# Who are your 10 Favorite Composers - Post 1975



## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

I'm fairly obsessed nowadays with contemporary classical music and I have my favorites but I'm always trying to expand my horizons. I'd like to get a feel for which composers other people are passionate about. Also I'm working a slow night shift at the hospital tonight, so.....


*Who are your 10 Favorite Contemporary Composers (Post-1975)?*
*
I don't care if they are living or dead as long you could say that at least 50% of their oeuvre was written after 1975. (so no Messiaen, Copland, Bernstein, Lutoslawski, Shostakovich, etc.)*

At the moment, I have eight favorites. Here they are, in random order, with the disclaimer that there are plenty of composers I don't know:

1. Adams, John
2. Chin, Unsuk
3. Ades, Thomas
4. Maxwell Davies, Peter
5. Andreissen, Louis
6. Gubaidulina, Sophia
7. Rihm, Wolfgang
8. Van der Aa, Michel

Ones that I like a lot but I either don't know well enough, or aren't yet quite as appreciated as those mentioned above: Golijov, Dutilleaux, Ferneyhough, Denisov, Abrahamsen, Berio, George Crumb, Furrer, Grisey, Murail, Pärt, Rzewski, Xenakis, Gabriella Lena Frank, Gann, Birtwistle, Kurtag


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## UniversalTuringMachine (Jul 4, 2020)

Great post. I have admit post-75 is hard (no Boulez, Berio, Nono, Ligetti, Part etc) I can only give you 5.

1. Adams, John
2. Ades, Thomas
3. Bang on a Can
4. Hosakawa, Toshio
5. Lindberg, Magnus


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## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

In no particular order:

Pierre Boulez (actually wrote a substantial amount of music post-1975)
Morton Feldman (composed more individual pieces pre-1975, but was at his best post-1975)
Helmut Lachenmann
Gérard Grisey
Horațiu Rădulescu
Kaija Saariaho
Georg Friedrich Haas
Simon Steen-Andersen
Enno Poppe
Pierluigi Billone
Philippe Manoury


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## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

20centrfuge said:


> 1. Adams, John
> 2. Chin, Unsuk
> 3. Ades, Thomas
> 4. Maxwell Davies, Peter
> ...


I actually decided to start checking out Van der Aa today. Took a listen to _Spaces of Blank_ and thought it was decent but needed another hearing. Are there any works you recommend?


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

A few of mine, which will probably not be 10 but here it goes (in no particular order):

Schnittke
Shchedrin
Tabakova
Pärt
Vasks
Sculthorpe
Silvestrov
Aho


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

calvinpv said:


> I actually decided to start checking out Van der Aa today. Took a listen to _Spaces of Blank_ and thought it was decent but needed another hearing. Are there any works you recommend?


I don't know all his works but two I quite like are:

Up Close (cello concerto with electronics/performance art/silent film)
Hysteresis - (clarinet concerto with live electronics)

I also really want to see his opera - Sunken Garden, especially since the libretto is by my all-time favorite author David Mitchell, but alas only snippets are available on YouTube.

His stuff is very multi-media. He's almost creating a new genre, me thinks.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Aho, Kalevi
Chin, Unsuk
Corigliano, John
Davies, Peter Maxwell
Gubaidulina, Sofia
MacMillan, James
Rautavaara, Einojuhani 
Saariaho, Kaija 
Sallinen, Aulis
Vasks, Peteris


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

calvinpv said:


> In no particular order:
> 
> Pierre Boulez (actually wrote a substantial amount of music post-1975)
> Morton Feldman (composed more individual pieces pre-1975, but was at his best post-1975)
> ...


Lachenmann is one I really want to explore. The quartet we listened to in the weekly string quartet group was fantastic! What other works would YOU recommend of his?


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Consulting my own list of favorite composers, I notice my selection for this thread results in composers born in the 1930s or after.

Richard Rodney Bennett
Arne Nordheim
Luis de Pablo
Frederick van Rossum
Paavo Heininen
Aubert Lemeland
Eero Hameenniemi
Edith Canat de Chizy
Harrison Birtwistle
Bernard Rands


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

20centrfuge said:


> (so no Messiaen, Copland, Bernstein, Lutoslawski, Shostakovich, etc.)[/I][/B][/COLOR]


Glad you created this very specific thread so that TC's Beethoven-lovers (DaveM, KenOC, etc.) won't be able to shoe-horn Shostakovich into this contemporary composer topic.


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## StDior (May 28, 2015)

Boulez
Grisey
Gubaidulina
Lachenmann
Ligeti
Manoury
Radulescu
Schnittke
Sorensen
Xenakis


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

John Rutter
Samuel Barber
William Walton
Einojuhani Rautavaara
Robert Simpson
Jerry Goldsmith
Michael Daugherty
Christopher Gunning
John Adams
Ligeti


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## Ravn (Jan 6, 2020)

20centrfuge said:


> Lachenmann is one I really want to explore. The quartet we listened to in the weekly string quartet group was fantastic! What other works would YOU recommend of his?


