Great American Composers

Being an American,for one thing,I thought it would be interesting to start a thread on great American composers,be they famous or unheralded. So, I will start off with a list of my personal favorites. Charles Ives-was he possibly more original than Arnold Schoenberg? Aaron Copland-the creator of Fanfare For The Common Man and Appalachian Spring,to name two works of many fine pieces that he wrote,including writing for film. Howard Hanson-a neo-romantic who wrote The Nordic Symphony,The 2nd symphony(The Romantic Symphony). I love his lush and beautiful music. Paul Creston,who was very popular in the mid-20th century.He was very ryhthmically-oriented. And, finally Samuel Barber,who I think was a genious. Of course there are many more greats. I will stop here and turn it over to you. And,as I said there is a host of fine American composers,and possibly you could enlighten people with posting some of your favorites and discussing them. Thank you.

I know of two favorite American and I guess I consider one of them a
great composer and that's Neil Diamond. He has written a lot of good
songs and music. If you get the chance, listen to his soundtrack to
Jonathan Livingston Seagull and The Jazz Singer. He has written every
thing from pop to classical to country. He should go down as one of
the Great American composers. What do you think?
judy tooley

Not sure Neil Diamond belongs on the classical board, but anyway.

I'm going to go with George Gershwin, whose affiliation and mutual influence with my personal fav Maurice Ravel is well documented.

Leroy Anderson, for all his contributions to light orchestral compositions.
Another of my favorites, Scott Joplin, for his classical ragtime. Unfortunately, his fame didn't take off much until 10 years after his death. I play a few of these rags as part of my organ concerts each year.

Well, Leonard Bernstein has done much for the American musical scene - His tireless promotion of JSBach and Jazz as being symbiotic is genius unbridled. The linked video gives one a taste of his mastery of the distinctly American gift to the world - that of Jazz:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7xERqMr_DM&fmt=18

I'd have to agree on Bernstein. And make mention also of Charles Ives, America's 1st Experimentalist Composer.

Ives and I have a contentious relationship, sorry to say...However, I did play his *Variations on America* for organ this past 4th of July.

Charles Ives - really interesting composer, for sure. And there's some wonderful music by Samuel Barber and Leonard Bernstein etc. Dvorak needed America for many major works of his career, of course. And not forgetting Aaron Copland. I know it's not classical music but as a modern songwriter I rate some songs by Gershwin, by Rogers and Hammerstein and even some by the singer/guitarist Jim Croce all as highly as songs by Schubert. For orchestral scores there have been countless great works written for film by American writers. Then there's Philip Glass and a whole range of other modern composers. When I was in Florida last year I learned that a great deal of unappreciated work from the 19th century exists in archive on native Indian music, now kept at the Smithsonian in Washington.

there are all the composers who scored for films with good taste. the US has always provided good films and the music that goes along with. there's already a thread about john williams. we can add bernard hermann, danny elfman, though it's more in the contemporary area. ravel wanted to have his opera L'Enfant et les Sortileges made a film by walt disney.

i'm always very moved by barber's adagio

Rojo I have proof Neil Diamond wrote some classical music. This song would
have made Beethoven proud.YouTube - Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Be
judy tooley

that's what i'm always trying to say: there is no classical music as we conceive it, but sometimes we feel the need to label things so we can find them easier in record shops. we systematically segregate musics by chronological layers and types of instrumentation.

brigitte bardot > serge gainsbourg > michel colombier > pierre henry. music is a chain never really broken.

in a general way, america is a great country of music.

sunwaiter said:

there is no classical music as we conceive it

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Well, there's a nice conversation stopper! Let's see if we can override it, though, shall we?

While I quibble with "Great" as well as with "Neil Diamond," I can still think of many interesting American composers. So that my list won't conflict too much with the Living Composers thread, which may get going again (!), I'll mention mostly dead ones.

