10 favourite American composers

[Mirror Image]

Albert wrote two splendid symphonies. I don't know much else by him. Rorem deserves a mention as does Rochberg.

I've heard Albert's RiverRun Symphony, but I haven't heard his second. I thought he didn't finish his second?

[ahinton]

Carter
Sessions
Carter
Gershwin
Sessions
Rorem
Carter
Griffes
Sessions
Carter

Ahem...

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Albert wrote two splendid symphonies. I don't know much else by him. Rorem deserves a mention as does Rochberg.

Ned Rorem, absolutely. Probably a "Probably" on my list.

[Mirror Image]

While I agree to some extent, I think he did find a way to escape being pigeon-holed for just one thing. There is a variety in his work, that being said I'm not a fan of all his work. Same with Glass, but I do appreciate what they pioneered. Though personally I find Steve Reich more interesting. 

But note, none of them where on my list 

Of the American Minimalists, only Steve Reich holds any interest for me and even his music I find extremely limiting and not varied enough.

[Monsieur Croche]

I've heard Albert's RiverRun Symphony, but I haven't heard his second. I thought he didn't finish his second?

"Symphony No. 2 (1992) - 30 minutes (orchestration completed by Sebastian Currier)[17]" ~ Wiki

[Monsieur Croche]

Bartók
Schoenberg
Stravinsky
Hindemith
Krenek
Weill
Martinů
Milhaud
Varèse
Ferneyhough

<.<

^
Add Ernst Bloch and a host of others, and...
my sentiment, exactly ;-)

[vandermolen]

I've heard Albert's RiverRun Symphony, but I haven't heard his second. I thought he didn't finish his second?

I also like the 'River Run' symphony and have two recordings of it.

[nathanb]

I guess something like:

1. John Cage
2. Morton Feldman
3. Elliott Carter
4. Alvin Lucier
5. Harry Partch
6. Milton Babbitt
7. Jason Eckardt
8. Pauline Oliveros
9. George Crumb
10. John Zorn
11. Earle Brown
12. Charles Wuorinen
13. Aaron Cassidy
14. Elliott Sharp
15. Robert Ashley
16. Gloria Coates
17. Michael Hersch
18. Gordon Mumma
19. Christian Wolff
20. Conlon Nancarrow

Sorry. 10 was too hard.

No Roger Reynolds. Alvin Curran wouldn't hurt either. Quoted poster is a degenerate hack.

[Cato]

Do film composers count too?

Cause I'd also add:

Goldsmith
Herrmann
Badalamenti

Yes!  I mentioned Bernard Herrmann earlier!

A very honorable mention!!! 

I am surprised nobody has yet included...Bernard Herrmann!

But adding Jerry Goldsmith and Angelo Badalamenti would seem fair!  "Film composer" (but also a composer of many other "classical works") Jerome Moross made my list.

My list from earlier:

Alphabetically...(and more than 10)

George Antheil

Samuel Barber

Easley Blackwood

Elliott Carter

Aaron Copland

George Crumb

Louis Gottschalk

Lou Harrison

Karl Henning

Bernard Herrmann

Charles Ives

Ben Johnston

Jerome Moross

Harry Partch

George Rochberg

Carl Ruggles

John Phillips Sousa

Charles Wuorinen

[Brian]

Bernard Herrmann is an inspired choice!

Stephen Albert's cello concerto is the pick for me, over his symphonies.

I still think my original list is fine and needs no updating, except perhaps to add Bernard Herrmann:

alpha:
Barber
Bernstein
Ellington
Gershwin
Mingus
Monk

[some guy]

George Brecht
LaMonte Young
Tony Conrad
Jon Christopher Nelson
Pauline Oliveros
Alice Shields
Pril Smiley
Maryanne Amacher
Bob Ostertag
Christian Marclay

I agree. Ten is too limiting.

And these are just ten of the ones who haven't been mentioned so far. There are many more. Just think of Pamela Z and Elliott Sharp and Dan Senn and David Means (who wrote an opera based on a novel by a member of GMG) and Gordon Mumma and Robert Ashley and Alison Knowles. Or Dick Higgins. Had you forgotten about Dick Higgins? Well, think about Dick Higgins, then. And after you are done, change your mind repeatedly in a lyrical manner about Roman Catholicism.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Very little mention of Amy Beach, I notice. A wonderful composer as I was just reminded by the Flute Quintet in concert.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Very little mention of Amy Beach, I notice. A wonderful composer as I was just reminded by the Flute Quintet in concert.

I like the music I've heard by her, but for me (at least) there are so many more composers who have written music I find more exciting and inspiring. Others I find are more unique and distinctive in their approach to composition than her.....perhaps two composers i will mention who weren't quite so old but whose lives overlapped with hers: Charles Ives and Ruth Crawford Seeger.

