The GMG Top 100 of the 20th Century

[Pierre]

Rule change - great! I can get Ravel and Debussy in now:

Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole
J Harvey: Come Holy Ghost
Debussy: Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp - chamber
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1
Knussen: Flourish with Fireworks
Holst: Ode to Death
Jolivet: Epithalame
Vaughan Williams: The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains
C Lambert: Rio Grande
Stravinsky The Soldier's Tale

[snyprrr]

not that I am trying to game the outcome at all...


Carter - Concerto for Orchestra
Carter - SQ 3
Carter - Piano Concerto
Carter - Night Fantasies
Carter - 90+
Carter - SQ 1
Carter - SQ  2
Carter - SQ 4
Carter - SQ 5
Carter - Symphony of Three Orchestras
Carter - Variations for Orchestra
Carter - Symphonia
Carter - Violin Concerto
Carter - Penthode
Carter - Oboe Concerto
Carter - Luimen
Carter - Changes
Carter - Duo
Carter - Three Occasions for Orchestra
Carter - Concerto for Clarinet

I had wanted to start a 'What's Your Favorite Carter Concerto?' Thread.

I love the Oboe, and feel equally the Clarinet, but didn't feel the same about the Violin.

[Mirror Image]

Rule change - great! I can get Ravel and Debussy in now:

Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole
Debussy: Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp - chamber

Both of these are lovely choices, Pierre. Ravel and Debussy are two of my absolute favorite composers.

C Lambert: Rio Grande

Ah, yes, Constant Lambert. Interesting choice. I've heard many of his works, but I have not heard Rio Grande. This work contains a choir right? I need to check it out at some point as it's been lauded, or so I've read, by many critics as his masterpiece.

[some guy]

Hmmmm...nothing later than about 1970. Some Guy is going to be shaking his head

[By the way, Mirror, your suggestion to Karl about Naxos was just about the most graceful and elegant dismount I have ever seen. Great job!!]

[starrynight]

There are too many good pieces really, and consensus lists only put up the most famous things anyway.  I never like ranking stuff because how do you decide if one piece is one place better than another piece anyway and does it matter?

[Pierre]

Both of these are lovely choices, Pierre. Ravel and Debussy are two of my absolute favorite composers.

Ah, yes, Constant Lambert. Interesting choice. I've heard many of his works, but I have not heard Rio Grande. This work contains a choir right? I need to check it out at some point as it's been lauded, or so I've read, by many critics as his masterpiece.

Agreed.

Rio Grande - yes, it has choir, and a lively piano solo. Do try David Lloyd-Jones's recording (with Jack Gibbons) on Hyperion: it's a lovely and haunting performance IMHO.

[Mirror Image]

Agreed.

Rio Grande - yes, it has choir, and a lively piano solo. Do try David Lloyd-Jones's recording (with Jack Gibbons) on Hyperion: it's a lovely and haunting performance IMHO.

Yes, that Lloyd-Jones is the one I'm looking at. I already own the other two recordings he made of Lambert.

[madaboutmahler]

Thank you for all your responses - keep them coming! I better start thinking about mine as well soon....

Really hard to list just twenty. I've made it easier on myself by restricting my list to one work per composer (otherwise my top 11 would be Mahler 1-10 plus Das Lied  )

hmmm... I think you should have voted for all Mahler, Sarge! 

[Karl Henning]

hmmm... I think you should have voted for all Mahler, Sarge! 

That was unexpected . . . .

[madaboutmahler]

That was unexpected . . . .

Still waiting for your votes, Karl! You can include your own works if you want!

[bhodges]

I tried to think of a variety of genres - orchestral, opera, chamber music, solo works - just to mix things up a bit.

Britten: Peter Grimes (1944)
Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire (1912)
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (1912-1913)
Grisey: Les espaces acoustiques (1974-1986)
Berg: Wozzeck (1922)
Lachenmann: Gran Torso (1971)
Riley: In C (1964)
Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin (1918-1924)
Ives: New England Holidays (1919)
Debussy: Préludes, Books 1 and 2 (1909-13)
Janáček: Káťa Kabanová (1919-21)
Ligeti: Atmosphères (1960)
Mahler: Symphony No. 6 (1903-04)
Martinů: Double Concerto (1928)
R. Strauss: Four Last Songs (1948)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 (1935-36)
Sibelius: Symphony No. 7 (1924)
Varèse: Amériques (1918-21, 1927)
Carter: String Quartet No. 5 (1995)
Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947)

[Karl Henning]

Still waiting for your votes, Karl! You can include your own works if you want!