Music really took off in the twentieth century, going places no man had gone before, as it were. And the world leader (though I've heard him deny this attribution) from the U.S. was undoubtedly John Cage. From early introductions of noise into music to opening up composition to all sounds to opening up the whole activity of writing, performing, and listening to chance, Cage was at the center of redefining music generally by redefining the long accepted roles of composer, performer, listener and by redefining what sounds can be considered "musical." (Hint: all of them.)

Many other interesting people include Gordon Mumma (alive), Barney Childs (dead), Henry Brant (born in Canada but died in Santa Barbara), Roger Sessions (dead), LaMonte Young (alive), Pauline Oliveros (alive) -- indeed, my attempt to limit myself to dead Americans isn't going so well. So many of them are still alive, don't you know? Well, David Tudor is also dead. He was one of the great (there's that word, again) organists, then pianists, then composers of the past century.

Surprised that Reich has not been mentioned yet - for me he is the best of the minimalists.

methodistgirl said:

Rojo I have proof Neil Diamond wrote some classical music. This song would
have made Beethoven proud.YouTube - Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Be
judy tooley

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Well, without trying to sound facetious, Beethoven isn't around to say what he thinks of it. :grin:

sunwaiter, methinks you have some explaining to do, and not just about the comment referred to by some guy; tell me more about Ravel wanting to have his opera made into a Disney film (feel free to start a new thead on that one.) :grin: In the meantime, let the conversation go on...

Art- No one has mentioned John Adams either; maybe we don't have all that many fans of minimalism here? Although Glass was mentioned... *shrug*

Dear Ms. RoJo,

Maybe we can take it a little easy on sunwaiter - methinks he has bitten off more than he can chew, ok?

Humbly,

CD

Aw CD; you know I'm harmless. Note the goofy grin in my post...

Aloha Ms. RoJo,

Yes, you have a meek and tender spirit - I only wanted to be helpful so that sunwaiter would not feel so crest-fallen if he were put on the spot.

Humbly,

CD

rojo said:

No one has mentioned John Adams either; maybe we don't have all that many fans of minimalism here?

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If there were, I don't think (m)any of them would mention John Adams. While he has used some of the licks of minimalism, he's not really a minimalist himself any more than Ravel or Honegger or Rouse. He's gotten lumped in with Glass, Riley, and Reich by the same people who have lumped Glass, Riley, and Reich together--three more different composers you could scarcely find. I know, that same thing's been done with Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven as well as with Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner as well as with Bruckner and Mahler as well as with Ravel and Debussy. There are just a lot of lumpers in world, I guess!

Minimalism isn't just one thing, either, just by the way. But as it started in the U.S.,* we might as well give a nod to some American composers:

Tony Conrad
Tom Johnson (who may have been the first to apply the term to music, and who is one of the few who call themselves by that name)
LaMonte Young
Jim Fox
John Luther Adams
Pauline Oliveros
David Borden
Phill Niblock
Hal Budd
Meredith Monk
Frederic Rzewski

And Feldman, Lucier, and Cage--among others--have many compositions which have minimalist qualities.

*It travelled very well. To England, to the Netherlands, to the Baltics (where it's the most prominent now, I'd guess).

some guy said:

If there were, I don't think (m)any of them would mention John Adams. While he has used some of the licks of minimalism, he's not really a minimalist himself any more than Ravel or Honegger or Rouse. He's gotten lumped in with Glass, Riley, and Reich by the same people who have lumped Glass, Riley, and Reich together--three more different composers you could scarcely find. I know, that same thing's been done with Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven as well as with Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner as well as with Bruckner and Mahler as well as with Ravel and Debussy. There are just a lot of lumpers in world, I guess!

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I guess you should just lump me in with all those lumpers then... sorry 'bout that.

If only composers would stop using different styles and techniques, and just stick to one main one.

Kidding!

But it would make categorizing so much easier...

Wait; Rzewski is a minimalist?...

rojo said:

Wait; Rzewski is a minimalist?...

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Are you calling me a lumper? Well?

(I'm gonna have to ask you to step outside, then.)