"Academic" Composers

[springrite]

Which country has the most academic composers?

If we do not take the word "academic" in a negative way, who are your favorite "academic" composers?

I will give my $0.02 a bit later.

[CRCulver]

At least in my wide reading, the term "academic composer" tends to be used for certain American figures. In the United States, the traditional way that avant-garde composers could make a living was by taking teaching positions. Furthermore, university ensembles were one of the few places they could get their works performed, as subscriber audience-supported city orchestras were unwilling to programme avant-garde music, and there aren't any radio orchestras that can at least broadcast music incapable of "drawing a crowd".

In Europe, by contrast, there is a great deal of state arts funding that allows composers to concentrate solely on composition, and public orchestras aren't not as dependent on the whims of a subscriber audience, so they can programme more adventurous works. Sure, many composers do teach, but contemporary classical music in Europe is not as bound up with the university system as in the US.

[Daverz]

Which country has the most academic composers?

If we do not take the word "academic" in a negative way, who are your favorite "academic" composers?

Probably Piston and Sessions.

[snyprrr]

Probably Piston and Sessions.

Martino, Wurorinen, Babbitt, Imbrie,...

[flyffdzd]

Who knows?

[ElliotViola]

For me probably Ferneyhough. Upon listening to his quartets over and over again for an hour (as a dare from a friend who doesn't like avant-garde music at all...), they started to grow on me in a really weird way.

[dyn]

the stanford duo of Applebaum & Ferneyhough is up there, although i have a definite soft spot for Roger Reynolds

[springrite]

It does seem that the USA produces more academic composers. For me, Harbison's name somehow comes first and foremost.

Many people seem to forget that the good ole USSR produced probably the most academic composers. The State supported the art. All these composers, professors, are on State payroll, with a dasha to boot. One of the things that these composers needed to do was to produce a certain quota of works, such as X numbers of large scale works (symphonies and concertos) and smaller scale works every 5 years. All these works are guaranteed performances, and not just on campus. That is why Soviet composers tend to have a large number of symphonies to their credit. Much of these works are just "homework" that they had to produce. I thought it was so laughable when after the fall of the Iron Curtain, so many music enthusiasts (including some here) give so much praise to some of these works that even the composer may be ashamed of.

[springrite]

among the composers often labeled as academic, one of my favorite is George Perle. Is Crumb academic. If so, he is also a favorite.