# Who are the most consistent composers post-1950?



## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

My experience with classical music made post-1950 has been great. I try to listen to most of what I see being recommended, and I even let the Youtube algorithm take me through a wild ride sometimes. However, I have yet to dive into the _oeuvre_ of a contemporary composer in the same way that I do with composers whose main body of work came before 1950.

I mean, it's normal for classical fans to go through the complete cycle of symphonies or chamber music of any oldschool composer, or even listen to _everything_ said composer ever did. Yet, I don't think this happen as often with contemporary composers... but I'd like to try.

So who are the composers of the last 70 years who you can reliably listen to most their work and be positively impressed?


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## VoiceFromTheEther (Aug 6, 2021)

Dmitri Shostakovich, Bernard Herrmann


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Sofia Gubaidulina, Toru Takemitsu, Aulis Sallinen.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Christopher Rousse, John McCabe, David Matthews, Henri Dutilleux, Unsuk Chin, Takemitsu, John Corigliano, Henze, Lutoslawski, John Adams, Harrison Birtwistle - 
all are excellent imv and have a decent body of works to trawl through. I haven't even scratched the surface here though, there are so many more great composers alive and kicking so keep watching as the suggestions will pile in. 
It's great that you want to open your ears to new adventures...


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

*Lutoslawski. Schnittke*.
'nough said ... perhaps.

But a lot composers went through different phases & produced very varied works, like Lutoslawski BTW. *Ligeti *also tends to be very good, and with the same very multifacetted row of works. *Nørgård*, who is very versatile and stylistically one of the most extremely varied ever, so things will also vary in the attractiveness for many listeners, including me ... yet, his cycle of 8 symphonies, as diverse and at times difficult as they are, from the _Tapiola_-like 1st, to the monumental 3rd, the volcanic 5th and the more rhapsodic later ones, is worth getting into.

Others then have a rather uniform style, at times perhaps even too uniform - like the later *Penderecki, Denisov, Hovhaness, or Keuris*, all often quite easly recognizable. *Holmboe*'s pretty accessible cycle of 13 symphonies + '_Sinfonia in Memoriam_' is great, IMO, including the charming, rustic no.1 for chamber orchestra, and some with a more dramatic content, such as nos. 8-10, or the rather rhapsodic, but beautiful nos.11-13. There is a ton of other music; opera, piano and organ music were some of the only genres he avoided or didn't excel much into.

Some composers where it's mainly selected works that have impressed me so far are for example *Gubaidulina, Penderecki, Messiaen, Pettersson, Takemitsu, Silvestrov, Sallinen, Kokkonen, Rochberg, Perle, Carter, Tavener, Murail, Denisov, Gorecki, Crumb, Keuris*, etc.


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## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

Pierre Boulez
Helmut Lachenmann
Gérard Grisey

All three have a (relatively) small body of works, but of very high quality.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Wolfgang Rihm is remarkably consistent for his 500+ catalogue.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

One name came to mind immediately: *Elliott Carter*.

Also:

*Arvo Pärt* - especially his choral works
*John Cage* - his late "number pieces" I consider some of his best and most consistently satisfying
*Pascal Dusapin* - I am a big fan of his string quartets, but his entire output is worthwhile
*Salvatore Sciarrino* 
*Haas, G.F.*
*Hosakawa, Toshio*
*Osvaldo Golijov* - quirky, but among my favorites
*Meyer, K.* - his cycle of 15 string quartets are on a par with Shostakovich, IMO.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Jonathan Harvey
Saariaho
Bacewicz
Ernst Toch symphonies
Xenakis


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## JohnP (May 27, 2014)

Lowell Liebermann fits the description.


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

mikeh375 said:


> It's great that you want to open your ears to new adventures...


Oh, it's always fun! There's an inimitable thrill in finding new music that you truly like.

As great as it is to listen to music that you already love (and I do that a lot), sometimes I miss that first heroin shot of listening to those works for the first and second time, which won't happen again with them... if this analogy makes any sense. So the only way to feel that again is to always keep searching for more music.

