Mike Leghorn wrote:

>> In any event, I plan on being around for another generation or two (I
>> drink beer every night), so I'll get to see if Oliveros is as well known
>> as Stravinsky and Britten are now.  I'll bet that she won't.  Any takers?

Geoffrey Gaskell replied:

>No. It has already been pointed out by several people that Oliveros is
>both obscure and a minority interest.  This is so unlikely to change in the
>future that I will not only not contradict you, but I will not gamble with
>you either.

I'd be careful about placing any serious money on such a bet.  All it
takes is for one piece by Oliveros to have a big commercial success for
her position in musical history to change in an important way.  As an
example, how many of you had heard of Gorecki before the mass audience
success of his Symphony No. 3 a few years back.  Stanger things have
happened.

-----
Kevin Sutton wrote:

>>Who is in the current avant garde and what are they doing? I am not
>>trying to be a smart-ass here, I really want to know.
>
>The interesting thing is that it's the older composers - the ones who
>were avant-garde in the 1950-60s (the generation born in 1920s and earlier)
>- who are really modern nowadays while the younger ones tend to be
>conservative.  Even the avant-gardists from the generation born in 1930s
>turned around and became conservative.
>
>So who's writing really modern stuff nowadays? It's still Boulez, Ligeti,
>Stockhausen, Xenakis (when did he die? about a year ago, I think), Berio.
>Nono died about 10 years ago, and wrote modern stuff until the end.  The
>old, 1920s-born guard.  Still avant-garde.  Of older ones, Carter (now in
>his 90s), Babbitt.  They are still more modern than the next generations.
>
>Then there are people writing mostly electroacoustic music, nowadays
>specifically computer music, such as Paul Lansky or Larry Austin.
>
>Except of Lansky's works (a sort of musique concrete), I'm a bit out
>of this loop, but I can suggest: Lansky's works on several Bridge CDs
>and the computer music series on Centaur (various composers from various
>c>entres).  Personally, I feel that while the analogue electronic music
>(1950/60s) brought very interesting artistic results very soon, the digital
>electronic music didn't.  There were some interesting computer music works
>by Jean Claude Risset and by John Chowning - but that was late 1960/70s -
>but not all that much really exciting development afterwards.  When one
>think what primitive techniques Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer had at
>their disposal in 1950 when they were composing "Symphonie pour un homme
>seul", one of the first musique concrete works=3D, created within the first
>few years of the existence of electroacoustic music, one can't help being
>amazed.  (Similarly, Stockhausen's "Gesang der Junglinge" is a fairly early
>(1956, I think) work of electronic music and stupendously beautiful.) And
>one can't help being a bit disappointed that when digital electronic music
>became possible, such masterpieces just didn't happen.
>
>I suspect that we have to wait a bit for the next wave of avant-garde.
>
>The pendulum always swings, and right now the young composers are the
>conservatives and conservative music is "in".  Maybe a new avant-garde is
>already growing up, but I don't hear them yet.

Margaret, you're answer to Kevin's question only confirms how much
you are "out the loop" with what is presently happening with the younger
generation of composers.  This is hardly surprising since most composers
in the modern classical field don't get serious recognition before they
reach their 40s (in contrast to the pop scene where the younger you are the
more exposure you get).  Here are a few names which I consider interesting,
who you might find interesting to look into and who were born after 1940
(listed alphabetically):

Peter Ablinger (Austria)
John Adams (USA)
Thomas Ades (England)
Kalevi Aho (Finland)
William Albright (USA)
Thierry Alla (France)
Serge Arcuri (Canada)
Linda Bouchard (Canada)
Walter Boudreau (Canada)
Denys Bouliane (Canada)
Tim Brady (Canada)
James Dillon (Scotland)
Pascal Dusapin (France)
Karlheinz Essl (Austria)
Ivan Fedele (Italy)
Denis Gougeon (Canada)
Gerald Grisey (France)
Heinz Karl Gruber (Austria)
James Harley (USA)
Philippe Hurel (France)
Michael Jarrell (Switzerland)
Aaron Jay Kenis (USA)
Tristan Keuris (Netherlands)
Libby Larsen (USA)
Christian Lauba (France)
Michael Levinas (France)
Magnus Lindberg (Finland)
David Mott (Canada)
Murail Tristan (France)
Anders Nilsson (Sweden)
Ichiro Nodaira (Japan)
John Oliver (Canada)
Jocelyn Pook (England)
Serge Provost (Canada)
Shulamit Ran (Israel)
Wolfgang Rihm (Germany)
John Siddall (Canada)
John Tavener (England)
Mark-Anthony Turnage (England)
Claude Vivier (Canada)
Takashi Yoshimatsu (Japan)
Elaine Zajac (USA)

Some of these names may already be familiar to most of you, certainly many
will not be.  As to their place in musical history, only the future will
tell.

As for specific pieces composed since 1960, here are some of my favourites:

Kalevi Aho: Symphony No. 9
Louis Andriessen: De Stijl
Michel-George Bregent: Atlantide
Giya Kancheli: Gamis lotsvebi (Night Prayers)
Witold Lutoslawski: Cello Concerto
Olivier Messiaen: Des Canyons aux =C9toiles...
Krzysztof Penderecki: St. Luke Passion
Kocelyn Pook: Blow the Wind - Pie Jesu
Einojuhan Rautavaara: Cantus Arcticus
Frederick Rzewski: Coming Together
R. Murray Schaefer: String Quartets (any of the 8 does it for me)
Alfred Schnittke: Faust Cantata
Claude Vivier: Lonely Child

Bernard Savoie