# Who are the Essential Living Composers?



## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

Submit up to 10 names of living composers (alive as of 1/1/20) that you feel are essential for a listener of contemporary classical music to know.

I know that some of you could name 30 composers or more, but the object of this thread will be to try to get some sort of consensus of those *few* composers who you feel are making the most impact. So with that in mind, please, *10 or less*!

This might aid anyone interested in exploring new music. Thanks!

My own biased list would include:


John Adams
Osvaldo Golijov
Thomas Adès
Wolfgang Rihm
John Corigliano
Louis Andriessen
Brian Ferneyhough
Michel van der Aa
Hans Abrahamsen


----------



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I probably can't come up with 10 that are essential as there are some possibilities that I don't know well enough to comment, but certainly the following:

Hans Abrahamsen
Thomas Ades
Jennifer Higdon
James MacMillan
George Benjamin
Unsuk Chin


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I can't run to anything like ten, but I would probably include Thomas Adès and Michael Daugherty even if I could. Some deride Daugherty as a one-trick pony basing virtually all of his output on Americana and American kitsch. This might actually be partly true but I think you need someone like him if only to provide a counterbalance to all the knottier stuff. And what's not to like about musical depictions of Mount Rushmore, Liberace, Barbie dolls, car factories and plastic flamingos?


----------



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

elgars ghost said:


> I can't run to anything like ten, but I would probably include Thomas Adès and Michael Daugherty even if I could. Some deride Daugherty as a one-trick pony basing virtually all of his output on Americana and American kitsch. This might actually be partly true but I think you need someone like him *if only to provide a counterbalance to all the knottier stuff*. And what's not to like about musical depictions of Mount Rushmore, Liberace, Barbie dolls, car factories and plastic flamingos?


Which is why I included Jennifer Higdon ... but I do believe she deserves to be on the list.


----------



## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

20centrfuge said:


> John Adams
> Osvaldo Golijov
> Thomas Adès
> Wolfgang Rihm
> ...


Gerard Grisey has been dead for 22 years.

As for essential living composers, a while back I found this 2017 survey of over one hundred "music professionals" who were asked about essential works and composers. They came up with this list here (once you click this link, click on the "get more information" link to download the final results). I haven't listened to every work on the list, but based on what I have heard, I think this is a very accurate list. Their top 10 were:

Georg Friedrich Haas
Simon Steen-Andersen
Rebecca Saunders
Helmut Lachenmann
Salvatore Sciarrino
Enno Poppe
Kaija Saariaho
Bernhard Lang
Francesco Filidei
Beat Furrer


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Deleted as it was an earlier copy of my post below.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Becca said:


> Which is why I included Jennifer Higdon ... but I do believe she deserves to be on the list.


One of those many persons I've heard of but not heard anything by - have you any recommendations in particular?


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I fear that Gerard Grisey left us in 1998.

There are no doubt many but my own top choices would include these five

Gyorgy Kurtag
Harrison Birtwistle
George Benjamin
Peter Eotvos
Tristan Murail

And I would happily add (among others)

Hans Abrahamsen
Magnus Lindberg
Beat Furrer
Rebecca Saunders
Brett Dean
Pascal Dusapin
Julian Anderson
Helmut Lachenmann
Brian Ferneyhough

I think I have arrived at more than 10 but I don't know who to leave out.


----------



## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

John Williams tops the list


----------



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

elgars ghost said:


> One of those many persons I've heard of but not heard anything by - have you any recommendations in particular?


Her most frequently played piece is _blue cathedral _but the two I prefer are her _City Scape_ and perhaps _Concerto for Orchestra_


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Becca said:


> Her most frequently played piece is _blue cathedral _but the two I prefer are her _City Scape_ and perhaps _Concerto for Orchestra_


Thank you for that.


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

*Who are the Essential Living Composers? *

All of them. I certainly wouldn't want to be the one to stop _any_ of them from being alive, regardless of what I think of their music. All that John Donne stuff, like "no man is an island" and "every man's death diminishes me", etc.

What kind of question is this, anyhow? Am I missing something?


----------



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

The answer becomes obvious is you remember that 'essential' actually means 'my favourite'!


