# What are your favorite American composers?



## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

American composers, they’re certainly a different breed of musical architects. Who are your favorites? To take it further why are they your favorites, what pieces specifically make them special to you? 

I’d love to see some top ten lists but I understand some of you won’t be as well versed in composers from the U.S. of A (until two years ago I only knew of 2 or 3 unless you counted film score composers so it’s understandable) so try to muster a top 3 if this is the case. Oh and let’s keep it interesting no film score composers (I love John Williams too but writing for films is the bulk of what he does) unless writing scores constitutes a fraction of their total output. 

My list, pretty much in order:

1- William Schuman - Greatest American symphonist to me. Brilliant & dark.
2- Charles Ives - So far ahead of his time, so under appreciated in his time.
3- Samuel Barber - What’s not to like of his work? A master craftsman of harmonically rich music. 
4- John Cage - I don’t like all his music but the pieces I do are brilliant & different.
5- Harry Partch - This guy is out there but I really enjoy his music. 
6- George Gershwin - He would likely be much higher on the list if he’d lived longer.
7- Morton Feldman - His music took me the longest to come around to but I've come around to it fully.
8- Conlon Nancarrow -Another wild card, Ligeti led me to him. Check out his string quartets. 
9- Wallingford Riegger - I don’t know why I like him but I do.
10- Elliott Carter - Had to get him on here somewhere, I’m sure he’ll move up the list as I discover more 
of his work but I love his quartets & the concerto for orchestra.

Well I'll turn it over to you TC memebers, looking forward to seeing what people here have to say.


----------



## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Noting that this would be a longer list if we were including 20th century popular music:

Ives and Gershwin are clearly good people.

Feldman is pleasant every now and then, but the experience is marred by knowing that too many people take him too seriously.

The minimalists and their successors make me feel somewhat the way I imagine a liberal German might have felt about Wagner at the beginning of the 20th century. I enjoy a lot of their recordings and/or compositions - basically everything by La Monte Young before _The Well-Tuned Piano_ and maybe that too; basically all of early Terry Riley, and all of later Riley when he's playing an electric organ, and to a lesser extent when he's playing a piano; _Music for 18 Musicians_; Glass' "Evening Song" and "Mad Rush" and various other pieces that sound like those, and parts of _Einstein on the Beach_, among them all the parts with talking, and the operas of Robert Ashley, which seem to me to be largely the same thing; some of Monk, Duckworth, John Luther Adams, etc; God, this one Mikel Rouse song that sounds hilariously like Andrew Lloyd Webber, and not in an ironic way - and I'm pretty sure that this reflects very badly on me. And they're not as good as Wagner (to say the least), so I don't even have that excuse.


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Can't come up with an ordered list, but:

Ives is probably my single favorite
Or Reich
Copland, Carter and Adams are up there
Sessions, Harris, Cowell, Rochberg, Feldman, Oliveros...
HinC mentions Duckworth, and Time Curve Preludes is one of my favorite American works. But that's just one work.


----------



## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Ugh, I feel dirty promoting this, but do you know _Southern Harmony_?

And I should have mentioned Copland.

Also forgot Daniel Lentz's _Apologetica_, another source of shame. God, the number of things to hate about that piece - the minimalist provenance, the resemblance to recent film music, the grotesque spectacle of an American "apologizing" for the conquest of the Indians without giving up the benefits of it, like Shakespeare's Claudius without the self awareness - so why can't my I stop listening to it?

I mean, I know why - this is music directed exactly at my tribe, the college educated American, from which I'm evidently not as alienated as I want to be. Which is disturbing.


----------



## Guest (Jan 28, 2016)

Gloria Coates.

That's all I got.

Symphonies and SQs.

I love music that hangs, drifts, floats, decays, grows, glows, breathes. Static, yet moving...


----------



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

In no particular order:

Ives
Barber
Copland
Reich
Adams

Rochberg, Carter, and Schuman are making strong progress. 

And finally a little known pianist and composer from the mid 19th century - Louis Gottschalk


----------



## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Reich, Glass, Monk, both Adamses, Gordon, Lang, Wolfe, am I allowed say Sondheim?, Crumb...


----------



## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

*Copland*, and *Gershwin* have mentioned. Their compositions represent "The American Sound". I've always liked *Barber*'s romanticism. I haven't seen *Bernstein* mentioned yet. I like his music, as well as his irrepressible spirit for music-making [composer conductor author pianist teacher]. It's hard to believe he's been gone more than 25 years now(died October 14, 1990.)


