A few American composers I enjoy

[Uhor]

As always, feel free to share and recommend your favourites.

[Karl Henning]

I know Marti, she would be pleased.

[Symphonic Addict]

All these:

Amy Beach
Charles Ives
Aaron Copland
Elliott Carter
Samuel Barber
David Diamond
Morton Feldman
John Adams

[vandermolen]

Roy Harris

[Mountain Goat]

Roy Harris

+1 (though not so sure about the last couple of symphonies  ). Would also add William Schuman.

[foxandpeng]

Everyone will have their own must-haves amongst a host that form a sliding scale of importance. My essentials not mentioned so far, are:

George Antheil
Alan Hovhaness
Walter Piston
Howard Hanson

[relm1]

One challenge of a poll like this, how do we define "American" composer?  Would Ernest Bloch count?  If so, does that mean Stravinsky or Rachmaninoff count too?  What if someone wrote "Russian style" music but resides in America for half their life?

Anyway, my list in alphabetic order if I made up the rules:
John Adams
Samuel Barber
John Corigliano
Kenneth Fuchs
Howard Hanson
Pierre Jalbert
Aaron Jay Kernis
Kevin Puts
George Rochberg
Arnold Rosner
Christopher Rouse
John Williams

[Daverz]

One challenge of a poll like this, how do we define "American" composer?  Would Ernest Bloch count?  If so, does that mean Stravinsky or Rachmaninoff count too?  What if someone wrote "Russian style" music but resides in America for half their life?

Yes, yes and yes.

I'd also include in my list

Walter Piston
Roger Sessions
Leonardo Balada
Leonard Bernstein
Paul Creston
George Crumb
Irving Fine
Lukas Foss
Vittorio Giannini
Bernard Herrmann
Robert Helps
Karel Husa
Howard Hanson
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Paul Moravec
Conlon Nancarrow
George Rochberg
Arnold Rosner
Frederic Rzewski
William Schuman
Steven Stucky
Harold Shapero
Randall Thompson
Nicolas Flagello
Kenneth Fuchs
Jack Gallagher
Benjamin Lees
Philip Glass
Jonathan Leshnoff
Vincent Persichetti
Roberto Sierra
Ernst Toch
Henry Cowell

I think that's enough for now.   

[Mirror Image]

For this list, Ives, Barber, Copland, Carter and Diamond are my favorites. I've especially come around to Carter in the past year or so.

[T. D.]

Robert Moran...haven't thought about him for a long time...once owned an Argo CD of his music which I thought was pretty good, but figured he was a Brit! Don't know enough to rank him here.
Went for Ives, Cage, Diamond, Babbitt (there are a few pieces I enjoy and listen to regularly), Harrison and Feldman.

[springrite]

Feldman
Diamond
Carter
Harrison

[Uhor]

Robert Moran...haven't thought about him for a long time...once owned an Argo CD of his music which I thought was pretty good, but figured he was a Brit! Don't know enough to rank him here.
Went for Ives, Cage, Diamond, Babbitt (there are a few pieces I enjoy and listen to regularly), Harrison and Feldman.

I love Moran's Requiem: Chant du Cygne, it's a gem.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGAaacGYZDr2UvdGvBfrQ7QWuMaH_fOK4

[vandermolen]

+1 (though not so sure about the last couple of symphonies  ). Would also add William Schuman.

I agree with both of your points. The ones I like are Harris's 'Symphony 1933' 3rd Symphony, 5th Symphony, 6th Symphony 'Gettysburg', 7th Symphony and Schuman symphonies 3 and 6.

[vandermolen]

Everyone will have their own must-haves amongst a host that form a sliding scale of importance. My essentials not mentioned so far, are:

George Antheil
Alan Hovhaness
Walter Piston
Howard Hanson

I like all of those composers as well and should have mentioned Hanson myself.

[foxandpeng]

I like all of those composers as well and should have mentioned Hanson myself.

My appreciated and loved list of American composers is becoming fairly huge, but these (Antheil, Hovhaness, Piston and Hanson), plus Diamond and Barber mentioned earlier in the thread by others, are the non-negotiables. Take the rest away from my grasping hands, if you must, but not these. Others such as Michael Hersch and Elena Ruehr, are not so far behind, despite their smaller output.

I need to work on William Schuman's oeuvre. I enjoy him very much, but don't know him nearly as well as I ought. I suspect his importance to me will increase the more I listen. My to-do list is utterly unwieldy at the moment.

[Mountain Goat]

I agree with both of your points. The ones I like are Harris's 'Symphony 1933' 3rd Symphony, 5th Symphony, 6th Symphony 'Gettysburg', 7th Symphony and Schuman symphonies 3 and 6.

No. 6 is my favourite Schuman symphony, followed by 3 and 5. Favourite Harris symphonies probably 3 (which I was lucky enough to have heard in concert a few years ago) and 6, though I haven't yet heard the "1933" symphony. I dont know what he was thinking with those last couple though, it was probably a mistake calling them symphonies - I wonder if they're the reason Naxos cancelled their planned complete cycle!