----------



## MrMeatScience (Feb 15, 2015)

It's hard to talk about "essential" contemporary composers I think, but I have a lot of time for 

Steve Reich
Kaija Saariaho
Unsuk Chin
Thomas Ades
Andrew Norman
Arvo Pärt
Caroline Shaw
Georg Haas
György Kurtag
John Adams

if I had to limit it to 10. There are several more that I also spend a lot of time listening to.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I don't care for the "essential" tag. Is there some way of measuring objective importance for working composers? I'm happy to add Peter Eotvos to my circle of living composers I now enjoy. For some including Lindberg, and Kurtag I enjoy a few pieces and that's it.


----------



## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

calvinpv said:


> Gerard Grisey has been dead for 22 years.


noted and changed. my bad.


----------



## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

SONNET CLV said:


> *Who are the Essential Living Composers? *
> 
> All of them. I certainly wouldn't want to be the one to stop _any_ of them from being alive, regardless of what I think of their music. All that John Donne stuff, like "no man is an island" and "every man's death diminished me", etc.
> 
> What kind of question is this, anyhow? Am I missing something?


Haha! I'm not proposing we exterminate those not listed!


----------



## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

I'd like to add Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.


----------



## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

I don't know, I think that considering living composers my top three would be something like this:

1. Wayne Shorter (he's a jazz composer, but still a composer and an amazing one)
2. Per Norgard
3. George Crumb
4. Gyorgy Kurtag
5. Krzysztof Penderecki 

then I don't know, Sofia Gubaidulina, Ivan Fedele, Louis Andriessen, Penderecki...
all quite old


----------



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I would start with the 4 living composers selected by the 174 contemporary composers BBC magazine interviewed asking to name 5 "greatest" composers.

Saariaho
Reich
Glass
Birtwistle

I would add these (sorry the total is 11)

John Adams
Hans Abrahamsen
Unsuk Chin
Georg Friedrich Haas
Magnus Lindberg
György Kurtag
Sofia Gubaidulina

If I had to drop one of these, maybe I'd drop Haas.


----------



## Lilijana (Dec 17, 2019)

The 'essential' living composers are the ones you get to know best, based on which ensembles and musicians you listen to, who gets the programming (radio, concert hall, other) in your area, whatever spotify or youtube recommends to you, and what you like best from all those factors and more.

I'd definitely have a list of recommendations for anyone interested in exploring living composers' works, but it's far from an exhaustive list and is based more on the influencing factors i've listed above.

IMO, coming up with a 'recommended list' isn't really my favourite thing to do, anyway, BUT I can definitely recommend a few sources of living composers' music that has provided me with many hours of personal new discoveries. Instead of having a list of composers-which I find tends to be too influenced by one's personal preferences and sometimes tends to favour better-known composers over unheard gems-I'd recommend being aware of what music comes from the following record labels:

NEOS
KAIROS
Mode
Col Legno
Aeon

And also check out what is happening at Donaueschinger Musiktage, Darmstadt, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

YouTube has some wonderful channels devoted to contemporary music. My top two would be Grinblat and Incipitsify.

Incipitsify is also partnered with Score Follower and Mediated Scores. Together they have a 'Follow My Score' initiative which provides some really good reach for composers of all backgrounds to submit their works for publication online as study scores. The effect of this is really the creation of a library of composers who do some fascinating new things but aren't really 'in the canon' of regularly performed repertoire and who aren't really well-known outside of their local areas. Additionally they also digitise scores and publish score-videos for study of some more established living composers in their 'Featured Composer' series.

If anything is 'essential' when it comes to new music by living composers, it's knowing where to look for new things you haven't heard before.


----------



## Lilijana (Dec 17, 2019)

calvinpv said:


> Gerard Grisey has been dead for 22 years.
> 
> As for essential living composers, a while back I found this 2017 survey of over one hundred "music professionals" who were asked about essential works and composers. They came up with this list here (once you click this link, click on the "get more information" link to download the final results). I haven't listened to every work on the list, but based on what I have heard, I think this is a very accurate list. Their top 10 were:
> 
> ...


This is actually pretty much exactly the list i would have made if i were to actually make a list, wow


----------



## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Only the future can tell us the answer to this question. It seems like serious music has fragmented. Most of the composers in this thread are like the new "academy" (like in reference to French painting) that innovative tonal harmonists composing beautiful music have to break out of.


