# The Top 10 Greatest American Composer



## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

According to you, who are America's top 10 greatest composers? Gramophone's top 10 is thus:


John Adams
Samuel Barber
Leonard Bernstein
John Cage
Aaron Copland
George Gershwin
Philip Glass
Charles Ives
Steve Reich
Eric Whitacre(!)

WTF is Whitacre doing there? The list is laughable, so let us try to come up with a BETTER one.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

1. Carter

I leave you to argue among yourselves for 2-10


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Red Terror said:


> According to you, who are America's top 10 greatest composers? Gramophone's top 10 is thus:
> 
> 
> John Adams
> ...


Whitacre is very popular, and the list is not surprising.


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

My list (not necessarily the greatest ones):

Copland
W. Schuman
Hanson
Ives
Barber
Diamond
Bernstein
J. Adams
Glass
Daugherty


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

My own list:


Morton Feldman
Harry Partch
Elliott Carter
Charles Ives
Ben Johnston
Milton Babbitt
Wadada Leo Smith
Lou Harrison
La Monte Young
Terry Riley


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

1. Johnny Williams
2. Bennie Herrmann
3. Jerry Goldsmith
...
4. Copland
5. Ives
6. Piston
7. Adams
8. Glass
9. Ellington
10. maybe L. or E. Bernstein, but I'm not convinced

Of course I did not count first generation immigrants. The list would look completely different if those did count.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Barber
Piston
Ives
Gershwin
Hovhannes
Diamond
Schuman
Babbitt
Harris
Copland


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

1. Copland
2. Schuman
3. Barber
4. Piston
5. Diamond
6. Glass
7. Reich
8. Beach
9. Ives
10. Hovhaness

Changed my list a little. I had forgotten about Amy Beach.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Eric Whitacre is a very fine choral composer. He has developed a style that is very moving and beautiful. Try "Sleep". Just because he's popular doesn't mean he's bad. Some people like to think it's his good looks that propelled him to the top. Nope - there's a genuine talent.

Now, as to that list. All of these kinds of things are silly. What's American? Do Stravinsky, Korngold or Rachmaninoff count? They were, after all, US citizens.

My list

1) John Philip Sousa
2) George Chadwick
3) Frederick Converse
4) Louis Moreau Gottschalk
5) Henry Fillmore
6) Meredith Willson
7) Bernard Herrmann
8) Amy Beach
9) Morton Gould
10) Scott Joplin


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

mbhaub said:


> Eric Whitacre is a very fine choral composer. He has developed a style that is very moving and beautiful.


About a year ago, I spent a couple of hours listening to Whitacre's music. He's very good at writing appealing melodies, and I enjoyed the experience. Yet, I haven't gone back to Whitacre since that day.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Bulldog said:


> About a year ago, I spent a couple of hours listening to Whitacre's music. He's very good at writing appealing melodies, and I enjoyed the experience. Yet, I haven't gone back to Whitacre since that day.


If the opportunity ever arises that you can go to a live concert in a smaller venue where his music is performed, get there! Recordings are fine, but hearing his music in a darkened, reverberant church can be astonishingly moving. Words like transfixed, enraptured, enthralled would describe my own experience.


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## chu42 (Aug 14, 2018)

1. Charles Ives
2. Samuel Barber
3. George Crumb
4. Ben Johnston
5. Elliot Carter
6. Frank Zappa
7. Scott Joplin
8. Jerry Goldsmith
9. John Adams
10. George Gershwin


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Bulldog said:


> About a year ago, I spent a couple of hours listening to Whitacre's music. He's very good at writing appealing melodies, and I enjoyed the experience. Yet, I haven't gone back to Whitacre since that day.


With so many exceptionally talented American composers, I can't imagine why one would include Whitacre in a top 10 list-just doesn't make sense to me. But hey, it's your list.

Am I the only one who likes the microtonal composers? Also, there's no mention of Feldman, which leads me to believe that you're all insane.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

mbhaub said:


> What's American? Do Stravinsky, Korngold or Rachmaninoff count? They were, after all, US citizens.
> 
> My list
> 
> ...


