# "Conventional" 20th Century Composers and Compositions?



## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

As someone who still considers himself allergic to most 20th century classical music, but who will happily listen to most Jazz and to 1980s pop music, I have struggled with what to do with most 20th century composers and compositions.

As examples, I consider some, but not all, of the compositions by Sibelius, Shostakovich and Gershwin to be "conventional" and ranging from thoroughly enjoyable to at worst inoffensive.

I find most Debussy and Ravel listenable, but not usually my cup of tea, and do enjoy some "impressionism" by Delius. I am generally not a huge fan of Stravinsky, although some works are listenable.

As to the other extreme, I would rather have a dentist perform several root canals on me than listen to Schoenberg and most of the Second Viennese School.

A recent discovery for me has been Myaskovsky. Most of his symphonies seem inoffensive enough, and may grow on me over time.

Works like Feldman's Rothko Chapel are far removed enough from what I consider classical music as to be inoffensive, although still not my cup of tea. I would label that work as "meditation music" rather than "classical music" whatever the latter title means.

Curiously, I am a huge fan of modern architecture and some, but not all, modern art, so my tastes are all over the place when it comes to the arts in general.

Sorry for the lengthy and rambling introduction. What are your favorite "conventional" 20th century composers and compositions, and what would you recommend to a friend who suffers from a similar allergy?


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Barber. Famous works (other than the Adagio) being his concertos for violin, cello and especially piano. I've also heard some recordings by Earl Wild of Paderweski that you may find enjoyable if you like late romantic piano work in the Rach sense. Actually, quite a few Americans I can think of here- Rorem, William Schumann, Lou Harrison (not particularly "conventional" but extremely beautiful), 

I also greatly enjoy Rzewski, though not all of his works are particularly "conventional" and it's more post-modern than conventional anyway.


but yeah. Listen to Samuel Barber. Everyone should listen to more Barber.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Some suggestions:

UK: Bax, Vaughan Williams, Moeran, Finzi, Arnold
US: Barber, Harris, Schuman
F: Roussel, Poulenc
USSR: Shebalin, Weinberg
SF: Sallinen, Rautavaara
DK: Nielsen
A: Schmidt
D: Reger, Schreker, Strauss (obviously)


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

fbjim said:


> .....William Schumann.....


I second that, but for searching purposes, the name is William Schuman.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Howard Hanson
Alan Hovhaness
Copland
Satie, not conventional but easy on the ears for the most part.
Aho
Rubbra
Barbara Higbie
Webern's early works. Slow Movement, Im Sommerwind


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## allaroundmusicenthusiast (Jun 3, 2020)

What about Fauré? Prokofiev? Zemlinsky? Reich? Dutilleux? Hindemith? Vasks? Pärt? Gorecki? Turina? Bloch? Bartók! Rorem? Honegger? Martinů? Martin? Mompou? Villa Lobos? Taneyev? Falla? Saygun? Tavener? Poulenc? Reimann? Weinberg? Could go on and on, plenty of "conventional" music there. 

Also, I'm both puzzled and amused by your use of "inoffensive" as a somewhat positive adjective :lol:


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Honegger
Zemlinsky
Korngold
probably lots more from the 1900-1930s

Kodaly
Lajtha
the milder pieces by Bartok, i.e. 3rd piano concerto, Dance suite, Divertimento, Concerto for orchestra, viola concerto
most Prokofiev, except for some "wilder" pieces, try Rome & Juliet, 5th symphony, all the concertos

at least some Britten (try the violin concerto and the senerade for tenor, horn, strings)
some Hindemith, try the "Mathis symphony" and the symphonic metamorphosis

edit: Szymanowski, by all means, esp. if you like violin concertos


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Art Rock said:


> Some suggestions:
> 
> UK: Bax, Vaughan Williams, Moeran, Finzi, Arnold
> US: Barber, Harris, Schuman
> ...


Add Rubbra Dutilleux and Hanson and Im there!


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Oh everyone should listen to Saygun too. The CPO cycle of him is great listening - he's another one like Barber where I love his concerti the most.


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## Aries (Nov 29, 2012)

Janis Ivanovs' 21 symphonies are great. There are some less conventional in the middle but the others are latvian national romantic to neoromantic. One of the best symphonist of the 20th century.

Joly Braga Santos' first 4 symphonies.

Some specific works:

Georgy Sviridov: Snowstorm Suite from 1974: 



Georgy Sviridov: Music for chamber orchestra from 1964: 




Ottmar Gerster: Symphony No. 2 (Thuringian) from 1952: 




Martin Scherber: 3 symphonies. Difficult to get, someone still needs to upload them. Here the first (1938): 




Others: Samuel Barber, Bernard Herrmann, Hans Pfitzner, Wilhelm Furtwängler (wrote some brucknerian symphonies), Otar Taktashvilli, Vladimir Vlasov, Peteris Vasks, Paul Ben Haim


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Tilson-Thomas has a DG recording of him and the BSO doing Ruggles, Piston and Schuman that's a great intro to 20th century Americans, by the way - check it out.









https://www.amazon.com/Ruggles-Sun-.../ref=tmm_acd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Nice set, however, I'd rate Sun-treader about/almost as thorny as an average 2nd viennese school piece...


