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