No, they don't count as they are only American on paper. Their work is much too informed by the European Milieu.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

How about top 10 'Murican composers?

Lee Greenwood
John Philip Sousa
...


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## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

1. Charles Ives 
2. Samuel Barber 
3. Alan Hovhaness
4. David Diamond 
5. Elliott Carter
6. Amy Beach 
7. Aaron Copland
8. Leonard Bernstein
9. Edward MacDowell 
10. Walter Piston


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Bwv 1080 said:


> How about top 10 'Murican composers?
> 
> Lee Greenwood
> John Philip Sousa
> ...


Now you're talking.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Red Terror said:


> No, they don't count as they are only American on paper. Their work is much too informed by the European Milieu.


I wonder what that says about Samuel Barber. Or Copland for that matter, who wrote his first published orchestral work while studying in Paris (for three years!) with Nadia Boulanger...


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

KenOC said:


> I wonder what that says about Samuel Barber. Or Copland for that matter, who wrote his first published orchestral work while studying in Paris (for three years!) with Nadia Boulanger...


Copland and Barber both sound quintessentially American to me. Regardless of where these composers studied, they were born in America and were thoroughly shaped by its culture.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Red Terror said:


> Also, there's no mention of Feldman, which leads me to believe that you're all insane.


Ditto my eyebrows raised when the most celebrated composer alive, the slightly old-fashioned and very humble Captain America of music, John Williams, is not mentioned even once. I suppose all those music professors, conductors, and performers, who came into contact with him, like prof. Joseph Strauss, Gustavo Dudamel, Simon Rattle, John Mauceri, Zubin Mehta, Leonard Slatkin, Dirk Brosse, David Newman, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Placido Domingo etc. are all insane for having a respect towards him as high as they do. Nothing that would invite closer inspection. It's not real music. Move along.

I will check Feldman's music.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

OTTOMH:
Copland
Schuman
Hanson
Diamond
Mennin
Bernstein
Ives
Barber
Carter
Gould


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

A tough list to make when one is an advocate of American music composed by American composers. George Gershwin and Charles Ives spring immediately to mind as "great" representatives of American music. And Aaron Copland, of course. All three of these masters added something crucial to what we today recognize as "the American sound", and nearly all of the major music of these three composers sounds like nothing outside of American music. So those are my top three.

John Paul Sousa strikes my ears as fully American. Can his march arrangements pass for anything else but American? "Stars and Stripes Forever"!

Of course, we here at the Forum, especially in this particular section, tend to favor "classical" composers. But America has produced great jazz masters, popular song writers, and rock-n-rollers. I can't dismiss Chuck Berry as anything but a great American composer; he was an original with a strong influence. Cole Porter remains highly representative of the popular song composer who has achieved lasting success. And Richard Rodgers' scores such as _Oklahoma_, _South Pacific_, _Slaughter on Tenth Avenue_, and _Victory at Sea_ speak volumes for Rodgers' inclusion in any list of great American composers. Stephen Foster cannot be overlooked, either, proving a major voice for American songs everyone has some great familiarity with.

Those eight allow for only two more on the list, and there are so many great American composers, but I attempt to list those who have produced what is deeply recognizeable as "the American sound". So my final two selections remain an enigmatic "blank", in which I would on any given day likely place one of many many other American composers worthy of such designation (Hank Williams, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Brian Wilson, Elmer Bernstein, George Crumb …), a choice that would vary from day to day based upon my mood or thoughts or speculations or considerations, etc. of the moment.

Which leads me to the final choice, number ten, whose rank will be held by that all powerful musical voice called Anonymous. Whether Anonymous be the creator of a great American hymn, or of nameless African-American slaves who toiled mercilessly but produced a legacy of "song" that is still profoundly part of the deepest fabric of our nation's musical sound today, or of an obscure and forgotten jazz instrumentalist from the ragtime era, or an Eastern coast mountain banjo player in the bluegrass tradition, or ...well, there are many other roads here … Anonymous has certainly left his influence in our American musical culture.