----------



## Guest (Jan 28, 2016)

1. Cage
2. Carter
3. Feldman
4. Partch
5. Lucier
6. Crumb
7. Eckardt
8. Coates
9. Nancarrow
10. Cassidy

Or something like that...


----------



## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

QuietGuy said:


> *Copland*, and *Gershwin* have mentioned. Their compositions represent "The American Sound". I've always liked *Barber*'s romanticism. I haven't seen *Bernstein* mentioned yet. I like his music, as well as his irrepressible spirit for music-making [composer conductor author pianist teacher]. It's hard to believe he's been gone more than 25 years now(died October 14, 1990.)


I believe they still have yet to retrieve Bernstein's memoir "Blue Ink". It was on his computer and he died without divulging his password. I wonder if they'll ever figure it out.. One can only hope. He was a marvelous teacher and lecturer but as for Bernstein the composer, I haven't heard that much of his work but I remember being not that taken with it. Perhaps I could do with some recommendations of his music.


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Harold in Columbia said:


> Ugh, I feel dirty promoting this, but do you know _Southern Harmony_?


I do know Southern Harmony.


----------



## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Fugue Meister said:


> as for Bernstein the composer, I haven't heard that much of his work but I remember being not that taken with it


The more ambitious numbers in _West Side Story_ - the dance at the gym, the "Tonight" quintet (not the early duet, though that's nice enough), "Cool" with the fugue in the middle, and the "Somewhere" sequence (the full one with the ballet in the middle, not the nonsense in the movie) - are as good as it gets; which I would say is pretty good. Also, "Lonely Town" from _On the Town_, and especially the pas de deux that follows (anthologized as the second of the "three dance episodes"), are beautiful.


----------



## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

The truth?

Keith Jarrett
John Coltrane
Miles Davis
Duke Ellington
Ornette Coleman
Charlie Parker
Louis Armstrong
etc...etc...etc...etc...etc...etc...etc...etc...etc...


----------



## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Charles Ives
Charlie Parker
Thelonious Monk
Samuel Barber
Scott Joplin
Paul Creston
David Diamond
Louis Gottschalk
George Antheil (getting there)
William Grant Still


----------



## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Ives, Reich, Glass, Adams and Barber. I should listen to more.


----------



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

If sticking with classical - Ives, Gershwin, Copland, Antheil, Bernstein, Rorem, Daugherty. Feldman may join them one day but I'm taking my time peeling away the layers there. I can't really include anyone else as I don't have enough of a cross-section of their material to justify an opinion even if I like what I've heard so far. 

Have to confess that my liking for Barber's music has cooled somewhat over time and I've never been bowled over by the minimalists despite liking certain works to varying degrees.


----------



## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Harold in Columbia said:


> Feldman is pleasant every now and then, but the experience is marred by knowing that too many people take him too seriously.


What does that even mean? Is Feldman's music supposed to be a joke or something?


----------



## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

In no particular order...

Harry Partch
Elliott Carter
Morton Feldman
Michael Hersch
Jason Eckardt
Milton Babbitt
Charles Ives
John Cage
Conlon Nancarrow
George Crumb


----------



## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

I would include Charles Tomlinson Griffes among my favourites.


----------



## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Morimur said:


> What does that even mean? Is Feldman's music supposed to be a joke or something?


No, Feldman's music isn't a joke (though his persona kind of was). I mean this:

Greg Sandow, on the second string quartet: "...I felt a structure, nonlogical but sound, underlying its great length."

Kyle Gann: "There is music before and after Monteverdi, and before and after Beethoven, and before and after Stravinsky, and I would not be surprised to find that poeple someday talk about music before and after Feldman."


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

That's a heck of a thing, to allow your own experience listening to music to be affected by what some others might think of the composer.

Practically every composer is taken too seriously by someone out there.


----------



## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Sure. And after we cure death and I've lived to the age of 300 and the aesthetic questions of today are well and truly dead, I'll then be able to listen to Feldman with just as much equanimity as I can with Rossini and Mendelssohn now.


----------



## drnlaw (Jan 27, 2016)

Okay, the usual list of suspects, plus one that will probably be an embarrassment to me, as I start being asked if I also like elevator music. But here goes: 
Copland
Bernstein
Diamond
Barber
Ives

And the one which will probably garner me a lot of ridicule and scorn, but what the heck.

