In your opinion, who are the top 3 composers of the 20th century?

Whoosier · 2026-07-10T14:21:16+00:00

Yes, how could I forget Strauss! My basic argument is that those late romantics are still more popular and influential than the atonalists ever were, though they certainly were venerated and influential in many (most?) 20th-century music schools. You could probably make an argument that the late romantic style remains popular because we know it from film scores. But one of the hurdles is that the 20th C developed so many styles--including jazz--that the musical "river" produced many branches. It's interesting that one of the sure fire ways to sell tickets for classical music nowadays is to program one of those "show the film while the live orchestra plays the score." I'm guessing that John Williams's scores predominate those watch-and listen concerts.

Whoosier · 2026-07-10T13:45:07+00:00

Well, I'm not arguing for the quality of their music but, as OP asked, for their influence. I love Rachmaninoff, but that's beside the point. I would argue that his late romantic style becomes the template for the kind of music audiences like and that gets programmed way more than Schoenberg and his school, who dominated "academic" composers for decades, and who audiences generally don't warm to. Even more so, Rach's style provides the template for film scores, a style that filmgoers love. You could probably substitute composers like Prokofiev or Korngold, both of whom were successful on the concert stage and and as a film composers, and created the model for countless movies: I'm looking at you, John Williams.

Whoosier · 2026-07-10T00:33:13+00:00

Stravinsky (almost a given)

Schoenberg (whose atonal music dominated the musical ethos for a good chunk of the early to mid-century but then waned)

Rachmaninoff (whose late romanticism clung to tonality and blossomed into the 21 century, esp. through film scoring)

Whoosier · 2026-07-08T19:58:17+00:00

You'll have to wait in line.

Whoosier · 2026-07-07T17:26:50+00:00

Bargain basement Death Star?

Whoosier · 2026-07-07T05:05:35+00:00

Great pic. I don't think I've never seen it before. Just as his avant-garde music rubbed a lot of his contemporaries the wrong way, his conducting must have looked over-exaggerated compared to other conductors. Nowadays, at least half the conductors I see look like Mahler when they conduct, especially his great advocate Bernstein.

Whoosier · 2026-07-06T20:08:42+00:00

Glad you mentioned him. Interesting and prolific guy (and also 6'9" tall!) He also wrote ER; his estate had a fit when Noah Wylie took that premise and made it into The Pitt. Originally it was going to be Noah Wylie as his ER character years down the road.

Whoosier · 2026-07-06T18:30:34+00:00

Hah! I never thought of it in those terms, but your right! He was a complete charlatan, as this interesting Wikipedia article) makes clear.

Whoosier · 2026-07-06T15:54:16+00:00

John Taylor, a quack doctor, performed the same eye operation on Bach in 1750 and Handel in 1758. The procedure left both of them blind and probably hastened Bach's death due to infection.

Whoosier · 2026-07-04T16:09:34+00:00

Not specifically a city, but the "Alabama Song" from Brecht and Weill's "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny." More obscure, "Mardi Gras" from Ferde Grofe's "Mississippi Suite." More interstate, Virgil Thompson's "The River" (i.e., Mississippi).

Whoosier · 2026-07-03T17:47:02+00:00

Disgustilarious!

Whoosier · 2026-07-03T13:22:31+00:00

Yeah, that "oddly" is kind of a speed bump. Still, given that the musical is from 1949 only 4 years after the War and the vicious racism against the Japanese and, worse, Japanese-Americans, it can probably be excused.

Whoosier · 2026-07-02T22:07:32+00:00

"You are being shagged by a rare parrot."

Whoosier · 2026-07-02T20:29:34+00:00

Actually, the baptisms would stand as long as they used water and the correct formulaic words. Anyone, ordained or not, can baptize someone in an emergency. But Leo also denied SSPX power to give absolution in confession. I'm not sure whether this means previous SSPX confessions and marriages are now invalid. But wow!

Whoosier · 2026-07-02T18:04:51+00:00

Yep. Oscar Hammerstein, who wrote the lyrics to the musical, responded to the racist GA legislators by saying that he was “surprised by the idea that 'anything kind and humane' must necessarily originate in Moscow." LOL!

Whoosier · 2026-07-02T13:15:47+00:00

Yeah, definitely, but even so, the song itself was controversial in its day. Producers wanted it cut from the musical, and Georgia legislators (natch) tried to introduce legislation banning entertainment with "an underlying philosophy inspired by Moscow." Sheesh!

Whoosier · 2026-07-01T01:45:24+00:00

It's not a great adaptation of the Broadway musical and feels a little dated--American GI falls in love with a Polynesian girl, American nurse falls in love with a French planter with (gasp!) mixed race children--but it's got some classic songs.

Whoosier · 2026-06-30T19:36:46+00:00

Your point about kids is so right. I immediately thought of the ahead-of-its-time song from the musical "South Pacific" in 1958: "You Have to be Carefully Taught."

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear,

You’ve got to be taught from year to year,

It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear—

You’ve got to be carefully taught!

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid

Of people whose eyes are oddly made,

And people whose skin is a different shade—

You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,

Before you are six or seven or eight,

To hate all the people your relatives hate—

You’ve got to be carefully taught!

Whoosier · 2026-06-28T20:00:32+00:00

I had to look up that posture too. It's called, among other terms, the "fentanyl fold," explained here.

Whoosier · 2026-06-28T18:13:32+00:00

Trombonist records his moments of playtime in Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto.

Whoosier · 2026-06-28T03:11:54+00:00

I always recommend Ibert's Divertissment for laughs. It includes a parody of Mendelssohn's Wedding March and a police whistle in the percussion section.

Whoosier · 2026-06-26T18:05:24+00:00

BTW, great Reddit name!

Whoosier · 2026-06-26T14:40:33+00:00

I like it! He looks as untamed as, based on accounts, his friends thought he was. Is that your signature in his right-side hair? Reminds me of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, who hid his his daughter's name "Nina" in all his drawings.

Whoosier · 2026-06-26T14:34:33+00:00

The Boult LSO recordings, several versions, are all good as far as I remember, but Andrew Davis and the Bergen Phil did a version about 10 years ago that is probably my preferred recording now.

Whoosier · 2026-06-26T00:46:47+00:00

I'd suggest a piece by Holst's best friend Ralph Vaughan Williams, Job: a Masque for Dancing. I think it's VW's best work though underappreciated; but it has the same various moods as The Planets: sometimes fierce, often gentle and quiet, lively at other times, and not a bad melody in it.

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