Gershwin
Ives
Copland
Sousa
Chuck Berry
Cole Porter
Richard Rodgers
Stephen Foster
_________
Anonymous


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

SONNET CLV said:


> John Paul Sousa strikes my ears as fully American. Can his march arrangements pass for anything else but American? "Stars and Stripes Forever"!


In retrospect: no. But two major influences on _Stars and Stripes Forever_ were the signature marches of Josef Franz Wagner and Julius Fučik, so back then it must have sounded (it still does to my ears) like a "circus" rendition of Austrian music.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

J.L. Adams
Milton Babbitt
John Cage
Charles Ives
Scott Joplin
Thelonious Monk
Conlon Nancarrow (maybe Mexican composer?)
Harry Partch
Steve Reich
Terry Riley

I am glad to see Joplin, Leo Smith and minimalists mentioned. La Monte Young is great but I only heard very few of his works.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

John C. Adams (not the other one)
Samuel Barber
Leonard Bernstein
Aaron Copland
George Gershwin
Howard Hanson
Charles Ives
Scott Joplin
John Philip Sousa
John Williams (not the guitarist)


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

Gershwin Bro's
Aaron
Hanson
Bill Evans
Duke
Lenie
Scott
Sousa
Ives
Thelonius


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

The Gramophone list is a real shocker and provides proof if it were needed that the magazine is long past its glory days. Was it the view of one person ("my favourites ... and I work for the Gramophone so I know what I am talking about") or a reader poll? If not, to exclude Carter and Feldman is extraordinary in any top 10 list that claims to be the acknowledged best rather than the most popular.


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## chu42 (Aug 14, 2018)

If we're talking quintessentially American, then who fits better than Charles Ives? He developed his own ideas about tonality completely isolated from European influence and nearly all of his works contain references to backwoods American folk songs. Even his academically European symphonies that he was forced to write for Yale have big chunks of Americana in them.

Scott Joplin also comes to mind as being very American. Ragtime has blends of African rhythms, American spirituals, and the Viennese waltz but the combination is what makes it so American. 

Most everything made in America is eclectic anyhow. I don't see how anybody could purely be an American composer lest they be Native American!


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

*Classical*:

Charles Ives
Leonard Bernstein
David Diamond
Howard Hanson
George Antheil
Roy Harris
William Schuman
Alan Hovhannes
Paul Creston
Samuel Barber
*Non-Classical*:

Pete Seeger
Ruth Crawford Seeger
Scott Joplin (classical and precursor to jazz)
Stephen Foster
Thelonious Monk
Odetta Holmes ("Odetta")
Count Basie
Duke Ellington
Enrico Nicola Mancini (b/k/a Henry Mancini)
John Williams
*Worth Considering*:

Easley Blackwood, Jr.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Florence Price
William Grant Still
John Knowles Paine
Deems Taylor
Hank Williams


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Heck148 said:


> OTTOMH:
> Copland
> Schuman
> Hanson
> ...


oops, I forgot Gershwin!! 
I also might add Antheil - he wrote some pretty fine music...


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## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

Heck148 said:


> I also might add Antheil - he wrote some pretty fine music...


Yes, he did, as did George Rochberg. It's a shame that the death of his young son put such a damper on his work.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Red Terror said:


> The list is laughable, so let us try to come up with a BETTER one.


How are we doing, do you think?


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

mbhaub said:


> Eric Whitacre is a very fine choral composer. He has developed a style that is very moving and beautiful. Try "Sleep". Just because he's popular doesn't mean he's bad. Some people like to think it's his good looks that propelled him to the top. Nope - there's a genuine talent.
> 
> Now, as to that list. All of these kinds of things are silly. What's American? Do Stravinsky, Korngold or Rachmaninoff count? They were, after all, US citizens.
> 
> ...


