Has it all been done?

[snyprrr]

That's post-Beethoven, though. Before that (e.g., Bach), you don't get that kind of thinking so much. Composers did a job of work and that was that. Sorta like nowadays, at least among the folks I know.

They're pretty famous and all, but they're not really going for "great." They're going for "well-crafted" or "new and intriguing" or for something that will make their audiences think about sound in new ways.

Just the fact that there are new ways of thinking about what composing is--not just how to do it, but what the thing is itself--means there will be new things done by composers.

Why do I get the creepy 'Join Us 'Join Us' feeling from 'They Live!' when I hear that? I remember when 'Composing' was anything I could come up with (musically) to get in someone's pants! 'Bread or Head' ,... the two big 'Motives' of Composing.

[Karl Henning]

TMI

[starrynight]

The change came about because composers started to be recognised, whereas before they were anonymous toilers of the servant class. But things are getting back to the way they were

The end of the celebrity composer probably isn't a bad thing.