Howard Hanson.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

In no particular order:

William Schuman
Samuel Barber
Charles Martin Loeffler 
Aaron Copland
Howard Hanson 
Charles Ives
Daniel Gregory Mason
Charles Tomlinson Griffes


----------



## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> In no particular order:
> 
> William Schuman
> Samuel Barber
> ...


I remember how much I liked his "Chanticleer" festival overture (years ago) via radio. Yet very little of his works are on CD (let alone LP). Thankfully his symphonies are available on Youtube (vintage recordings).

A shame!


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Orfeo said:


> I remember how much I liked his "Chanticleer" festival overture (years ago) via radio. Yet very little of his works are on CD (let alone LP). Thankfully his symphonies are available on Youtube (vintage recordings).
> 
> A shame!


Look for some of his chamber music. Some really good stuff!


----------



## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Look for some of his chamber music. Some really good stuff!


Will do. 
Thank you.
:tiphat:


----------



## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Carter, Barber, Wuorinen.


----------



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Henry Mancini....................


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I had an American kick a few years ago, but I can't remember them all now. What first pops in my mind as composers who consistently hold my attention are Ives, Feldman, Diamond, and Nancarrow. Honorable mention goes to Chadwick, who wrote some lovely Brahmsian chamber music, and Payne, who wrote some nice Mendelssohnian choral music.


----------



## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Harold in Columbia said:


> Ugh, I feel dirty promoting this, but do you know _Southern Harmony_?


Are you talking about the Donald Grantham work for concert band?

Note: The Marine band will be performing Grantham's _Fantasy Variations_ on January 31st.


----------



## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Morimur said:


> In no particular order...
> 
> Harry Partch
> Elliott Carter
> ...


Nice to see you've finally departed from the view that the best American composers were the jazz greats. 

my list:

Ives
Partch
Carter
Crumb
Copland
Cage
Reich
Glass
Barber
Nancarrow

Ives is definitely among my favorite composers. Partch, Carter and Crumb seem to be continually 'moving up' and getting better the more I listen to them and have a decent shot at eventually becoming top favorites of mine. The remainder of the names on my list pretty much just have certain pieces here and there that I really like.


----------



## Guest (Jan 30, 2016)

nathanb said:


> 1. Cage
> 2. Carter
> 3. Feldman
> 4. Partch
> ...


Dammit, I forgot Babbitt. And Hersch.


----------



## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

arpeggio said:


> Are you talking about the Donald Grantham work for concert band?


I was talking about the William Duckworth work for chorus. http://www.allmusic.com/album/william-duckworth-southern-harmony-mw0001419478


----------



## MonagFam (Nov 17, 2015)

Not a name I have noticed yet, but I really like John Knowles Paine's works that I have heard to date.


----------



## Adam Weber (Apr 9, 2015)

What are my favorite American composers? 

Human, I think. :lol:

Now, in no particular order... 

1. Ives.
2. Reich 
3. Adams 
4. Copland 
5. Luther Adams 
6. Riley 
7. Rzewski 
8. Partch 
9. Crumb 
9. Glass
10. Cage 
11. Nancarrow 
12. Feldman 
13. Carter 
14. Barber 
15. Harrison 
16. Antheil 
17. Cowell 
18. Marshall 
19. Those New York composers that write for Bang on a Can and all kind of sound the same. 
20. Whoever I forgot.


----------



## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Adam Weber said:


> Human, I think. :lol:


I'm not so sure about Reich and Glass.


----------



## Adam Weber (Apr 9, 2015)

Harold in Columbia said:


> I'm not so sure about Reich and Glass.


Little did they know, Copland was the alien all along!


----------



## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

No, no, that's Stockhausen.


----------



## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Harold in Columbia said:


> No, no, that's Stockhausen.


Come on, he can't be Sirius.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Zappa
Barber
Bernstein
Ives 
Schuman
Carter
Copland
Ruggles

Still haven't listened to Crumb, Sessions, Partch, Cowell, Babbitt, Beach.

Didn't care too much for Piston. Hanson and Diamond are OK.

Need to listen to more of Gunther Schuller, and Nancarrow.


