka Fragments_ sounds like a cross between Arnold Schoenberg's _Pierrot lunaire_ and Igor Stravinsky's _L'Histoire du soldat_ that's been ruthlessly pared down to the bone, the bone painstakingly whittled away to the marrow. The soprano is as much dramatic actress and storyteller as singer per se, and the violinist must express/imply more with less than in any work I know. Of the five or more available recordings, I recommend Csengery/Keller [Hungaroton '90] and Banse/Keller [ECM '05], with the former being the more compellingly acted/told and the latter being the more mellifluously sung and better recorded; Keller's playing is perhaps a bit more vivid the second time around, in part because he's better recorded. (I'm a sucker for good storytelling and favor Csengery/Keller, but Banse/Keller is so good in its way that I must overcome my taste and recommend it too.)





 (Csengery/Keller)





 (Banse/Keller)


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Lovely piece. I have Messages of the late R.V. Troussova/Scenes from a novel by Kurtág performed by Csengery as well.


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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

Casebearer said:


> Lovely piece. I have Messages of the late R.V. Troussova/Scenes from a novel by Kurtág performed by Csengery as well.


I find _Scenes from a Novel_ more overtly entertaining/enjoyable than _Kafka-Fragmente_ and probably listen to it more frequently than I do any other post-1945 vocal work (aside from Don Gibson's "Sea of Heartbreak," of course), but I have to give the nod to _Kafka-Fragmente_ as the "greater" and more profound/affecting work.


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## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

Varick said:


> So, I feel that I am too much a novice of 20th Century music to ever claim "The Greatest" or even my favorite piece yet with any kind of authority. I must say though, I wonder why I rarely see Copeland mentioned anywhere on this board. Do you 20th Century aficionados think of him to "Mainstream?" "Tonal?" "Simple?" Regardless, I enjoy a lot of his works.


I like many of Copland's compositions very much -- both from his earlier "modernist" period as well as his later "populist" phase. That said, none of his works have ever blown me away, left a deep mark on me. And I don't think it has anything to do with his approach -- tonal or non-tonal, simple or not simple. His music just doesn't floor me the way that, say, Ives' music or Shostakovich's music does.

The music that I love the most tends to be very _personal_, and I don't think that's what Copland was striving for. I think Copland was an objectivist at heart. Personal or inner utterance wasn't what he was after.

Of course, the fact that I prefer subjective to objective music says more about me than it does about Copland. Make of it what you will!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I love Copland's music. Appalachian Spring is truly one of the greatest works ever composed.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

I don't have the silly pretension to say it's the greatest classical piece of music, and even more important my knowledge is very limited, but if I have to play this game I'd say Syllabaire pour Phédre composed by Maurice Ohana. Tomorrow the anwer could be something of Ligeti or Scelsi or Messiaen or many other composers.


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## Andolink (Oct 29, 2012)

Michael Tippett's opera _The Midsummer Marriage_ is pretty damn good.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

NONO: _La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura (1988-89)_


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## scott777 (Oct 9, 2016)

As already mentioned a few times:

Messiaen, Turangalila Symphonie (1948),

I think very hard to beat, given it's quality, originality and length.

Also:

Tippett, Ritual Dances - The Midsummer Marriage (1952),

(I'm not an Opera lover, but this is orchestral.)

and

Tippett, Symphony 2 (1957)

and

Penderecki, Anaklasis (1959)

I didn't see any mention of these composers yet, perhaps the Martin is slightly earlier:

Franck Martin, Petite Symphonie Concertante (1945?)

Martinu, Piano Concerto 4, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Belohlavek (1956)

Lutoslwaski, Postludes (1960)


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

A very recent composition by Sir Karl Jenkins - Memoria Cantata. It is dedicated to the Aberfan disaster in Wales where coal slid down a mountain and hit a school. Over a hundred children were killed along with a number of teachers in the 1960s. So sad, upsetting and the power of this music reflects this.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

hpowders said:


> Quite a few contenders:
> 
> [edits]
> 
> ...


Yes, 3 very strong candidates....

I'd add Tippett - Sym #4


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

To my many candidates so far, I would also add, all by Shostakovich:

Symphony No. 13 "Babi-Yar"

Violin Concerto no. 1

String Quartet No. 8

24 Preludes and Fugues

Unlike many folks on TC, I consider the 15th symphony a disappointment; not a masterpiece.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

This is a tricky one. I'll let you know once I've listened to every piece of music composed since 1945. 

Sorry if someone beat me to this, ostensibly flippant, answer, but I am semi-serious. I haven't heard nearly enough music composed in the latter half of the twentieth century let alone the first 16 years of this one to give any kind of considered response. Britten and Shostakovich are the only two composers I have listened to in depth. Good luck to everyone else who has responded or intends to respond though.


