Walter Meyer

>Among the successive lists that I see posted in this poll, I see more and
>more lists w/ fewer and fewer works from the second half of this
>century. ...  I wonder if this has some significance.

Truly spoken.  Significance: I quote Pierre Boulez's lecture given in
1961.

   "Individual artists (...) seem to be complete strangers to the society
   around them.  However much he exaggerates, an individual reflects
   the age in which he lives.  The only passion shown by the mediocre
   is their definition to defend ruins."

So how come that we state the Rite as a symbol for something like the
breaking up of "the old musical world", and fail to see the importance of
people like Messiaen, Oestvolskaja, Henze, De Leeuw.  Just a question of
lack of distance or perhaps they confront us with something in our society
which might perhaps be a bit discomforting? So as a kind of penitence
ordered by Mr. Boulez here are my five.

1. OLivier Messiaen: St. Francois d'Assise
2. Benjamin Britten: War Requiem
3. Galina Oestvolskaja: Dies Irae
4. Louis Vierne: Meditations sur l'Apocalypse
5. Witold Lutoslavski: Les espaces du sommeil

motivation:

1. As a testomony to Messiaen's own words:
   The music of the 21st century must be spiritual, or it will not be
   at all. (= the death of the minimalist way)

2. To show that music can take a non-musical point of view without
   becoming trivial and corrupt. (= to prove Stravinsky was wrong when
   he said -at least Craft said that Stravinsky said it- that music is
   absolutely unable to express anything).

3. As a reminder that if you strip music of everything that ornates
   you will be left with pure truth. (= demasque of some who are left
   with nothing once you strip away the humbug; choose your own examples).

4. In addition to 3: Ornates don't necessarily mean corruption.

5. To show that it is still possible to write refined poetic music for
   the voice without resorting to postmodern gags and riffs.

Sorry for the somewhat millitant tone of my contribution.  A list of my
top 5 written in a more relaxed mood would surely include Bartok, Mahler
and Ravel.  It just seems as silly to me to think of the Rite and Das Lied
von der Erde as contemporary as thinking that Boccherini has a lot of
significance to us.

regards, Jos