----------



## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Top Twenty American Composers In My Library

1. Samuel Barber
2. Elliott Carter
3. Aaron Copland
4. Alan Hovhaness
5. Morton Gould
6. Vincent Persichetti
7. William Schuman
8. Charles Ives
9. John Corigliano
10. Leonard Bernstein
11. Howard Hanson
12. David Maslanka
13. John Harbison
14. John Williams
15. Walter Piston
16. Michael Daugherty 
17. George Walker
18. George Antheil
19. Roy Harris
20. Frank Ticheli


----------



## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

Would have to be a toss up for me, between Schuman and Ives.


----------



## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Adam Weber said:


> 19. Those New York composers that write for Bang on a Can and all kind of sound the same.


Gordon, Lang and Wolfe? It's arguable whether they ever "kind of sounded the same", but they certainly don't nowadays.


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

I don´t know so many American composers but I like these:

Amy Beach
Howard Hansen
Elliot Carter
Samuel Barber


----------



## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)




----------



## Chromatose (Jan 18, 2016)

I know Barber, Glass and Ives, I like Barber and Glass is okay but Ives is a bit of a mystery to me. I must admit I don't know many American composers other than those guys but this thread has given me some good places to start.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Bernstein, Ives, Schuman, Copland, Harris, Piston, Persichetti, Barber and Mennin.


----------



## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Not necessarily my very favourites, but here are a few names of highly skilled composers of the old school that don't get enough mention, forgotten in the mists of the 20th century stylistic changes.

"Second New England School" (Boston Six):
George Chadwick
John Knowles Paine
Arthur Foote
Amy Beach
Horatio Parker
Edward MacDowell

And then some much earlier American composers. Somewhat bizarre voice-leading, but still quite enjoyable.

"First New England School:"
William Billings
Supply Belcher

And if you can stomach the Southern accents:
The _Real_ Southern Harmony


----------



## Adam Weber (Apr 9, 2015)

Nereffid said:


> Gordon, Lang and Wolfe? It's arguable whether they ever "kind of sounded the same", but they certainly don't nowadays.


Yup, and I knew their names, too. I just wanted to make a joke. I like their music, and I can tell it apart, but they definitely imbibe of the same "sound," IMO. Not in a bad way. Like Mozart and Haydn "sound alike" or Strauss and Mahler "sound alike." Same era, same influences, same "school." You know?


----------



## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

Fugue Meister said:


> I believe they still have yet to retrieve Bernstein's memoir "Blue Ink". It was on his computer and he died without divulging his password. I wonder if they'll ever figure it out.. One can only hope. He was a marvelous teacher and lecturer but as for Bernstein the composer, I haven't heard that much of his work but I remember being not that taken with it. Perhaps I could do with some recommendations of his music.


The more ambitious music from West Side Story , as previously mentioned. There's also the Chichester Psalms, Halil, Serenade, Symphony #2 (especially the Mosque) and the 3 Variations from Fancy Free.


----------



## BillT (Nov 3, 2013)

Copland, Bernstein, Lennon, Dylan, jazz, done.

- Bill


----------



## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

BillT said:


> Lennon


Well, I guess everything he did from late 1971 on _does_ count.


----------



## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

1. Meyer Kupferman
2. George Perle
3. Roger Sessions
4. Bernard Rands
5. Charles Tomlinson Griffes
6. Andrew Imbrie
7. Gunther Schuller
8. Mel Powell
9. Charles Wuorinen
10. Jacob Druckman

... and why not(?) provide a baker's dozen (a top 10 + another 3) ...

11. William Kraft
12. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
13. Chou Wen-Chung


----------



## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

My "Top Five" American composers, purely ranked by play-count in iTunes:

1. Morton Feldman
2. Philip Glass
3. Leonard Bernstein
4. Charles Ives
5. Harry Partch


----------



## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

QuietGuy said:


> The more ambitious music from West Side Story , as previously mentioned. There's also the Chichester Psalms, Halil, Serenade, Symphony #2 (especially the Mosque) and the 3 Variations from Fancy Free.


A correction: Symphony #2 "Mosque" should be Masque.


----------



## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

QuietGuy said:


> A correction: Symphony #2 "Mosque" should be Masque.


Indeed - a piece called "Mosque" would've seen Lenny break new ground, I daresay


----------



## atsizat (Sep 14, 2015)

I have had none of favorite American composer so far. In future, maybe.


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

atsizat said:


> I have had none of favorite American composer so far. In future, maybe.


Maybe you have heard at least something you like by an American composer.


