Which 10 living composers will still be played in 50 yrs' time? Results of a poll.

[marquis66]

(Courtesy http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddi...g_-_the_r.html)

Last composer standing - the results
Of 3,200 people who read or engaged with the debate here, on twitter and on facebook, as well as an uncounted readership on radio and newspaper sites, just over 100 eligible ballots were received. Some ticked one composer for posterity, others voted for the full ten options.

The results of the poll are not in any way scientific or universal. There is a bias towards US and UK composers - understandable since the debate is conducted in English - as well as a slight tendency towards certain composers who have current or recent performances.

Nevertheless, there are conclusions to be drawn and I shall attempt to lay them out for discussion below. First, though, the results of the popular vote.

Last Composer Standing

1 John Adams

2 Arvo Pärt

3 Steve Reich

4 Philip Glass

5 Pierre Boulez

5= George Crumb

5= Henri Dutilleux

8 Osvaldo Golijov

9 Thomas Ades

10 Henry Mikolai Gorecki



Since the next three are bunched pretty close behind, I shall add them to the bench as first-change substitutes:

11 Einojuhani Rautavaara

11= Stephen Sondheim

13 Harrison Birtwistle



This poll started with a claim of mine that Gavin Bryars would last the test of time. A three-way discussion ensued with experienced colleagues - Tim Page in California and Andrew Patner in Chicago - yielding a short list of five whom we thought we certs for the future. So what have we discovered?

- Minimalism is here to stay. It will still be heard in 2059.

- Few who voted for Glass also chose Reich, and vice-versa. There is a minimalist schism.

- John Adams has as many strong detractors as he has passionate fans. He provokes contention, always a good sign in a composer.

- Meredith Monk and Kaija Saariaho were the highest ranked women composers.

- While Dutilleux has benefitted from prolonged exposure in Boston, similar promotion in LA and London has not worked for Magnus Lindberg. Will New York do the trick?

- Is the music of Boulez appreciated more widely as a result of his popularity as a conductor?

This debate is all about the qualities we perceive in living composers and whether they will pass the test of time. Some correspondents regard the criterion of durability as irrelevant to art, and they may well have a point. But how we in 2009 judge the value of living composers is not an insignificant factor and I shall make a mental note to take another straw poll a year from now to see if our opinions have changed.

In the meantime, discuss, dispute, gnash teeth and celebrate in the comment space below. Thank you all for taking part, and thank you also to many bloggers and tweeters who helped to spread the word.

Congratulations to John Adams, the Last Composer Standing.

[Notehead]

This is great food for thought.

I'm almost certain that Penderecki is still alive. He should be right up at the top - maybe even 1st.

I think Sofia Gubaidulina should be somewhere on that list too. And Mark Anthony Turnage. His music is wonderful.

John Adams is a deserving honoree though. I love Glass and Reich - and have recently been going through a minimalist renaissance - but where their work begins a train of thought - I think Adams continues and develops it, really capitalising on its potential. I suspect that his work will enjoy longevity because he's created a synthesis of the minimalist genre - and all it represents - and taken it somewhere else.

[Notehead]

(PS: Just re-read the post... I missed the whole topic first time around and failed to note that it was an enormous poll - skipping through to the list itself. Too hasty! Please forgive my presumptuous additions!)

[marquis66]

Oh I agree with you, I don't think that the list is anywhere near accurate. It seems to focus on what the author *wishes* would be heard in 50 years, pointing to a HUGE bias in the media for minimalism and John Adams in general.

I don't care for all of their music, but insinuating that Eric Whitaker or John Rutter, in favor of Dutilleux no less, won't be heard in 50 years is just silly.

[marquis66]

Not to mention (GASP!) Film music composers. Or Cross-Genre artists.

[Jeremy Marchant]

Originally Posted by marquis66

...
- Minimalism is here to stay. It will still be heard in 2059...

Without seeing the questions, I'm not sure this has any value really. It looks like a projection by the respondents of their own tastes. It's just a picture of today. Actually fifty years hence will be far worse, I would say. The quality of would-be art music will continue to decline until the only music available will be facile drivel written by currently unknown composers too young to feature in today's survey. There will be tiny enclaves of consenting adults who get together to play and listen to Harrison Birtwistle - though it will probably be an offence to listen to, or say, anything intellectually demanding in public.

[marquis66]

I agree, I think that the article was very biased towards minimalism, which at least for me here in the US seems to be a "Left Coast" thing, more than a "Right Coast" thing.

If I had been voting in it, I can safely say that Adams would not have been on the top of my list.

[Mirror Image]

Originally Posted by marquis66

Oh I agree with you, I don't think that the list is anywhere near accurate. It seems to focus on what the author *wishes* would be heard in 50 years, pointing to a HUGE bias in the media for minimalism and John Adams in general.

I don't care for all of their music, but insinuating that Eric Whitaker or John Rutter, in favor of Dutilleux no less, won't be heard in 50 years is just silly.

I think some of John Adams early works like "Harmonium" are really good. I think the whole minimalism tag is just outlandish. I think Part's music as well as Rautavaara's and Vasks' will be around for quite some time. Reich, Glass, Schnittke, Dutilleux (who hasn't really received proper press yet), MacMillan, Gubaidulina, Kancheli, and a few others will have a lasting place in the repertoire I think even though I may not enjoy all of their music. A lot of people do.

[schopenhauerian]

I think it's interesting to imagine how people might have approached and answered this question fifty years ago in 1960. We all know who the most enduring composers of that period are, but are there any "forgotten unknowns" who seemed to be in the running at the time? (Do any of our older members here have any insight here?) Also, I think we need a more meaningful definition of "still played". Are we talking about the factors involved in the changing fashions in symphonic programming, pieces being studied at university and in the conservatories, recordings being issued and enjoyed, etc. How is ready availability of historical recordings on the internet changing the musical landscape among connoisseurs and the public at large?

The next time I visit a research library, I'll see if any of the music journals of the time considered these issues...fascinating stuff.

[some guy]

I was only eight in 1960. And didn't start paying attention to twentieth century music until 1972.

But anyone with a few reference books could find out which composers alive and working in 1960 are still played today. Many of the people on the 'who will be played fifty years from 2009' list, for one, as fifty years isn't all that long a time. Which is just as well, as predicting the future is a questionable activity. I for one don't plan to be around fifty years from now. But I am alive now, in 2010. And there are many composers alive now whom I enjoy. I don't understand why that isn't enough. Do we really need confirmation of our tastes by people who haven't even been born yet, and whose tastes we have no way of knowing, much less admiring?

Any road, here are a few names of people alive in 1960 whose music is still played* today:

Francis Dhomont
John Cage
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Pierre Boulez
Luc Ferrari
Mauricio Kagel
Robert Ashley
Alvin Lucier
Pauline Oliveros
Eliane Radigue

Well, that's ten, so I could stop there, but I can't leave off

Witold Lutosławski
Luciano Berio
Ligeti György
Kurtág György
Morton Feldman
Giacinto Scelsi
Luigi Nono
Helmut Lachenmann
Olivier Messiaen
Dmitri Shostakovich

I'm sure others could supply many many more. (Ten was too few.)

*If only on disc. Though I did try to limit myself to people who are still performed in concert. Whose music I've heard in concert over the past couple of years. (I didn't succeed, but I know that even those whom I haven't personally heard are still being played.)