Kevin Sutton sets up a straw whale:

>>To suggest that there are no composers writing music for musicians to play
>>seems simply absurd.
>
>If it is so absurd, kindly list me 10 compositions since Britten's War
>Requiem (1962) that are as significant, well constructed and original as
>said same.

Kindly list for me 10 compositions since Mahler's 8th as significant,
well-constructed, etc.

The question is, of course, "significant to whom?" For what it's worth --
and without getting into comparisons with Britten's masterpiece -- here
are some pieces written since then I like a lot.

    1.  Yardumian: Story of Abraham
    2.  Walton: Variations on a Theme of Hindemith
    3.  Boulez: Sur incises
    4.  Lees: String Quartet No. 5
    5.  Menotti: Missa "O pulchritudo"
    6.  Tippett: Triple Concerto
    7.  Copland: Inscapes
    8.  Bernstein: Songfest
    9.  Ligeti: Piano Concerto
   10.  Adams: Violin Concerto
   11.  Tower: Piano Quartet
   12.  Reich: Tehillim
   13.  Rouse: Trombone Concerto
   14.  Rosner: just about Everything
   15.  Vercoe: Setropy
   16.  Thomson: Feast of Love
   17.  Stockhausen: Stimmung
   18.  Bernstein (again!): Chichester Psalms
   19.  Holmboe: just about anything
   20.  Vainberg: just about anything
   21.  Shostakovich: Violin Sonata, Viola Sonata
   22.  Pettersson: Violin Concerto No. 2
   23.  Rozsa: Viola Concerto
   24.  Schuman: On Freedom's Ground
   25.  Simpson: Symphony No. 9
   26.  Arnold: Symphony No. 9
   27.  B. Stevens: Symphony No. 2
   28.  Stravinsky: Requiem Canticles

Nothing should be inferred by the absence of certain composers from the
list (excepting Gorecki).  I wasn't trying for the definitive, just a range
of styles over a span of forty years.  I suspect that most of these pieces,
and some of the composers, are unknown to many of my fellow members.  This
is where the problem of "significance" comes in.  If a lot of people don't
know it, is it significant? If you start playing this numbers game, you
find that the most signficant music is probably Michael Jackson's or
(currently) Britney Spears's.  Even the War Requiem wouldn't show up on
radar set that wide.  We're much better off, I conclude, talking about
pieces we like than about something as insubstantial as significance.

Steve Schwartz