Ian Crisp wrote:

>As previously announced, I propose that this time we vote for the most
>definitively twentieth-century pieces of classical music. Not necessarily
>the best pieces written during the century, but the one or ones that future
>generations may look back on as best summing up the particular musical
>nature of this departing century.

Given the schizophrenic (in a totally non-medical sense), chameleon-like
nature of the century, this will be a long list.  I'm going to suggest some
"trends" and works which IMHO best exemplify them.  I'm sure others can add
to this, as indeed I probaby shall myself, as I don't seem to have got past
the 1960s.  Note how some composers appear in more than one list...

Late Romanticism:

   Elgar: Symphonies 1 & 2, Violin Concerto
   Mahler: Symphony No.8
   Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No.3

fin-de-siecle angst:

   Mahler: most, esp Symphonies No.6 & 9

Expressionism:

   Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire

"Impressionism":

   Debussy: La Mer, Images, Nocturnes, Jeux
   Ravel: String Quartet, Daphnis et Chloe

The collapse of tonality:

   Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No.1, Five Pieces, Op.5 (?)
   Berg: Three Orchestral Pieces, Op.6
   Webern: Six Orchestral Pieces, Op.6

Twelve-tone:

   Schoenberg: hmmmmm - suggestions?
   Berg: Violin Concerto
   Webern: Symphony Op.21, Concerto Op.24

Neoclassicism:

   Stravinsky: Pulcinella

The New Aesthetic:

   Busoni: Piano Concerto, Fantasia Contrappuntistica
   Sorabji: Opus Clavicembalisticum
   Stevenson: Passacaglia on DSCH

The Nordic "School": (hey, I'm open to better names)

   Sibelius: Symphonies 3-7
   Nielsen: Symphonies 2-5, Flute & Clarinet Concertos
   Stenhammar: Symphony No.2, Serenade, Piano Cocnerto No.2

The English "School": (and I'm really stretching here)

   Vaughan Williams: Job, Symphonies 4-6
   Delius: Brigg Fair, A Song of Summer
   Bax: Tintagel, Symphony No.4

The Soviets:

   Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky, Symphony No.5, Piano Concerto No.5
   Shostakovich: Symphonies 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, String Quartets all 15

Total Serialism:

   Messiaen: Modes de valeurs et d'intensite
   Boulez: Structures
   Stockhausen: Zeitma"sse

The Darmstadt "School":

   Boulez: Le Marteau sans Maitre, Ple selon Pli
   Stockhausen: Gruppen, Klavierstucke X & XI, Gesang der Ju"nglinge
   Berio: Laborintus II, Sinfonia, Visage

The "Zen and mushrooms" School:

   Cage: 4'33", Concert (sic) for piano and instruments, Atlas Eclipticalis
   LaMonte Young: The Well-tuned Piano, Composition #7, Death Chant
   Cardew: The Great Learning, Treatise
   Wolff: Play
   Stockhausen: Aus den sieben Tagen, Stimmung
   Berberian: Stripsody

American Minimalism:

   Riley: In C, Dorian XXXX
   Reich: It's gonna Rain, Piano Phase, Drumming, Clapping Music
   Glass: Music in Fifths, Music in Twelve Parts

English Minimalism:

   Bryars: The Sinking of the Titanic, Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me
   Nyman: Suggestions?
   Skempton: Well, well, Cornelius
   White: The Drinking and Hooting Machine

A Law unto Themselves:

   Stravinsky: Rite of Spring
   Ives: Concord Sonata, Symphony No.4, Three Places in New England
   Grainger: The Warriors, Blithe Bells, Mock Morris

Deryk Barker
[log in to unmask]