I cannot speak for calvinpv, but I can recommend «Schwankungen am rand», especially the recording by Eötvös & Ensemble Modern. If I adopt the «Artrockmeter» this is for me a clear 6/6. I can also recommend «Schreiben for orchestra» and Mouvement.


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## Kilgore Trout (Feb 26, 2014)

I'm not considering composers like Xenakis, Schnittke or anyone who died before 2000 (well Xenakis died in 2001, but he had stopped writing music for several years at this point).

Brett Dean
Mauricio Kagel
Michael Hersch 
Peter Maxwell Davies
Lasse Thoresen 
Pierre Jodlowski
Unsuk Chin
Aleksander Nowak
Otto Matthäus Zykan
Heiner Goebbels


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

Also an area I’m still getting to know, but as of right now my favorites would probably go like this, in rough order:

Pierre Boulez
Henri Dutilleux
Tōru Takemitsu
James MacMillan
Kaija Saariaho
Henryk Gorecki
Sofia Gubaidulina
Per Norgard
Gyorgy Ligeti
Gyorgy Kurtag


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

My top 10 is something like this:

Philip Glass
Steve Reich
Julia Wolfe
James MacMillan
Arvo Pärt
Michael Nyman
Michael Gordon
Donnacha Dennehy
David Lang
Meredith Monk


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## aioriacont (Jul 23, 2018)

I don't know much, but i'll surely pay attention to these lists, since I'm very curious.
This thread is a very nice idea for people know living talented composers, thanks, my dear forum colleague


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## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

20centrfuge said:


> Lachenmann is one I really want to explore. The quartet we listened to in the weekly string quartet group was fantastic! What other works would YOU recommend of his?


The third quartet _Grido_ is my favorite work of his, even more than _Gran Torso_. But among the mature pieces, I enjoy _Mouvement_, _Schreiben_, _Concertini_, and _Ausklang_. And then there are the early more experimental pieces like _Pression_, _Kontrakadenz_, _Salut für Caudwell_, and _Guero_.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

I am not going to list 10, but I will just add to the thread as I think of them.

I also will try not to repeat any that have already been listed.

Joseph Schwantner
Joan Tower
Magnus Lindberg


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

I don't have ten favorites yet, but some contemporary classical composers I like are:

Chin, Unsuk
Glass, Phillip
Pärt, Arvo
Takemitsu, Toru
Williams, John
Yoshimatsu, Takashi


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Ligeti
Lutoslawski
Takemitsu
Gubaidulina
Schnittke
Penderecki
Norgard
Panufnik
Messiaen 
Carter


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

calvinpv said:


> Horațiu Rădulescu
> Georg Friedrich Haas


Have you seen all the string quartets that someone's put on youtube? Decent sound.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Here's a few more:


Andrew Norman- Unstuck for orchestra, and Switch are quite good
Jennifer Higdon - tend to be a bit too tonal for my tastes.
Charles Wourinen - I believe he composed enough post 1975 to meet the OP requirements. One of my favorite composers.
Per Norgard -


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Salvatore Sciarrino
Wolfgang Rihm
Luigi Nono
Trevor Wishart
Richard Barrett
Klaus Hüber
Laurence Crane
Pascal Dusapin
Michael Finnissy
Bernhard Lang
Franco Donatoni
Claus-Steffen Mankhopf
James Dillon
Brian Ferneyhough


Klaus Lang, Cassandra Miller, Scelsi, Antoine Berger, Radulescu, Dumitrescu, Roger Reynolds, James Tenney, Lachenmann, Holliger . . .


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## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

Some other good names that haven't been mentioned (though some of them I don't know too well):

Hèctor Parra, Alberto Posadas, Chaya Czernowin, Wolfgang Mitterer, Dai Fujikura, Beat Furrer, Georges Aperghis, Stefano Gervasoni, Mark Andre, Ralpaël Cendo, Rebecca Saunders, Tristan Murail, Natasha Barrett, Francis Dhomont, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Peter Ablinger, George Benjamin, Pascal Dusapin, Olga Neuwirth, Julian Anderson, Matthias Pintscher, Mathias Spahlinger


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

When I started listening to classical music in the early 1980s, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, William Schuman, Virgil Thomson, Gunther Schuller, Alan Hovhaness, Lou Harrison, John Cage, Turo Takemitsu, Toshiro Mayazumi, Olvier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, Elliot Carter, George Rochberg, Hendryk Gorecki, Maxwell Davies, Michael Tippett, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Alfred Schnittke, and even Joaquin Rodrigo, Dmitry Kabalevsky and Carl Orff, plus many others were still alive. 

Of that generation of wonderful composers, the only one I can think of who is still with us is Ned Rorem who was born in 1923 and is now 96. 


