Who In Your Opinion Is The Greatest Living Composer?

I'd also add to this list John Corigliano, he's at least one of the best teachers I've seen, based on the successes of his students, and also Eric Whitacre, you have to at least give him credit for his work on choirs, and his Virtual Choir. Of course, John Adams also comes to mind, Frank Ticheli is also a genius in Wind Ensemble literature. 

oh, and Higdon and Theofandis, you can never forget them! 

I'd also add to this list John Corigliano, he's at least one of the best teachers I've seen, based on the successes of his students, and also Eric Whitacre, you have to at least give him credit for his work on choirs, and his Virtual Choir. Of course, John Adams also comes to mind, Frank Ticheli is also a genius in Wind Ensemble literature. 

Oh hey, someone finally said it, so it is safe to say. I am going with Whitacre for best CHORAL composer alive. I know that he is a one-trick pony, but boy is he good at that trick.

Whicacer's trick isn't even that good. He's like Mozart. Doing the same crap over and over and over and over and over again. And once more for good measure.

Whicacer's trick isn't even that good. He's like Mozart. Doing the same crap over and over and over and over and over again. And once more for good measure.

So I take it you wouldn't approve of my suggesting Steve Reich to our burgeoning list, then? After all, he does the same delicacies over and over and over again, and 100 more times for even more measures.

Kenny Wheeler

Carla Bley

But he also didn't like the fact that Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony was getting more attention than his own works - hence his famous parody of it in his Concerto for Orchestra.

You've fallen for a common myth. The piece Bartok was actually satirising is part of Lehar's The Merry Widow, supposedly Hitler's favourite opera. Although the Shostakovich theme contains descending scales these are halfway through the melody and there are only two of them. Bartok's joke dissonance clearly follows the phrase struture of the Lehar and includes the whole melody, as well as making far more sense as a satire.

Anyway, to address the subject, I'd have to vote for Thomas Ades. Proven in every genre, he is consistantly interesting, inventive and able to re-invent his music. That doesn't stop him from being an iconoclast, but it doesn't matter because the quality of the music is so high.

Burt Bacharach.. living or dead.

ITT: composers I've never heard about.

Would I get punched in the mouth if I voted for John Williams? He is the reason I started studying composition.

No surprise here, Luderart: it's you.

Don't be so modest, xiangyik. It was you all along!

Jeremy Soule

his music is simple but I get goose pimples listening to any1 of the even though i've heard them 1000s of times  like the skyrim theme dragonborn or auriel's ascension from oblivion and that is why I hink he is the greatest

the best of all time is of course Mozart but I prefer Vivaldi because he his f** cking metal

Would I get punched in the mouth if I voted for John Williams? He is the reason I started studying composition.

Short answer: no. He's had a hugely positive impact on film scoring as an art form, and (whether deliberately or not) has done more to stir the general public's interest in orchestral music (good orchestral music, in my opinion) than any living concert-hall composer would likely be able to. Personally, I never understood why hating on John Williams is such a popular pastime among B.M. Composition types... even when I was one of them!

Regarding the OP: my vote would go for (...) John Williams.

Would I get punched in the mouth if I voted for John Williams?

Personally, I never understood why hating on John Williams is such a popular pastime among B.M. Composition types... even when I was one of them!

Bashing John Williams is almost as much of a popular pastime as bashing Haydn & Mozart among a few guys here and there. Nevertheless, I have really ceased to care about all the bashing and enjoy his music scores all the same. Haters will hate.

Would I get punched in the mouth if I voted for John Williams? He is the reason I started studying composition.

I take my hat off to Williams' and his skillful and underrated "The Accidental Tourist."

Does it have to be a high brow artsy fart? How about the English pop band "Everything But The Girl?" It's REALLY HARD to write a good pop song. Really really hard. You can fool so many people with stuff that goes over their head, but producing a three minute gem is bloody difficult and always more meaningful than the latest concepts in academia and whatnot.

Does it have to be a high brow artsy fart? How about the English pop band "Everything But The Girl?" It's REALLY HARD to write a good pop song. Really really hard. You can fool so many people with stuff that goes over their head, but producing a three minute gem is bloody difficult and always more meaningful than the latest concepts in academia and whatnot.

Well, that's entirely subjective: Meaningfulness - leave that to people than music.

I think it's kind of silly to ask who the 'greatest living composer' is, anyway. If not about meaning, it would be better to ask 'what living composer has had the most impact in such and such a period?'. And even then it's rather ambiguous: Different composers have had different impacts on different parts of the musical world. How is one to measure impactfulness in any meaningful sense, not to mention greatness - except maybe in retrospect. Anyway, I don't see the point.

Vitrousioso: Franz Listz, Fredick Chopin, Ludwig Beethoveen, J. S. Bach, Rachominov, Brahms, Modest Mussorsky, ect.

Vitrousioso: Franz Listz, Fredick Chopin, Ludwig Beethoveen, J. S. Bach, Rachominov, Brahms, Modest Mussorsky, ect.

John Cleese: Dead dead dead dead dead dead dead!

I'd like to add a Dutch guy, who recently won some awards like the Grawemeyer: Michel van der Aa. And yup that's his real name, not a pun to get on the first page of a Musical Encyclopedia :D

I think he's interesting for blurring the lines between music and the way he uses other media.

... yup that's his real name, not a pun to get on the first page of a Musical Encyclopedia...

:lol:

Definitely this one made my day. BTW, glad to see you back, Jaap!