Sorry, I have been off line again and so I am behind the times...

Kevin Sutton threw out a great challenge with tantalizing results.
Later he adds:

>What I have found most intriguing though is that there is very little
>avant garde music on these lists.  [...] But one more question/observation:
>Most of the avant garde works that people have mentioned are either from
>the 60's or by composers who flourished in the 60's and are still around.
>Who is in the current avant garde and what are they doing?

France has quite a lot to offer, depending exactly on what counts
as avant-garde...  I don't suppose Dutilleux would be an answer, for
instance, though his music is quite something, and his String Quartet
might directly qualify.  (Latest work: 2002).  More to the point, perhaps,
would be Pierre Boulez, of course, (still composing) or, with 'avant-garde'
not in a too restricted sense, amongst my favourites in chronological
order, Ton-That Tiet (b.1933), Nguyen-Thien Dao (b.1940), Gerard Grisey
(1948-1998, avant-garde and strictly spectral), Pascal Dusapin (b.1955),
Suzanne Giraud (b.1958) who was the subject of an excellent review in April
on http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2002/Apr02/Giraud.htm,,Yves Tanguy
(b.1968), maybe Philippe Manoury (b.1952).  Or if we are allowed composers
influenced to some extent by the spectral movement, then there is Hugues
Dufourt (b 1943), Tristan Murail (b.1947) whose last piece was evocative of
the passing seasons over a lake north of New York ("Le Lac" 2001), Philippe
Schoeller (b.1957)...  Less avant-garde, there is Jean-Louis Florentz
(b.1947), Nicolas Bacri (b.1961) and...  I'd better stop ;-)

Recordings of music by all are available on the net with sample tracks to
listen to.

>kindly list me 10 compositions since Britten's War Requiem (1962) that
>are as significant, well constructed and original as said same.

Amongst the above, the obvious avant-garde (not in a restricted sense)
'challenger' to Britten's War Requiem would be Pascal Dusapin's
"Requiem(s)"(1998-9) - three requiems which can be performed or listened
to separately or as a cycle, definitely significant, well-constructed
and original.  "Granum sinapis" and "Umbrae mortis " are for mixed choir
a cappella.  The first, diaphanous, inspired by a text of Eckhart's is
dedicated to his mother, the second, shivering heights over a bass
ostinato, follows the text to Ockeghem's Requiem."Dona eis", the third,
more powerful and contrasted, intense and incisive, is for mixed choir and
seven wind instruments.  Wind, air, breath - life in the face of death...

Pascal Dusapin: "Requiem(s)" (Montaigne-Nayve MO 782116)

>My next question would be, why don't our major symphony orchestras
>ever play this music past the premiere?

They do, but I agree, never quite often enough...

Regards,

Christine Labroche