----------



## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Prodromides said:


> 1. Meyer Kupferman
> 2. George Perle
> 3. Roger Sessions
> 4. Bernard Rands
> ...


Interesting choices, I don't know most of those, will have to check some out thanks for posting...

Also to follow up I've looked up some of the recommendations of Bernstein music and it's meh to me. Not that it's bad, it just doesn't speak to me. Guess I'll have to stick to enjoying Bernstein on a conductor/ musical commenter basis.


----------



## Rangstrom (Sep 24, 2010)

Interesting that Nancarrow is mentioned a number of times. In no particular order I listen a lot to Schuman, Harris, Copland, Rzewski, Piston, Zwillich, Persichetti and Barber. I want to like Cowell more than I do (just a few of his works grab me) and Porter has a fine set of quartets.


----------



## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Fugue Meister said:


> Interesting choices, I don't know most of those, will have to check some out thanks for posting...


Hi, Fugue Meister.

Glad you find my entry intriguing.
To an experienced/seasoned consumer of contemporary music, though, the names I deposited _should_ be familiar and come as no surprise.
Eight of the 13 names I listed have won a Pulitzer Prize at one time or another (and I'm not attempting to brag or anything  )
Here's my (dated) list of PP winners between 1943 & 2010:

1943: William Schuman, Secular Cantata No. 2: A Free Song
1944: Howard Hanson, Symphony No. 4
1945: Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring, ballet
1946: Leo Sowerby, The Canticle of the Sun
1947: Charles Ives, Symphony No. 3
1948: Walter Piston, Symphony No. 3
1949: Virgil Thomson, Louisiana Story, film score
1950: Gian Carlo Menotti, The Consul, opera
1951: Douglas Stuart Moore, Giants in the Earth, opera
1952: Gail Kubik, Symphony Concertante
1953: no prize awarded
1954: Quincy Porter, Concerto Concertante for two pianos and orchestra
1955: Gian Carlo Menotti, The Saint of Bleecker Street, opera
1956: Ernst Toch, Symphony No. 3
1957: Norman Dello Joio, Meditations on Ecclesiastes
1958: Samuel Barber, Vanessa, opera
1959: John La Montaine, Piano Concerto
1960: Elliott Carter, String Quartet No. 2
1961: Walter Piston, Symphony No. 7
1962: Robert Ward, The Crucible, opera
1963: Samuel Barber, Piano Concerto
1964: no prize awarded
1965: no prize awarded (See Duke Ellington)
1966: Leslie Bassett, Variations for Orchestra
1967: Leon Kirchner, Quartet No. 3 for strings and electronic tape
1968: George Crumb, Echoes of Time and the River
1969: Karel Husa, String Quartet No. 3
1970: Charles Wuorinen, Time's Encomium
1971: Mario Davidovsky, Synchronisms No. 6
1972: Jacob Druckman, Windows
1973: Elliott Carter, String Quartet No. 3
1974: Donald Martino, Notturno
1975: Dominick Argento, From the Diary of Virginia Woolf
1976: Ned Rorem, Air Music
1977: Richard Wernick, Visions of Terror and Wonder
1978: Michael Colgrass, Deja Vu for percussion and orchestra
1979: Joseph Schwantner, Aftertones of Infinity
1980: David Del Tredici, In Memory of a Summer Day
1981: no prize awarded
1982: Roger Sessions, Concerto for Orchestra
1983: Ellen Zwilich, Three Movements for Orchestra (Symphony No. 1)
1984: Bernard Rands, Canti del Sole
1985: Stephen Albert, Symphony RiverRun
1986: George Perle, Wind Quintet No. 4, for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon
1987: John Harbison, The Flight into Egypt
1988: William Bolcom, 12 New Etudes for Piano
1989: Roger Reynolds, Whispers Out of Time
1990: Mel D. Powell, Duplicates: A Concerto
1991: Shulamit Ran, Symphony
1992: Wayne Peterson, The Face of the Night, the Heart of the Dark
1993: Christopher Rouse, Trombone Concerto
1994: Gunther Schuller, Of Reminiscences and Reflections
1995: Morton Gould, Stringmusic
1996: George Walker, Lilacs, for soprano and orchestra
1997: Wynton Marsalis, Blood on the Fields, oratorio
1998: Aaron Jay Kernis, String Quartet No. 2, Musica Instrumentalis
1999: Melinda Wagner, Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion
2000: Lewis Spratlan, Life is a Dream, opera (awarded for concert version of Act II)
2001: John Corigliano, Symphony No. 2, for string orchestra
2002: Henry Brant, Ice Field
2003: John Adams, On the Transmigration of Souls
2004: Paul Moravec, Tempest Fantasy
2005: Steven Stucky, Second Concerto for Orchestra
2006: Yehudi Wyner, Chiavi in Mano, (piano concerto)
2007: Ornette Coleman, Sound Grammar
2008: David Lang, The Little Match Girl Passion
2009: Steve Reich, Double Sextet
2010: Jennifer Higdon, Violin Concerto


