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.

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

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?

If so, then I would assume these pieces would need to have had wide
distribution...likely to have been heard by many other composers...which
would mean that they would have had to have been successful in their own
time, or later?

I would wonder...consider how influential the music of Mahler has been.
Well it is 19th century, but consider all of the 20th Century composers who
were influenced by Mahler...Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Nielsen, et al.

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.

If neoclassicism is considered one of the major trends of the 20th Century,
then what piece would be seen as the most influential.  Some point to the
History of the Soldier as the beginning of that trend.

Somebody, please help me...I find this confusing.

Karl