I like all the lists here, including yours. But if we are counting the wonderful Meredith Willson, then how can we ignore Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, Frank Loesser, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and, of course, George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein? And so long as we are expanding the definition of "classical music" a bit, I doff my cap to those who mentioned Stephen Foster. Scott Joplin would be high on my list had he produced more of the caliber of Treemonisha. But if we are strictly sticking to a narrow, snobby definition of classical:
Copland
Ives
Barber
Carter
Glass
Reich
Piston
Gottschalk
Crumb
Bernstein


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

So far we came up with 59 TOP 10 composers. Nice consensus  

A. Copland, C. Ives, S. Barber, E. Carter, P. Glass, S. Reich, W. Piston, L.M. Gottschalk, G. Crumb, L. Bernstein, J.P. Sousa, G. Chadwick, F. Converse, H. Fillmore, M. Willson, B. Herrmann, A. Beach, M. Gould, S. Joplin, G. Gershwin, W. Schuman, H. Hanson, E. Blackwood Jr., F. Price, D. Diamond, W.G. Still, J.K. Paine, D. Taylor, H. Williams, P. Seeger, R.C. Seeger, S. Foster, T. Monk, O. Holmes, C. Basie, D. Ellington, H. Mancini, J. Williams, G. Antheil, R. Harris, A. Hovhannes, P. Creston, B. Evans, J.C. Adams, L. Greenwood, E. MacDowell, J. Cage, E. Whitacre, M. Feldman, H. Partch, B. Johnston, M. Babbitt, W.L. Smith, L. Harrison, L.M. Young, T. Riley, F. Zappa, J. Goldsmith, P. Mennin


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## Rangstrom (Sep 24, 2010)

Not in any particular order, but I tend to buy the music of, and listen to,

Rzewski
Schuman
Sessions
Persichetti
Harris
Copland
Zwillich
Ives
Barber
Piston


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## Colin M (May 31, 2018)

I love this list and offer my pleasure at seeing Beach and MacDowell and Chadwick and Ives and Barber and Gershwin and Copland and Bernstein and yes, John Williams...
Might I add Horatio Parker Northern Ballad ? Or Stephen Foster? Is Stravinsky an American : )


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Fabulin said:


> So far we came up with 59 TOP 10 composers. Nice consensus
> 
> A. Copland, C. Ives, S. Barber, E. Carter, P. Glass, S. Reich, W. Piston, L.M. Gottschalk, G. Crumb, L. Bernstein, J.P. Sousa, G. Chadwick, F. Converse, H. Fillmore, M. Willson, B. Herrmann, A. Beach, M. Gould, S. Joplin, G. Gershwin, W. Schuman, H. Hanson, E. Blackwood Jr., F. Price, D. Diamond, W.G. Still, J.K. Paine, D. Taylor, H. Williams, P. Seeger, R.C. Seeger, S. Foster, T. Monk, O. Holmes, C. Basie, D. Ellington, H. Mancini, J. Williams, G. Antheil, R. Harris, A. Hovhannes, P. Creston, B. Evans, J.C. Adams, L. Greenwood, E. MacDowell, J. Cage, E. Whitacre, M. Feldman, H. Partch, B. Johnston, M. Babbitt, W.L. Smith, L. Harrison, L.M. Young, T. Riley, F. Zappa, J. Goldsmith, P. Mennin


What it reflects is that America has produced a lot of great music. Virtually all of these composers are worthy of the recognition they've received here, in my humble opinion.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Hank Williams and Pete Seeger were songwriters. I would think Gunther Schuller, George Russell, and Chick Corea are more worthy of the composer title. Other classical composers to add to the list are Carl Ruggles, Charles Wourinen, and Joseph Schwantner.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

starthrower said:


> Other classical composers to add to the list are Carl Ruggles, *Charles Wuorinen*, and Joseph Schwantner


I really should pare down my collection further, I had forgotten all about Wuorinen-his music is fantastic.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

*Amended List*

La Monte Young has been replaced by *Charles Wuorinen*. The latter is simply too good a composer not to be included on the list.


Morton Feldman
Harry Partch
Charles Wuorinen
Elliott Carter
Charles Ives
Ben Johnston
Milton Babbitt
Wadada Leo Smith
Lou Harrison
Terry Riley


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

John Harbison is a dud, huh?


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

Enthusiast said:


> The Gramophone list is a real shocker and provides proof if it were needed that the magazine is long past its glory days. Was it the view of one person ("my favourites ... and I work for the Gramophone so I know what I am talking about") or a reader poll? If not, to exclude Carter and Feldman is extraordinary in any top 10 list that claims to be the acknowledged best rather than the most popular.