----------



## StDior (May 28, 2015)

Current essentials (favorites):

Lachenmann 
Gubaidulina 
Penderecki 
Nørgård 
Crumb 
Silvestrov 
Saariaho 
Unsuk Chin 
Rihm 
Fujikura 

As the first six mentioned are over 80, the current -let’s say- active essentials (favorites):

Saariaho 
Unsuk Chin 
Rihm 
Fujikura 
Furrer 
Manoury 
Mitterer 
Sørensen 
Czernowin 
Widmann


----------



## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

György Kurtág
Heinz Holliger
Vyacheslav Artyomov
Michael Hersch
Richard Barrett


----------



## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

composer jess said:


> The 'essential' living composers are the ones you get to know best, based on which ensembles and musicians you listen to, who gets the programming (radio, concert hall, other) in your area, whatever spotify or youtube recommends to you, and what you like best from all those factors and more.


Well said. I seem to inhabit a very different contemporary-classical world than most others on TC. With that in mind:

Philip Glass
Steve Reich
Julia Wolfe
David Lang
John Adams
John Luther Adams
Caroline Shaw
Mason Bates
Kaija Saariaho
Arvo Pärt


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Last July I posted my favourite 12 living composers on my blog. One has died since then (Rouse), one I kicked out for this post (Sylvestrov) so that makes it 10:

Sofia Gubaidulina [Russia, 1931]
Arvo Pärt [Estonia, 1935]
Aulis Sallinen [Finland, 1935]
John Corigliano [USA, 1938]
Peteris Vasks [Latvia, 1946]
John Adams [USA, 1947]
Kalevi Aho [Finland, 1948]
Kaija Saariaho [Finland, 1952]
James MacMillan [UK, 1959]
Unsuk Chin [South Korea, 1961]


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I was in a bit of a rush last night and missed many who I listen to a lot. Also, I never got my list down to 10. So my second go - achieved partly by removing some of the newer/younger (and perhaps more avant garde) composers who I haven't spent enough time with to call favourites and partly by adding in names that I had forgotten - here are my 10 favourites among the living:

Gyorgy Kurtag
Harrison Birtwistle
George Benjamin
Peter Eotvos
Tristan Murail
Pascal Dusapin
Julian Anderson
Helmut Lachenmann
Sofia Gubaidulina
Heinz Holliger


----------



## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

These are essential to _me_.

Penderecki
Thomas Ades
Harrison Birtwistle
Magnus Lindberg
Charles Wuorinen	
Joan Tower
Joseph Schwantner
Kaija Saariaho
Sofia Gubaidulina
Salvatore Sciarrino

I am sure there are others currently slipping my mind.

And even more, that are currently close to being essential, but lacking a few pieces, for example; Jennifer Higdon, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Augusta Read Thomas, Andrew Norman.


----------



## Johnnie Burgess (Aug 30, 2015)

No one has mentioned Jonathan Leshnoff.


----------



## PeterFromLA (Jul 22, 2011)

Gyorgy Kurtag
Steve Reich
Pascal Dusapin
Tristan Murail
Sofia Gubaidulina
Valentin Silvestrov
Marc-Andre Dalbavie
Unsuk Chin
Kaija Saariaho
Georg Friedrich Haas

I'd list John Adams and Philip Glass, but I like them mostly for the work they produced early in their careers.


----------



## violadude (May 2, 2011)

What about composers like John Zorn or Zeena Parkins? They sort of straddle the line between Jazz/electronic/avant-garde classical.


----------



## Trout (Apr 11, 2011)

10 composers who are still alive and are making exciting music:

Kaija Saariaho
Georg Friedrich Haas
Hans Abrahamsen
Unsuk Chin
Olga Neuwirth
György Kurtág
Julia Wolfe
Kate Soper
Pierluigi Billone
Dai Fujikura


----------



## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

violadude said:


> What about composers like John Zorn or Zeena Parkins? They sort of straddle the line between Jazz/electronic/avant-garde classical.


Well...

If you are going there, there is is an entire sub-genre of prog that fits the exact same description. Some people call it RIO (which stands for Rock in Opposition), or also known as avant-prog. Although most of these bands (to my ears) are closer to contemporary classical than Zorn.

Many of these bands straddle the same lines. And most of them are comprised of members that are classical music school grads.

Aranis from Belgium, Univers Zero from Belgium, Thinking Plague from the USA, Art Zoyd from France, are just a few such bands.


----------