And it's great how this journey also gives me more experience and a wider menu of music to listen to.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Nearly everything Crumb did is worth listening to. I'm not a huge Elliot Carter fan but his late works are regarded as both some of his more accessible and excellent, IIRC.


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## allaroundmusicenthusiast (Jun 3, 2020)

I don't think that Ligeti ever wrote a single piece of bad music 
Also not mentioned Weinberg, Feldman, Rautavaara. All very consistent


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

allaroundmusicenthusiast said:


> I don't think that Ligeti ever wrote a single piece of bad music


Probably why I bought three box sets of his music. I just started to listen to Weinberg but I'm not that crazy about his music. I find it to be a bit of a downer like much of Shostakovich. Kalevi Aho has consistently cranked out piece after piece in traditional forms like symphonies and concertos but I fail to find much of interest in his music.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Don't forget Magnus Lindberg, Peter Maxwell Davies, Edison Denisov (did anyone mention them?). I've listened to a lot of music by those guys (and I have good taste)


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## allaroundmusicenthusiast (Jun 3, 2020)

Maxwell Davies is a tough nut to crack for me, I don't understand his stylistic shift really. What can you recommend of his? I listened to some of his works, and the one I enjoyed the most was the 8 Songs for a Mad King, I just wish he had written more in that style, but I'm open to suggestions.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

I have to think *Elliott Carter* would be high on the list, since he composed right up to his death at the age of 102, and I can't think of any 'stinkers' in his output.

*Magnus Lingberg*, is also quite strong and consistent.

*Charles Wuorinen* is also very consistent, and has many pieces to explore.

*Joan Tower i*s also quite consistent in the orchestral and chamber realms.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Many composers go through phases during their lifetimes of output. A number of my faves hadn't attained their mature vernacular until particular turning-point years, so I am less interested in their early works from their young years.

So ... here are 5 composers whose entire post-WWII _oeuvres_ (and lives) intrigue me:

Humphrey Searle
Meyer Kupferman
Jean Prodromidès
Toru Takemitsu
Arne Nordheim

Regarding living composers, I've yet to be disenchanted by any music written by Frederik van Rossum (b. 1939)


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

If AbsolutelyBaching was here, he would have mentioned Ben


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

allaroundmusicenthusiast said:


> I don't think that Ligeti ever wrote a single piece of bad music


The same could be said of György Kurtág.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

allaroundmusicenthusiast said:


> Maxwell Davies is a tough nut to crack for me, I don't understand his stylistic shift really. What can you recommend of his? I listened to some of his works, and the one I enjoyed the most was the 8 Songs for a Mad King, I just wish he had written more in that style, but I'm open to suggestions.


Agree, it's not so easy to get into a lot of his music. The Strathclyde Basson Concerto and The Five Klee Pictures are some that I've found more easy to like. I look forward to gradually getting into the music, though.


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

Many more recommendations than I had anticipated, honestly. Awesome and scary at the same time.

You guys are too knowledgeable. I wonder how many lives you have lived.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Try Jennifer higdon's music...especially her concerti


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Olias said:


> Try Jennifer higdon's music...especially her concerti


Try smaller font sizes next time


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

allaroundmusicenthusiast said:


> Maxwell Davies is a tough nut to crack for me, I don't understand his stylistic shift really. What can you recommend of his? I listened to some of his works, and the one I enjoyed the most was the 8 Songs for a Mad King, I just wish he had written more in that style, but I'm open to suggestions.


_Miss Donnithorne's Maggot_ could be described as a sequel to _Eight Songs_ as the subject matter is similar, as are the instrumental forces used. It is based on a real-life Australian woman, Eliza Donnithorne, who experienced a total meltdown after being jilted by her fiancé in 1856 - it has been suggested that Charles Dickens based his Miss Haversham character on her for _Great Expectations_. It was probably no coincidence that the provider of the texts to this and _Eight Songs_, Australian novelist-poet Randolph Stow, had his own fair share of issues both mental and physical throughout his life.