It is unthinkable the cohesion between "personal preference" and "greatness- importance" Most of these lists are works of a single person, who is telling us what he likes to listen and nothing more. As you, and other friends, written, not a basis for serious conversation, with the exception of people who found the classic music one week ago, just to impress the new boy/girl friend.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

^ That is the strongest attack on the list so far. And I agree with you!


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Dimace said:


> It is unthinkable the cohesion between "personal preference" and "greatness- importance" Most of these lists are works of a single person, who is telling us what he likes to listen and nothing more. As you, and other friends, written, not a basis for serious conversation, with the exception of people who found the classic music one week ago, just to impress the new boy/girl friend.


All of that is true. Still, these lists are interesting to read, other than the "all time greatest composers" ranking, which has been a bit over discussed here, imo.



philoctetes said:


> John Harbison is a dud, huh?


Not a dud, but if we are talking about currently living American "classical" composers (not sure exactly what that term means in this context, maybe "contemporary" composers?) I'll put John Corigliano, Christopher Rouse and my former teacher Joan Tower ahead of him. Maybe even David Lang, Jennifer Higdon and Michael Torke, too. Edit: And certainly George Crumb, who was still living last I checked.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

starthrower said:


> Hank Williams and Pete Seeger were songwriters. I would think Gunther Schuller, George Russell, and Chick Corea are more worthy of the composer title. Other classical composers to add to the list are Carl Ruggles, Charles Wourinen, and Joseph Schwantner.


Songwriters are essentially composers. Granted, it is a matter of semantics, but there have been songwriters who write lyrics and composes musical compositions for songs (Ray Charles comes to mind). Therefore, they're not (far) removed from classical composers who wrote songs, lieders, and the like, especially within the realm of folk music and for popular consumption (think Dvorak, Smetana, Nielsen, Grieg, Mussorgsky). The line between genres and the types of works written can be very blurred indeed.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

fluteman said:


> All of that is true. Still, these lists *are interesting to read,* other than the "all time greatest composers" ranking, which has been a bit over discussed here, imo.


Certainly are interesting, the same way is interesting exploiting the taste of someone else. It could be very interesting a list of mine, where Mozart, Brahms, Haydn, great modern composers etc. will be nowhere and the best composer is Liszt, the second best Thalberg followed by Godowski, etc. just because I like and I play their music. But the moment I will present this list as something official and not as a very personal choice, (saying also that I'm journalist or music expert etc.) I commit something ridiculous and unacceptable.

*For my girlfriend the best composer in the history of music is Chopin. She knows only him. Two years before, in a telephone research, they asked her if she listens classical music and her favourite composer. She answered that she adores Frederic... When they asked her which works, she turned to me... Say the Ballades, I advised her. Oh, Ja! The one you played yesterday? No! That was a Nocturne! Ahhhh… I like the Ballades, she told the guy in the phone. One week after, Chopin was the most beloved composer in Berlin. Period.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

I'd put forth Jennifer Higdon as a potential addition on the list. She's still mid-career but written some really great works. I think by the time her overall output can be appraised, she will be worthy of a spot on that list.


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## PeterFromLA (Jul 22, 2011)

I'll give it a shot:

John C. Adams
Samuel Barber
Elliott Carter
Aaron Copland
John Corigliano
Morton Feldman
Philip Glass
Meredith Monk
Steve Reich
Terry Riley

Honorable Mention to Christopher Rouse, who passed away yesterday (RIP)


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

PeterFromLA said:


> I'll give it a shot:
> 
> John C. Adams
> Samuel Barber
> ...


Yes, I heard about Rouse earlier today. I had mentioned him, but neither I nor anyone else in this thread, unless I missed it, has mentioned the still-living Ned Rorem, a student of Nadia Boulanger and composer of many beautiful art songs (and even a fine flute concerto, surprisingly enough).


