Lee Goggin wrote:

>2.  Shostakovich, Lady Macbeth of Mtsinsk.  If operas are not permitted,
>then the Thirteenth Symphony.

Certainly they are.

>3.  Shostakovich, the quartets.

Unfortunately there are fifteen of these!  I'll put Lee down for
Shostakovich 13 and Bartok 3, as these have already been nominated by
others.  Lee, if that's not what you want, e-mail me privately and tell me
what to do.  And, unfortunately, five is the limit so I've had to leave
Hindemith out.  Perhaps somebody else will have mercy on him.  Steve
Schwartz, are you there??

And welcome to an active part in the list, Lee.

Bernard Chasan:

>choices for the nineteenth century (He died in 1899 and a half).  Beethoven
>-Third Symphony Chopin - Preludes Schubert- Winterreise Wagner- The Ring
>Cycle Brahms- Bruckner- Seventh Symphony (tied with Brahms- Fourth
>Symphony)

A remarkably perceptive ancestor, I think.

>A separate vote on post second world war works may be in order.

AAAaaarrrggghhhh!!!  It may be in order but I'm not going to organise it.
There again, perhaps Bernard, who obviously has these things in his genes,
is offering his services?

Roger Hecht:

>. . . something I was aiming at when I chose Vaughan-Williams Fifth
>Symphony. Can I change that to Planets?

It's done.

Peter Varley:

>My first thoughts: ideally, since I think there's probably as much good
>music being written now as at any time in the past, I'd like to vote for
>one piece each from 1900-19, 1920-39, 1940-59, 1960-79 and 1980-99.

Good idea.

>1980-99.  I'll vote for either Kancheli's Mourned by the Wind or Vasks's
>cello concerto,

I've got nothing against Vasks but I'll put Peter down for the Kancheli.
That gets one of my favourite pieces in without me having to vote for it.
If anyone thinks that's an abuse of power, refer to Rule 5.

Karl Miller:

>I guess I don't really understand the question very well.

That's what comes of me trying to keep things simple!

Not necessarily the "best" pieces (and we could spend days teasing out
what that means!), although I would expect quite a strong correlation.
Not necessarily the most influential, although any piece that has
influenced many others has obviously had a significant effect on
determining whatever it is that gives the twentieth century whatever
distinctive musical identity it may have.

The pieces that, in your judgement, best exemplify "twentieth-century
music".  The ones you would put in a museum to show future generations
what it was all about (you may assume similar collections of C19, C18 etc.
music are already there!).  The ones you would quote if you had to oppose
the motion "The twentieth century has produced no characteristic and
distinctive music".

>The other day I saw a TV program that listed the ten most influential cars.
>It included the VW bug, the Corvette, the Jeep Cherokee, T bird, Model T,
>etc.  Is this what you are looking for?

It's a part of it.

>I would wonder...consider how influential the music of Mahler has been.
>Well it is 19th century,

Most of it is 20th.  I just checked my Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music
(first one that came to hand) and it dates Mahler Symphony 4 as 1900.

>When I think of Stravinsky, I often think that his neoclassic elements were
>a much stronger influence than pieces like Le Sacre.  However, Stravinsky
>was influenced by the classical and baroque models.

No need to consider these things.  Stick to the one century.  And don't
take it quite so seriously!  I don't want anyone having a nervous breakdown
over this.

Steve Schwartz, a man notoriously hard to pin down when it comes to polls,
ruminates in typically interesting fashion:

>Rather than talk about what's going to survive from this century, since
>I won't be around to see what will survive, I'd like to talk about the
>composers and trends I find the most influential.

Come on Steve, give us five!! Get Hindemith in there!!

And finally:

I've received one entry from a non-listmember.  He made a number of
interesting comments and I've asked for his permission to forward them
to the list.  So here's an addition to the rules:

Rule 8 Contributions may be made by anyone interested enough to do so.  In
return for this (Dave, please note) I will reply to them encouraging them
to join.  Perhaps we'll reach the magic 1,000.

Ian Crisp
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