[Mirror Image]

I like the music I've heard by her, but for me (at least) there are so many more composers who have written music I find more exciting and inspiring. Others I find are more unique and distinctive in their approach to composition than her.....perhaps two composers i will mention who weren't quite so old but whose lives overlapped with hers: Charles Ives and Ruth Crawfors-Seeger.

To the bolded text: a resounding YES!

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

To the bolded text: a resounding YES!

The bolder text also pointed out my typo

Also, I do like Amy Beach quite a lot. Her Gaelic symphony is awesome and I love her chamber and piano music. However, I feel that her music could basically be substituted for the music of any other late-Romantic European, whereas Ives and Seeger (from my understanding of their music) are truly more of a product of American individuality than Beach ever was.

[Crudblud]

Zappa too, I guess; for Mo's and Herb's Vacation and The Yellow Shark program. 200 Motels' orchestral bits are also great. But overall, I still prefer him as a rock musician

I think seeing Zappa in terms of rock music vs. classical music is too simplistic, they're both at work simultaneously in a lot of his output. Not to mention, Zappa frequently arranged his music for various different ensembles, and the character is different in each one. Mo's Vacation itself is a fine example of this, compare the Nagano/LSO recording with the studio version from 1982, or the (so far as I can tell) original 1979 arrangement. Yellow Shark is fairly evenly split between arrangements of band stuff and commissioned compositions for specific ensembles (I think Kronos and the EAR Unit, but might be mistaken). And of course the music in 200 Motels had a pretty long gestation in Mothers live shows throughout the latter half of the '60s and the early '70s. Point is they're very strongly interwoven throughout his body of work and it doesn't make much sense to me to try and separate them.

[San Antone]

In the order I thought of them:

George Gershwin
Charles Ives
Leonard Bernstein
Aaron Copland
Duke Ellington
Stephen Foster
Stephen Sondheim
Scott Joplin
Thelonious Monk
Charles Mingus

These ten composers exhibit what I think of as "the American sound". 

I could have included names like Roger Sessions, Elliott Carter, Morton Feldman or Charles Wuorinen but they, to me, are international in style and other than the accident of birth do not exemplify "the American sound".  Hence the inclusion of uniquely American styles, e.g. Jazz, songs and Ragtime.  John Cage and Harry Partch are uniquely American in that they display individualism and a rugged pioneering spirit that are quintessentially American - but their music does not move me emotionally as much as intellectually, and when I rate my favorites it comes down to my heart over my brain.

I thought of including Louis Armstrong (he copyrighted over 80 songs, but many of his solos were composed), Robert Johnson, W.C. Handy, Charlie Parker, and Jelly Roll Morton; and would have if not restricted to just ten names.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

This breathed some life into the thread; nice.

I'll try my hands at a list. I don't mind including immigrants (i.e. Lukas Foss or Walter Arlen) precisely because that is so very American.
Only those that I decidedly don't consider American (an entirely subjective and personal decision: i.e. Korngold, Krenek...) are not considered.

Definitely:

Diamond
Ives
Bloch (He doesn't quite feel like an American composer to me, but heck... if I include Grainger further down...    )

Probably:

John Adams
George Antheil
George Rochberg
Dominick Argento
Frederic "Commie" Rzewski
Percy Grainger (if you count him, as he would have himself, an American)

Maybe:

Kenneth Fuchs
John Corigliano
Benjamin C.S. Boyle
Richard Danielpour
Elliot Carter
Stephen Albert
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Peter Lieberson
Morten Lauridsen

Must get to know better:

Sessions, Piston, Foss, Flagello, Gould, Harris, Steven Gerber, Arthur Foote, Crumb, Jaffe, Lowell Lieberman, Schuman, Thomson (V.), Wuorinen

Perhaps not:
Alan Hovhaness, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Gloria Coates, Bright Sheng, Joan Tower, Zwillich

Decidedly not:

Bernstein, Hoiby, Ferneyhough, Sousa,

hmmm... I think my list stands... but I'm disappointed not to have made more of my plan to acquaint myself more in-depth with a series of fine composers whom I know better than their work.

I should come up with some "Better Get To Know Your Composers" segment/regiment.

[San Antone]

What has the US contributed to the history of music that is uniquely American and of lasting quality?

Jazz
Blues
Gospel
Musical Theater
Vernacular musics Folk, Bluegrass, and related styles

The "classical" music that is written by Americans that does not draw inspiration from these styles, imo, is not uniquely American.  Specifically, the composers whose careers have primarily been in academe I place no importance on, vis a vis, their importance as American Composers. 

[some guy]

What is "uniquely American"?

Why do you discount composers who work in universities to pay their bills?

How long exactly must a thing last to be of "lasting quality"? (It's always struck me as odd that recent music gets slammed for not having lasted a long time. That makes about as much sense as slamming Mendelssohn for not writing electroacoustic music.

And, after all, we only have so much time. I'm not waiting around for another century or two to see if I can enjoy Jon Nelson or Maryanne Amacher or Alice Shields. I can enjoy them right now. You know, while I'm alive.)