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Orfeo said:


> Songwriters are essentially composers. Granted, it is a matter of semantics, but there have been songwriters who write lyrics and composes musical compositions for songs (Ray Charles comes to mind). Therefore, they're not (far) removed from classical composers who wrote songs, lieders, and the like, especially within the realm of folk music and for popular consumption (think Dvorak, Smetana, Nielsen, Grieg, Mussorgsky). The line between genres and the types of works written can be very blurred indeed.


This thread is on the Classical Music Discussion page. Are we going to consider every pop and folk songwriter?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Sad to hear of Rouse's passing. I'm very fond of his flute concerto.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

KenOC said:


> Sad to hear of Rouse's passing. I'm very fond of his flute concerto.


Yes, it's interesting that Elliott Carter, Christopher Rouse, Ned Rorem and even John Harbison (!) all decided to write flute concertos relatively late in their careers (Rouse was the youngest at 44, Carter was 103). These works date from 1993 (Rouse) to 2007 (Carter). To me, these works are part of a third major movement in flute music in the modern era. The first, led by Debussy and Ravel, began with Debussy's Prelude to the afternoon of a faun in 1894. The second, led by Boulez, began with his Sonatine for flute in 1946. Now we have a third movement, very different from the first two, but with elements borrowed from both. Nice to see, after the romantic period when the violin and piano reigned supreme, especially with so many prominent American composers involved. I could suggest reasons for this, but this thread is not the place.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

Fabulin said:


> So far we came up with 59 TOP 10 composers. Nice consensus
> 
> A. Copland, C. Ives, S. Barber, E. Carter, P. Glass, S. Reich, W. Piston, L.M. Gottschalk, G. Crumb, L. Bernstein, J.P. Sousa, G. Chadwick, F. Converse, H. Fillmore, M. Willson, B. Herrmann, A. Beach, M. Gould, S. Joplin, G. Gershwin, W. Schuman, H. Hanson, E. Blackwood Jr., F. Price, D. Diamond, W.G. Still, J.K. Paine, D. Taylor, H. Williams, P. Seeger, R.C. Seeger, S. Foster, T. Monk, O. Holmes, C. Basie, D. Ellington, H. Mancini, J. Williams, G. Antheil, R. Harris, A. Hovhannes, P. Creston, B. Evans, J.C. Adams, L. Greenwood, E. MacDowell, J. Cage, E. Whitacre, M. Feldman, H. Partch, B. Johnston, M. Babbitt, W.L. Smith, L. Harrison, L.M. Young, T. Riley, F. Zappa, J. Goldsmith, P. Mennin


In this, let us say, more complete list, the absence of Leon Stein is, for me always, shocking. So many names and Leon is nowhere. For this reason, as I told you, I reject every kind of comparisons lists, with the exception of these are results of serious research between serious participants, as are many in this community.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

PeterFromLA said:


> I'll give it a shot:
> 
> John C. Adams
> Samuel Barber
> ...


Much to disagree with there as far as personal taste goes ... but I do think it is a very good shot at a compromise list that covers most bases.


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## chu42 (Aug 14, 2018)

Dimace said:


> In this, let us say, more complete list, the absence of Leon Stein is, for me always, shocking. So many names and Leon is nowhere. For this reason, as I told you, I reject every kind of comparisons lists, with the exception of these are results of serious research between serious participants, as are many in this community.


Leon Stein? And what about Leo Ornstein?

He was born in Russia but considering that he lived 96 years in America...


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## Rangstrom (Sep 24, 2010)

I wonder if the Leo Stein rant was tongue in cheek? Mr. Stein has only a few (rather lukewarm) reviews in the Fanfare archive. I've followed American classical music for decades and never heard of the guy.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Henry Cowell deserves to be on a great American composer list. It's a shame his recordings are mostly out of print.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

chu42 said:


> Leon Stein? And what about Leo Ornstein?
> 
> He was born in Russia but considering that he lived 96 years in America...


They both died in 2002. Ornstein is 100% American.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I thought Ives was the first great American composer, writing the most accessible and simultaneously most difficult music of any American and having a few compositions that were popular in the musical intelligentsia and with fans alike.

