What's the definition of a "contemporary" Composer?

[Octo_Russ]

I've heard different definitions of what constitutes a contemporary Composer, so is it,

A - A Composer who is alive today
B - A Composer who's life overlaps your own
C - A Composer born in the last hundred years
D - Something else?

I've always taken it to mean the first definition, but now i'm wondering that the second definition might be more accurate, any thoughts?

[Bulldog]

I've heard different definitions of what constitutes a contemporary Composer, so is it,

A - A Composer who is alive today
B - A Composer who's life overlaps your own
C - A Composer born in the last hundred years
D - Something else?

I've always taken it to mean the first definition, but now i'm wondering that the second definition might be more accurate, any thoughts?

To me, simply being alive today isn't sufficient; the composer might not have composed one note for the last fifty years.  So I'd have to go with the idea that the composer is currently active in his/her profession.

[Brahmsian]

Weren't Bach, Palestrina, Perotin all contemporary composers at some point?  To me, it's a pointless definition.

[petrarch]

I find the accuracy of the term irrelevant, as it probably still is the most useful convention to navigate a music store and get directions to the section with composers from Schönberg and Varèse onwards.

[Brahmsian]

I find the accuracy of the term irrelevant, as it probably still is the most useful convention to navigate a music store and get directions to the section with composers from Schönberg and Varèse onwards.

Yes, but is Schönberg's music contemporary in 2011?

[petrarch]

Yes, but is Schönberg's music contemporary in 2011?

That is why I said I don't mind the inaccuracy of the term.

[Karl Henning]

Weren't Bach, Palestrina, Perotin all contemporary composers at some point?

There'a a neon statement in the new wing at the MFA: All art has been contemporary.

[Dax]

To me, it's a pointless definition.

(My emphasis)

Quite. Boulez is a contemporary composer, but Barraqué hasn't been so since 1973.

[Mn Dave]

Perhaps there are only comtemporary works.

[Todd]

So I'd have to go with the idea that the composer is currently active in his/her profession.

Agreed.

All art has been contemporary.

There's also the signoff line from Composer's Datebook: "Reminding you that all music was once new."