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Barbebleu said:


> This is a tricky one. I'll let you know once I've listened to every piece of music composed since 1945.
> .


So if all currently active composers could please stop composing for a year or two to give our good friend here a chance to catch up, that'd be great! 

In partial answer to the question, I think my favourite post-1945 work is Leonard Bernstein's Mass. He knew how to write a damn good earworm, and this piece is loaded with em! And he uses rock instruments as well (drum kits, electric guitars etc...not stones. Although he might use them as well. Idk.)


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## StDior (May 28, 2015)

Just slightly ahead, but my top favourite is Boulez: Anthèmes 2.


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## Chordalrock (Jan 21, 2014)

JACE said:


> I like many of Copland's compositions very much -- both from his earlier "modernist" period as well as his later "populist" phase. That said, none of his works have ever blown me away, left a deep mark on me. And I don't think it has anything to do with his approach -- tonal or non-tonal, simple or not simple. His music just doesn't floor me the way that, say, Ives' music or Shostakovich's music does.
> 
> The music that I love the most tends to be very _personal_, and I don't think that's what Copland was striving for. I think Copland was an objectivist at heart. Personal or inner utterance wasn't what he was after.
> 
> Of course, the fact that I prefer subjective to objective music says more about me than it does about Copland. Make of it what you will!


Inscape (a 12-tone piece) was composed late in his life:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inscape_(Copland)

I'm not a Copland expert, but apparently his more avant-garde works - the handful of them - came in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Takemitsu's _From Me Flows What You Call Time_.

Crumb's _Black Angels_ is close.


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## MJongo (Aug 6, 2011)

Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie
Mingus: The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Ligeti: Requiem
Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
Schnittke: Concerto for Piano and Strings

If I have to pick one, then I'd go with Schnittke.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

MJongo said:


> Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie
> Mingus: The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
> Ligeti: Requiem
> Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
> ...


Curious - do you feel _Black Saint_ in particular should be grouped with classical music? I could certainly see the argument for that. Or were you considering all jazz along with classical in making your choices?


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## jailhouse (Sep 2, 2016)

completely forgot to include Shostakovich's 8th string quartet, an obvious and unquestionable choice imo.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Without a question:
Messiaen - Eclairs sur l'au-delà


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Chordalrock said:


> I'm not sure he himself considered his lighter works particularly serious. From what I've read, he did compose some fine fully modernist pieces (Inscape, Piano Sonata, and something else I forget), not sure how well people know those pieces.
> 
> As for the thread as such, some works I'd like to mention would include:
> 
> ...


Metastaseis? what about the other other 160 published works?


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Vincent Persichetti: _Symphony No. 6_
Morton Gould: _West Point Symphony_
Paul Hindemith: _Symphony in Bb_
Norman Dello Joio: _Variants on a Medieval Tune_
Karol Husa: _Prague 1968_
David Maslanka: _A Child's Garden of Dreams_


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## Chordalrock (Jan 21, 2014)

ST4 said:


> Metastaseis? what about the other other 160 published works?


Metastaseis is a decent starter piece, not very long, not very noisy. If I knew Xenakis better I would have mentioned others, maybe Horos, or Lichens? I doubt all 160 works are worth recommending - that would make him more consistently excellent than Beethoven.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Chordalrock said:


> Metastaseis is a decent starter piece, not very long, not very noisy. If I knew Xenakis better I would have mentioned others, maybe Horos, or Lichens? I doubt all 160 works are worth recommending - that would make him more consistently excellent than Beethoven.


Interesting observation concerning Beethoven. I have performed several of his symphonies. I just performed the _Sixth_ for the first time. What an amazing piece of music. I few years ago I acquired the Brilliant classic set of the complete works of Beethoven. What is equally amazing is the amount of junk he composed.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

ST4 said:


> Without a question:
> Messiaen - Eclairs sur l'au-delà


Matter of taste .


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Pugg said:


> Matter of taste .


Does it offend you? What is your need to point out the obvious?


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Chordalrock said:


> Metastaseis is a decent starter piece, not very long, not very noisy. If I knew Xenakis better I would have mentioned others, maybe Horos, or Lichens? I doubt all 160 works are worth recommending - that would make him more consistently excellent than Beethoven.


I beg to differ but I agree that it's a very "accessible" work of his. His middle period, I think is his his "best" but there aren't many works of his that aren't great anyway.


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## Isiah Thanu (Nov 1, 2016)

I've found a number of pieces to explore, being mentioned a few times but unheard by me. For the moment, my favourite is Vaughan Williams's symphony 8.