----------



## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Rzewski is a fine composer. His name throws me a little, so I don't immediately think of him as American.


----------



## Gordontrek (Jun 22, 2012)

Has to be Gershwin, with Bernstein a close second. John Adams comes in next.


----------



## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Rangstrom said:


> Interesting that Nancarrow is mentioned a number of times. In no particular order I listen a lot to Schuman, Harris, Copland, Rzewski, Piston, Zwillich, Persichetti and Barber. I want to like Cowell more than I do (just a few of his works grab me) and Porter has a fine set of quartets.


Cowell was a composer of exceptional talent. Unfortunately his imprisonment stunted his experimental spirit and he was never quite the same thereafter.


----------



## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

No favourites come to mind, but, when I think of the composer I spend the most time testing out, it's John Adams.


----------



## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Morimur said:


> Cowell was a composer of exceptional talent. Unfortunately his imprisonment stunted his experimental spirit and he was never quite the same thereafter.


I wasn't aware of this Cowell fellow your mentioning his imprisonment made me look him up and I've been listening to him for the last hour. Pretty interesting stuff, you have any specific recommendations? (Any takers)


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Fugue Meister said:


> I wasn't aware of this Cowell fellow your mentioning his imprisonment made me look him up and I've been listening to him for the last hour. Pretty interesting stuff, you have any specific recommendations? (Any takers)





Fugue Meister said:


> I wasn't aware of this Cowell fellow your mentioning his imprisonment made me look him up and I've been listening to him for the last hour. Pretty interesting stuff, you have any specific recommendations? (Any takers)


He wrote some interestoing solo piano works. The Tides of Manaunaun was played in front of President Roosevelt at the White House. It is notable for a contemporary work to be played in the White House.

Dynamic Motion and The Banshee are two others you can give a listen two.

I like his (later) Symphony no. 11.


----------



## TumultuousHair (Mar 13, 2016)

In no particular order:
Irving Fine
John Alden Carpenter
John Knowles Paine
Roy Harris
William Billings
Scott Joplin
Thelonious Monk
Bill Evans
Milton Babbitt


----------



## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

I posted this thread a few months ago and looking at my list I'm ashamed at leaving Babbitt off, he's topnotchosaurous-rex and beneath the serial skin of his work lies a circulatory system of jazz. 

I've been putting him on a great deal lately and I can't believe I didn't find a place for him.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Schuman, Persichetti, Ives, Copland and Barber.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Gordontrek said:


> Has to be Gershwin, with Bernstein a close second. John Adams comes in next.


I second this :tiphat:


----------



## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

hpowders said:


> Schuman, Persichetti, Ives, Copland and Barber.


You left our Mennin?


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I'll mention Hovhaness, Copland, Gershwin.


----------



## Robert Eckert (Mar 3, 2016)

There are many that I love. Good American composers are so fresh and vibrant!

I'm excited by the limited amount of writing done by Edgar Meyer. He is a virtuoso bass player, whose time is almost certainly divided between playing and writing.


----------



## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

This could change depending on my mood, but right now....

Crumb
Ives
Reich
Riley
Wuorinen

I don't know Partch or Nancarrow as well as I should. I like Feldman but have never warmed up to him as much as some....


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

arpeggio said:


> You left our Mennin?


Schuman was more consistant in his symphonic compositions than Mennin.
Mennin wrote one great one-the Seventh.
Schuman's symphonies 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are all pretty terrific.

I'll save Mennin for my underarms.


----------



## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

^^^^
But is that Mennin in your picture?


----------



## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

No particular order...


Samuel Barber
Elliott Carter
Joan Tower
Charles Wuorinen 
Joseph Schwantner
Stefan Wolpe
Steve Reich
John Corigliano
George Rochberg
Charles Ives


----------