Well, most of the music of mine which I think the best is actually 21^st-c. music.  The music of mine which qualifies for consideration (chronologically), while I am glad that I wrote it, I could not (with any sense of fair proportion) propose as breaking into the Top 100 of the century.

Thanks, though!

[Bulldog]

Well, most of the music of mine which I think the best is actually 21^st-c. music.  The music of mine which qualifies for consideration (chronologically), while I am glad that I wrote it, I could not (with any sense of fair proportion) propose as breaking into the Top 100 of the century.

Thanks, though!

That's good that you won't put any of your own music on the list.  If you did, you would be the Donald Trump of the board.

[Karl Henning]

That's good that you won't put any of your own music on the list.  If you did, you would be the Donald Trump of the board.

No, but I'd be fired . . . .

[PaulSC]

Harrison Birtwistle - The Mask of Orpheus
Harrison Birtwistle - Pulse Shadows
Elliott Carter - Night Fantasies
Elliott Carter - SQ 5
Elliott Carter - Duo
Elliott Carter - Concerto for Clarinet
Morton Feldman - Crippled Symmetry
Morton Feldman - Three Voices
Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
Steve Reich - Drumming
Milton Babbitt - Philomel
Witold Lutoslawski - Livre Pour Orchestre
Stefan Wolpe - String Quartet
Pierre Boulez - Pli Selon Pli
Mario Davidovsky - Synchronisms No. 6
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gruppen
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gesang der Junglinge
Iannis Xenakis - Pithoprakta
Brian Ferneyhough - Études Transcendentales
Brian Ferneyhough -  Third String Quartet

[bhodges]

Harrison Birtwistle - The Mask of Orpheus
Harrison Birtwistle - Pulse Shadows
Elliott Carter - Night Fantasies
Elliott Carter - SQ 5
Elliott Carter - Duo
Elliott Carter - Concerto for Clarinet
Morton Feldman - Crippled Symmetry
Morton Feldman - Three Voices
Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
Steve Reich - Drumming
Milton Babbitt - Philomel
Witold Lutoslawski - Livre Pour Orchestre
Stefan Wolpe - String Quartet
Pierre Boulez - Pli Selon Pli
Mario Davidovsky - Synchronisms No. 6
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gruppen
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gesang der Junglinge
Iannis Xenakis - Pithoprakta
Brian Ferneyhough - Études Transcendentales
Brian Ferneyhough -  Third String Quartet

0:)

--Bruce

[madaboutmahler]

Thank you for the responses. Going to think about my list right now...

Well, most of the music of mine which I think the best is actually 21^st-c. music.  The music of mine which qualifies for consideration (chronologically), while I am glad that I wrote it, I could not (with any sense of fair proportion) propose as breaking into the Top 100 of the century.

Thanks, though!

I'm sure some of your music would enter the top 100 of the 21st century, Karl! And I'm sure many GMGers would agree with me!

[Tsaraslondon]

Having quickly scrolled through, I'm surprised not to see a single vote for any Puccini Tosca  was first performed in 1900 and was followed by such others as Madama Butterfly, la Fanciulla Del West and Turandot. Neither Berg's Wozzeckor Lulu get a mention either. Did I just miss them?

[mc ukrneal]

Having quickly scrolled through, I'm surprised not to see a single vote for any Puccini Tosca  was first performed in 1900 and was followed by such others as Madama Butterfly, la Fanciulla Del West and Turandot. Neither Berg's Wozzeckor Lulu get a mention either. Did I just miss them?

Tosca is 19th century (as 1900 falls in the last century, not the new one, technically, just as 2000 falls in the 20th century). And not everyone likes opera here, so it can be a struggle to get them on a 'popularity contest' list. That's ok, we'll know!

[Karl Henning]

As ever with this sort of question . . . how to keep it to 20?

Stravinsky, Symphonies of wind instruments
Hindemith, Das Marienleben
Sibelius, Sixth Symphony
Shostakovich, Ledi Makbet Mtsenkovo Uyezda
Schoenberg, Serenade, Op.24
Debussy, Préludes, Book I
Satie, Socrate
Boulez, Le marteau sans maître
Prokofiev, Violin Sonata in f minor, Op.80
Nielsen, Clarinet Concerto (Oh, what a give away)
Feldman, Triadic Memories
Hartmann, Concerto funèbre
Rakhmaninov, All-Night Vigil, Op.37
Schnittke, Concerto for Choir
Bartók, Táncszvit
Martinů, Julietta
Ives, Concord Sonata
Carter, Double Concerto
Wuorinen, String Sextet
Monk, Ugly Beauty