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## Chordalrock (Jan 21, 2014)

Didn't know Xenakis composed for the harpsichord:






Nice piece. I've had an affinity with the harpsichord in atonal music ever since I heard the double concerto by Carter, it's great to discover these harpsichord pieces by Xenakis.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Chordalrock said:


> Didn't know Xenakis composed for the harpsichord:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You might like À l'île de Gorée then? It's also brilliant (as always)


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## Chordalrock (Jan 21, 2014)

ST4 said:


> You might like À l'île de Gorée then? It's also brilliant (as always)


That appears to be on the CD I ordered. Looking through the wiki article on Xenakis, seems like that album has four out of five of his harpsichord works.

Gimme a second. All right, I recorded the missing one from Spotify. Now I technically have them all.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Unsuk Chin's cello concerto is a recent contender for me--such an infectious work. And the whole album on which it appears (cond. Myung-whun Chung) is one of my current favorites.


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## scott777 (Oct 9, 2016)

arpeggio said:


> Interesting observation concerning Beethoven. I have performed several of his symphonies. I just performed the _Sixth_ for the first time. What an amazing piece of music. I few years ago I acquired the Brilliant classic set of the complete works of Beethoven. What is equally amazing is the amount of junk he composed.


Love to hear what the junk is.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

scott777 said:


> Love to hear what the junk is.


If you have to ask you would disagree with the answer.


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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

TurnaboutVox said:


> As a chamber music fan I could pick one of any number of Kurtág works, but I do especially like his 6 Moments Musicaux for string quartet. I've heard it played live at our regional music college, which brought it to vivid life.


An ear-grabbing live Arditti Quartet account of _Moments musicaux_ from the 2008 Strasbourg Festival Musica was recorded and made available as a free download at the Radio France Web site (or maybe it was at the Festival Musica Web site?) shortly after the Festival. The recording has long since disappeared from those sites but has been preserved for posterity at the StateWork blog site:

http://statework.blogspot.com/2009/01/kurtag-random-sampling-of-spare-deep.html (you'll find a download link to the "corrected" files in the fourth comment)

At least three commercial recordings are available-a live recording from the 2006 Milano Musica Festival by the Keller Quartet [Stradivarius] and studio recordings by the Athena Quartett [Neos] and Quatuor Molinari [ATMA]-but the respective performances sound rather deliberate/overly thunk about compared with the spontaneously audacious performance that the Arditti Quartet unleashes on the Strasbourg audience. The Strasbourg recording is revealingly close-up and vivid, but the Ardittis (and the music) thrive on the close scrutiny. The commercial recordings can be heard via Spotify and YouTube.


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## MJongo (Aug 6, 2011)

isorhythm said:


> Curious - do you feel _Black Saint_ in particular should be grouped with classical music? I could certainly see the argument for that. Or were you considering all jazz along with classical in making your choices?


Sort of both. The question in the topic didn't specify classical, and even if it did, I feel that particular composition has just as much in common with the classical music tradition as with jazz. It would actually probably be my first choice most of the time; I was in a Schnittke mood when I originally made that post!


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## Francis Poulenc (Nov 6, 2016)

Les Mamelles de Tiresias, by Francis Poulenc, is my favourite post-1945 work.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

Dirge said:


> ...Kurtág... 6 Moments Musicaux for string quartet.
> 
> [...]
> 
> ...


Thanks - I have owned a copy of the Athena Quartet's recording for a couple of years now. I have to say, I like the delicacy very much!

~~~~~~~~~~~

It always takes me a bit longer to think of an orchestrally orientated work than a chamber one, but I've been spending some time with Britten's Symphony for Cello and Orchestra , Op. 68 (1963) and reckon that that might be a contender for greatest piece of music since 1945. I love it, at any rate!


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## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

Shostakovich Suite for Variety Orchestra (post-1956).

Ligeti's Atmospheres and Lux aeterna are close, though.


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## ahinton (Nov 8, 2016)

Sorabji: Sequentia Cyclica / Organ Symphony No. 3 / Piano Symphony No. 6
Carter: Variations for Orchestra / Concerto for Orchestra / Symphonia
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13
Stevenson: Passacaglia on D-S-C-H
Dutilleux: Symphonies 1 & 2 / l'Arbre des songes
Maw: Violin Concerto / Odyssey
Matthews (David): Symphony No. 6
Messiaen: Éclairs sur l'Au-Delà
Holloway: Violin Concerto / Seond Concerto for Orchestra
Lutosławski: Symphony No. 3
Pettersson: Symphonies 6-10
Tippett: The Midsummer Marriage / Symphony No. 2
Henze: Symphonies 7 & 10

...must STOP!!!...


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

I'll say Ligeti's Requiem or Schuman's 6th Symphony, late as I may be to the conversation. Glad to see both of these works already mentioned, both are towering achievements of the post modern composition.


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