There remains many other innovative composers who are alive and well, and still actively composing. These would include Philip Glass and John Adams of the minimalist school, and Joseph Schwantner, Ellen Zwilich, and Adolphus Hailstork who compose in more traditional styles; but these musicians are all over the age of 70. There are a handful from the many of the younger generation such as Jennifer Hidgon, Michael Daugherty, Vivian Fung, Chen Yi, and Huang Ruo; that I've heard and found interesting.

There are others such as Unsik Chin who I can't comment upon because I really haven't given their music an even chance. 

And sometimes I hear a new piece of classical music on classical radio and I think it's really good, but then I can't remember the name of the composer. 

It's hard for me to determine the greatest of the new generation because in classical music, unlike popular music, there's this lag time where it may take a whole generation or more for a composer's music to find a secure place in the repitiore once the politics, corporate marketing of music, fads, novelties, and other variables can be evaluated more objectively. Some unknown modern day Beethoven could be composing great music right now while he (or she) is working a day job as high school music teacher because they can't find academic or corporate support for what they are composing at nights, weekends or during summer vacation; and we won't know that person's name after twenty years goes by and someone from academia or the corporate world recognizes their genius.


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## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

Mandryka said:


> Have you seen all the string quartets that someone's put on youtube? Decent sound.


For the Radulescu, I take it you mean the video below. I went on a Radulescu binge about half a year ago and heard 4-6 but got sidetracked before I could get to the first three. 4 and 5 are definitely masterpieces and deserve to be in the standard repertoire. Less sure about 6.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

John Luther Adams
Sergey Akhunov
Gavin Bryars
Michael Harrison
Eva-Maria Houben
Daniel Lentz
Michael Nyman
Terry Riley
Wolfgang von Schweinitz
Simeon ten Holt

It's difficult to limit to only 10 composers. I excluded some names that were already mentioned (Lachenmann, Nørgård, Sciarrino, etc.)


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

Been thinking about this a bit...

The more I listen to *Unsuk Chin*, the more I think: SHE is where it is at right now. The music is fresh and exciting and each work is a fantastic blend of ingenuity, beauty, and craftsmanship. Check out her Piano Etudes, Cello Concerto, and Akrostichon-Wortspiel.

*Thomas Ades*' music is well written but somehow kind-of creepy of which "Asyla" is the prime example but NOT the only example. *Michel Van Der Aa* I generally like, but he keeps recycling the same harmonic conventions in every piece, such that they are starting to get old. I'm not finding a lot of love for the spectralists (*Murail, Grisey, Radulescu*), in general, though I'll keep listening. *Wolfgang Rihm* is almost where it is at, for me, though I feel like his music could use a touch of simplification. It often feels like an overwhelming amount of mental work to digest a lot of his music. *John Adams* is the bomb.com though I'm afraid I really liked the stuff from the first half of his career more than what I have recently heard. *Gubaidulina* is good but heavy and somewhat depressing. I quite like *Ferneyhough*, in small doses, which I simply can't explain. *Xenakis, Kurtág *and *Birwistle* remain subjects that I am fairly excited to explore. *Lachenmann*...the jury is still out. I'm listening!

I'm basically looking for a touch of lyricism in my music, and a little beauty. I know contemporary composers aren't big on melody, but I think there are subtle ways to tickle the ear without revealing an overt melody.

I know everyone is different but I thought I'd share my little analysis, for anyone that cares at all.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

20centrfuge said:


> *Lachenmann*...the jury is still out. I'm listening!
> 
> .


Two recent discoveries have made me feel really positive about Lachenmann recently. One is Double, which appears to be an arrangement of Grido for string orchestra. And the other is Notturno.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

calvinpv said:


> The third quartet _Grido_ is my favorite work of his, even more than _Gran Torso_. But among the mature pieces, I enjoy _Mouvement_, _Schreiben_, _Concertini_, and _Ausklang_. And then there are the early more experimental pieces like _Pression_, _Kontrakadenz_, _Salut für Caudwell_, and _Guero_.


Good choices ... but don't forget Allegro Sostenuto.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

My favourite contemporary composer now is Ferneyhough. I openly despised him previously here on TC, but I think he is quite unique, having sampled quite a lot of contemporary music, and gotten to recognize a lot of the conventions. What I normally associate with Contemporary music is still self-indulgence, and extremity; it was always take it or leave it. Ferneyhough seems to go further than the others to me. Rihm would be my #2. His music was always clear-headed.


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

I can't say I have as much widespread post-1975 representation in my collection as other posters on this thread (I haven't even heard of some of the composers, let alone heard anything by them), but I would name Robert Simpson, Peter Maxwell Davies, Alfred Schnittke and Michael Daugherty as I do have - and enjoy - quite a lot of their work. I would include Thomas Adès but I'm only familiar with his earlier output.


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