But when I looked at my composer ranking he was No. 58 overall and third among Americans behind Copland (No. 44 of all composers) and Gershwin (No. 57). Other Americans listed in the top 99 were Barber (64), Bernstein (77), Adams (80) Korngold (88), Hanson (89) and Glass (95.) These were the only Americans in the top 99 I scored.

My pecking order would be:

1. Copland
2. Gershwin
3. Ives
4. Barber
5. Bernstein
6. Adams
7. Korngold
8. Hanson
9. Glass

I think all of Edward Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith and Miklos Rozsa would be in the mix among "greatest" though they didn't score well enough in my poll to be considered such. Some other notable Americans who didn't score enough to rank in the top 100 were Griffes, Grofe and Carter.

Today my favorite, and the one I would call best among living Americans, would be James Daugherty followed by Richard Rodriguez.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

starthrower said:


> This thread is on the Classical Music Discussion page. Are we going to consider every pop and folk songwriter?


Probably not, although then again why not, since they've been mentioned before on this thread and beyond on this website.

That said, I digress.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

A lot of excellent American composers, the biggest standouts for me are Ives, Partch and Reich.


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## GregGoodale (Dec 29, 2014)

Any list w/o Copland can’t be taken seriously. Here’s my list, not necessarily in any order of importance:
- Aaron Copland
- Howard Hanson
- Samuel Barber
- Roy Harris
- William Schuman
- Walter Piston
- David Diamond
- Alan Hovhaness
- Ferde Grofe
- Virgil Thompson


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## sstucky (Apr 4, 2020)

Piston, W. Schuman, Harris, Mennin, Copland, Gershwin, Bernstein, Barber, Sowerby, Billings.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Gershwin
Bernstein
Ives
Copland
Ellington
Cage
Feldman
Monk
Joplin
Mingus


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

David Diamond should be in there. Good composer.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

GregGoodale said:


> Any list w/o Copland can't be taken seriously. Here's my list, not necessarily in any order of importance:
> - Aaron Copland
> - Howard Hanson
> - Samuel Barber
> ...


Any list without Carter should be deleted by the mods!


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

1. Barber

2-10. Alphabetically: Adams, Cage, Corigliano, Hanson, Harris, Ives, Reich, Rouse, Schuman


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

I'll just mention the ones I know. Composers like Carter, Piston, Schuman and Crumb just never interested me enough to explore their work -- although I admire the Piston text on harmony. As with British composers, maybe some day. Anyway, these I think are the most "vital":
Aaron Copland
Stephen Foster
Charles Ives (not entirely a fan, but still)
George Gershwin
Scott Joplin
Bernard Herrmann
Jerry Goldsmith
Elmer Bernstein
John Williams
Philip Glass
(Maybe substitute Bob Dylan for Glass)


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Art Rock said:


> 1. Barber
> 
> 2-10. Alphabetically: Adams, Cage, Corigliano, Hanson, Harris, Ives, Reich, Rouse, Schuman


I like Corigliano....interesting stuff...very powerful.


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## Simplicissimus (Feb 3, 2020)

I can't deal with "greatest" but I can talk about my personal favorites. The reason I don't venture into "greatest" is that I'm not a music scholar or critic, so I wouldn't be able to back up any assertions of greatness with arguments about historical significance, influence, or musicological analysis.

I go out of my way to collect and listen to the music of American composers. It's a hobby within a hobby. (CM is important to me, but it's still a hobby, not a vocation.) In my music collection, I have at least one CD featuring the music of 29 American composers, and for most of them I have several CDs. My top ten favorites fall into three categories:

Among my favorite composers of any nationality:
Samuel Barber
Charles Ives

Love:
George Gershwin
Ferde Grofé

Like a lot and listen to regularly:
William Grant Still
Aaron Copland
Amy Beach
William Russo
Florence B. Price
Ernest Bloch

I'll be disciplined and not list the others in my collection, all of whom are important to me as well.


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## chu42 (Aug 14, 2018)

GregGoodale said:


> Any list w/o Copland can't be taken seriously. Here's my list, not necessarily in any order of importance:
> - Aaron Copland
> - Howard Hanson
> - Samuel Barber
> ...


Right, and any list without Ives or Carter cannot be taken seriously.


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