Chris Bonds wrote:

>Richard Strauss: Presided over the death throes of romanticism.  Most
>famous works mostly written in the 19th century.

Except of course the operas...and his range of influence.

>The Tunesmiths (Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Cole Porter,
>Richard Rodgers, Harold Arlen): Their importance was eclipsed somewhat
>after mid-century.

I don't know....Sondheim and Bernstein, as well as Lloyd Webber and
Claude-Michel Schoenberg betray obvious influence from these guys.  So
did most subsequent pop artists, film scorers, and jazz singers....

>Louis Armstrong: A giant to be sure, but I can't include him until I
>know how much of what he played was his own composition.  Took jazz off
>in a wrong direction by turning it into a superstar art as opposed to
>an ensemble concept.  What about the Duke, for pete's sake?

Here I agree.  Duke Ellington would have been a much better choice.

>Dmitri Shostakovich: Maybe.  But what is the sphere of his influence? Who
>writes like him today? What new things did he have to say?

Who writes like him today: Ustvolskaya, Gubaidulina, Schnittke did,
Denisov did, Britten did, Mansurian, in fact, he influenced just about the
whole post WWII russian "camp".

>Arnold Schoenberg: Nice try, but the 12-tone system is on life support.
>So much for innovation--now did he have anything to SAY as a composer?

I don't see how this is so.  Perhaps the system as Schoenberg used it is
lapsing, but innovations such as Norgard's infinity series, clearly rooted
in the 12-tone system, are going strong, in Europe at least--I have yet to
find a teacher in the US who can tell me anything about the infinity
series....

>Igor Stravinsky: OK, I'll give him this one, in the absence of anyone more
>suitably qualified!

Of course he would have to be included.

I would have probably chosen Berg instead of Schoenberg.  Stockhausen,
Ligeti, Britten, Prokofiev, Carter, Janacek, Birtwistle, Messiaen,
Dutilleux, Boulez, Takemitsu, Norgard, and Reich all would be on my list
also.  Maybe John Lennon?

Marcus Maroney
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