Another recommended vocal work is _Black Pentecost_ - it is symphonic in structure with the lyrical emphasis on environmental negligence and how big business at its most cynical can impact disastrously on a remote island and its unwitting community (PMD was big on green issues in his adopted homeland of Orkney).


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

allaroundmusicenthusiast said:


> Maxwell Davies is a tough nut to crack for me, I don't understand his stylistic shift really. What can you recommend of his? I listened to some of his works, and the one I enjoyed the most was the 8 Songs for a Mad King, I just wish he had written more in that style, but I'm open to suggestions.


I especially like his last symphony, no. 10, but was initiated with a grand piece for orchestra and voices that I don't remember the name of (live in San Francisco 1994/5) and symphony no. 3 that I bought right after. Worldes Blis is another piece for orchestra that I listened a lot to. All the symphonies are on youtube. An Orkney Wedding With Sunrise is mandatory!
...Now I wrote a mail to SF symphony asking about the piece I forgot the name of...


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

hammeredklavier said:


> Try smaller font sizes next time


This is what happens when I didn't have my readers with me.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

There are very few composers of any period who produced only a couple of pieces that I like. Although even the greatest produced some duds they also produced a great many masterpieces. One recent composer who I often find rather dull but do like a few pieces by is Thomas Ades. For the rest - recent composers who I like a lot - I generally find I like a lot of their music. And there are also, of course, plenty of recent composers who I just don't like very much.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

A few that stand out to me: György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez, Giacinto Scelsi, György Kurtág, Pēteris Vasks, Elliott Carter and Alfred Schnittke.


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## MrMeatScience (Feb 15, 2015)

I agree with most of the names that have been put forward so far. Boulez, Berio, Ligeti, Schnittke, Ustvolskaya, Rihm, Takemitsu, and Kurtag jump out at me.


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

Another vote for Jennifer Higdon. I am largely allergic to most 20th and 21st century music, but find her music to be at worst listenable and at best quite enjoyable. I know this sounds like faint praise, but trust me this is coming from a listener who was dragged kicking and screaming into listening to a contemporary composer! Much to my surprise I enjoyed it!


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

I should start with Jennifer Higdon since her recommendation was written with the biggest font size!


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Edison Vasilievich Denisov


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

Seriously now, the most listed names up till now are Boulez, Schnittke, Ligeti, Takemitsu, Carter, Lutoslawski and Adams. Of those, I'm not a fan of Boulez and Carter, and Takemitsu never did much to me, so I'll invest on the others.

Some of the other names mentioned only once or twice I never listened to, so maybe I'll try their most known piece to see if I immediately fall in love with one of them, but I'll prioritize the people named above. Of the ones I already know, I particularly like Rautavaara, Penderecki and Luciano Berio. Norgard too, but he is too evil and I'm afraid of commiting murder after long sessions.

I was surprised to see Silvestrov mentioned once. I listened to his 5th symphony some days ago and loved it, but when I searched up his name on Google, he seemed to be a lesser known composer, so I was left wondering if he was not a one-hit wonder.


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## Livly_Station (Jan 8, 2014)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> Edison Vasilievich Denisov


Your great marketing skills made me start listening to his Sun of Incas. I like it.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

lucashomem said:


> I should start with Jennifer Higdon since her recommendation was written with the biggest font size!


Apparently size does matter.


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

Olias said:


> Apparently size does matter.


Conversely, if the amount of posts from your good self over the course of nearly 11 years is anything to go by, less is more...


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> I especially like his last symphony, no. 10, but was initiated with a grand piece for orchestra and voices that I don't remember the name of (live in San Francisco 1994/5) and symphony no. 3 that I bought right after. Worldes Blis is another piece for orchestra that I listened a lot to. All the symphonies are on youtube. An Orkney Wedding With Sunrise is mandatory!
> ...Now I wrote a mail to SF symphony asking about the piece I forgot the name of...


Now I know! Got an e-mail from Kristin in SF. The concert I attended in October 94 had both Concert Suite from Act I of Caroline Mathilde and An Orkney Wedding With Sunrise. I kind of consider them lightweight modern compositions. It was a blast from the past to find out! So I didn't hear any voices just that time...


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