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Douglas Lilburn's symphonies on Naxos are easily enjoyable. As are Hungarian composer's Laszlo Lajtha. And Frank Bridge's stuff also on Naxos. And Holst's The Planets.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

Vaughan Williams: Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus; Symphony no. 3; Symphony no. 5

Not necessarily "conventional", but you might want to try these three British fellows anyway:

George Butterworth: On the Banks of Green Willow; A Shropshire Lad---Rhapsody
Herbert Howells: Suite for Orchestra 'The B's'; Three Dances for Violin and Orchestra
Ernest Moeran: Violin Concerto; Cello Concerto; Symphony in G minor


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

Many great recommendations already, but I will say that for me, personally, I couldn't get into the more unconventional 20th century music until I found "gateway" composers that bridged the gap between the conventional and unconventional. Scriabin, Messiaen, and Bartok are three composers that really did that for me, and also Schnittke to an extent. These composers aren't as conventional as most of the names in this thread, but they didn't all completely abandon tonality either the way the 2nd Viennese School did, and I find them much more interesting if only because they created their own very unique and peculiar worlds of sound that mixed the old with the new in various ways. Going through Scriabin's piano sonatas is especially enlightening on this front, hearing how he evolved from the early Chopin-esque works to the later works in which he developed his own type of atonality is a fascinating journey.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Kreisler jr said:


> Nice set, however, I'd rate Sun-treader about/almost as thorny as an average 2nd viennese school piece...


yeah, the original LP release didn't have the Ruggles and that's probably not the best pairing except that Ruggles is American.

apparently Ruggles was the composer behind the famous story of Ives yelling "Use your ears like a man!" or something along those lines to someone heckling a performance.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

haziz said:


> As someone who still considers himself allergic to most 20th century classical music, but who will happily listen to most Jazz and to 1980s pop music, I have struggled with what to do with most 20th century composers and compositions.
> 
> As examples, I consider some, but not all, of the compositions by Sibelius, Shostakovich and Gershwin to be "conventional" and ranging from thoroughly enjoyable to at worst inoffensive.
> 
> ...


I find "conventional" anything to be of little interest to me. I find the unconventional, the iconoclastic, the experimental, and the adventurous far more interesting.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

also while the other two movements are a bit thorny, this is such an astonishingly beautiful movement in the middle of the Barber PC (especially after the ferocious - and ferociously difficult - first movement)


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

fbjim said:


> yeah, the original LP release didn't have the Ruggles and that's probably not the best pairing except that Ruggles is American.
> 
> apparently Ruggles was the composer behind the famous story of Ives yelling "Use your ears like a man!" or something along those lines to someone heckling a performance.


I have the newer Originals issue with the original LP of Ruggles + Ives ("3 places" which would be a fairly accessible piece, I'd guess) filled up with Piston and lacking the Schuman. It's the frequent situation of roughly one LP side getting "orphaned" by a CD issue.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Speaking of Ives, his first symphony is a beauty filled with lovely themes.


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## Nawdry (Dec 27, 2020)

haziz said:


> As someone who still considers himself allergic to most 20th century classical music, but who will happily listen to most Jazz and to 1980s pop music, I have struggled with what to do with most 20th century composers and compositions.
> ...
> Sorry for the lengthy and rambling introduction. What are your favorite "conventional" 20th century composers and compositions, and what would you recommend to a friend who suffers from a similar allergy?


Classical music made prodigious advances in the 20th century, particular in expanding the boundaries of tonal composition. For lack of a better designation, I'm starting to refer to this as "evolving tonality", but this does not adequately comprise the concept of the structural evolution that is also occurring in traditional forms such as symphony, sonata, concerto, etc.

Some composers that come to mind and have had a particularly transformative influence on me include: Stravinsky, Ravel, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Hindemith, Weill, Bartok, Honegger, Vaughn Williams, Walton, Rozsa, Barber, Piston, Rorem, Mennin, Diamond, Schuman, Harris, Casella, Respighi, Martinu, Ginastera,

You might also find it useful to explore some of the works of Vagn Holmboe, Grazyna Bacewicz, Samuel Zyman, and Darius Milhaud, and early works of Henry Cowell.

Best wishes on your quest ...


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Give Eduard Tubin some luv


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

starthrower said:


> Speaking of Ives, his first symphony is a beauty filled with lovely themes.


It's also basically a 19th century piece, despite being finished in 1901. It sounds more like Dvorak than Ives.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

It was a student piece, basically. He wrote it to assignment, which is why it doesn't sound particularly Ives, though it's very lovely.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Attack of the band junkie.*

Come of band junkies. We have to make some suggestions.

Norman Dello Joio composed several inoffensive (?) band works. The most famous is the _Variants on a Mideival Tune_.

The following composers have composed many band works:
Percy Granger
Gustav Holst
Phillip Spark
Clifton Williams
Morton Gould
Mark Camphouse
Donald Grantham
Frank Ticheli
Vincent Persichetti
David Maslanka

I have provided examples of many of these composers in other threads.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Most of the Scandinavian "Post-Romantic" composers are listenable. Like Grieg, Larsson, Atterberg, Alfven, Langgaard...just to name a few. Also approachable are the non-opera Italians Casella, Pizzetti, Respighi, and Rota.



Art Rock said:


> I second that, but for searching purposes, the name is William Schuman.


That confusion is quite common.


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## chipia (Apr 22, 2021)

*Oleg Eiges* (1905- 1992) can be at times dissonant, but also very diatonic e.g. at 2:50






*Nikolai Kapustin* (1937 - 2020) jazz-influenced!:






*Carl Vine* (1954 - ) combines Atonal with more traditional passages, e.g. at 1:10


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Did anyone mention Richard Danielpour?


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

I think Jennifer Higdon should be another one to check out.

I think James McMillan may also fit.


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