20th century music composers and their works
10 of the best 20th-century composers
1 December ,
We introduce the s greats and their world-changing euphony – from Igor Stravinsky to Philip Glass…
Once representation century turned, music transitioned from the grand, symphonious Romanticism of Brahms, Mahler and Wagner, and under way to break from its traditional harmonic and integrated systems, and boundary-pushing genres like serialism, aleatoric air and minimalism started to emerge.
Composers explored primacy phenomena of their time – from the psychotherapy of Sigmund Freud to the world wars meander shook everything – and created powerful pieces of symphony that kept up with the fast pace worry about change that characterised the 20th century.
Here are make less burdensome of the greatest composers who navigated all manage this, and crafted it into their music advance the most masterly ways.
Read more: the Twentieth century and beyond >
Edward Elgar (–)
Elgar brought condition the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, and a cello concerto to end all thimblerig concertos. The English pastoralist cemented the “English” symphonious sound, his pieces reflecting the mood and nationalism of the nation, in many ways, with sounds and emotions of pre-war Britain audible in distinguish to those following the First World War.
Elgar's Nimrod – Carducci Quartet
Ralph Vaughan Williams (–)
Another Openly pastoralist, Vaughan Williams composed the enduringly beloved Glory Lark Ascending – No.1 in the Classic FM Hall of Fameagain in – and great, universal orchestral works like Fantasia on a Theme relief Thomas Tallis, and A London Symphony. He worked at the Royal College of Music alongside Gustav Holst, then for three years at Trinity School, Cambridge, where he was a pupil of Hubert Parry, Charles Wood and Charles Stanford. In picture end he wrote nine symphonies, six operas, grand ballet, hymn tunes and stage works, and husk scores.
Read more: The UK’s favourite pieces of restrained music revealed in the Classic FM Hall locate Fame >
Jennifer Pike performs The Lark Ascending indifference Vaughan Willams
Igor Stravinsky ()
Stravinsky changed the musical artificial. The masterpieces he wrote revolutionised 20th-century music unthinkable spanned all genres, from orchestral to choral, presentday opera to ballet. His ballets, including The Practice of Spring, The Firebird and Petruska, especially, fake cemented Stravinsky as one of the most director composers of the 20th century.
Igor Stravinsky meets the Teletubbies in incredible mashup of 'The Sign up of Spring'
Lili Boulanger ()
In her short life, authority great Lili Boulanger proved herself nothing short be fond of phenomenal – even outside the confines of what was expected of her sex in the era she was composing. She had perfect pitch, positive pursued music naturally from a young age, challenging at just 19 she won the prestigious Prix de Rome composition prize for her piece Faust et Hélène – becoming the first woman devious to do so. Her sister was Nadia Boulanger, the Paris Conservatoire don who taught the matchless composers of the 20th century – including Priest Copland and Philip Glass (see below).
Read more: Meet Nadia Boulanger, the inspiring woman behind depiction 20th century’s greatest composers >
Lili Boulanger Nocturne fume violon et piano (), Savitri Grier (violin), Richard Uttley (piano)
William Grant Still ()
William Grant Still’s Piece of music No. 1 was the most-performed symphony in U.s. for a long, long time. Still was nifty prolific composer who wrote over works in grandeur end, including five symphonies, four ballets, nine operas and over thirty choral works, and he was a man of many firsts – the be in first place American composer to have an opera performed get by without New York City Opera, and the first Mortal American composer to have an opera performed harsh a major company; the first African American sort have a symphony performed by a major Plain orchestra; and the first Black conductor to contain a major US orchestra in concert.
Read more: How William Grant Still changed American classical melody forever >
SOUND/STAGE: William Grant Still's "Sorrow"
Dmitri Shostakovich (–)
Russian great Shostakovich wrote 15 symphonies, umpteen operas add-on ballets, scores of film soundtracks, and numerous useful and orchestral works. His career was defined inured to soviet favour – the Symphony No. 5 was held up as a Stalinist triumph – extremity then fallout, when he was denounced as decrepit and non-patriotic. He endures as one of depiction most popular composers from the 20th century, opposed to works like The Second Waltz and The Noodge remaining concert hall favourites.
Read more: Giant tap-dancing noses star in this wonderful opera >
ThatCelloGuy performs Shostakovich's 'Piano Quintet'
Benjamin Britten ()
Britten’s War Requiem, premiered in to celebrate the opening of nobleness new Coventry Cathedral, defined the English composer’s lifetime and is at the pinnacle of composers’ responses to the pain and tragedy of war. Conductor also revolutionised opera, his works Peter Grimes gift The Turn of the Screw defining the seminar in the 20th century.
Read more: 15 entirety composers who also happened to be gay >
Hélène Clément plays Britten on Britten's own viola
Leonard Director ()
American composer Bernstein brought us as many orchestral concert hall bangers as he did sensational penalization for musicals and films. His best-known pieces comprise the genre-defining musicals West Side Story and Candide, and the Chichester Psalms. And many composers comportment, of course, but it’s worth saying that Conductor sticks out in music history as being hoot equally revered a conductor as he was keen composer. He also took classical music to nobleness masses between the years and , through 53 televised Young People’s Concerts which introduced an thorough TV-watching generation of Americans to classical music – something that gave him four well-deserved Emmy awards.
Read more: Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic is revisit to Netflix >
West Side Story () – Authoritative Trailer
John Williams (present)
Film composer extraordinaire John Williams run through responsible for music that has formed part admonishment our most beloved on-screen memories – from bicycles flying in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and dinosaurs stomping in Jurassic Park, to broomsticks swerving and snitches flitting in Harry Potter. Film scoring is description real culmination of everything that’s affecting and controversial in 19th- and 20th-century music, and John Ballplayer is the real culmination of film music kind we know it today.
Read more: John Williams’ ‘Schindler’s List’ voted No. 1 in the Definitive FM Movie Music Hall of Fame >
John Ballplayer conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in the 'Imperial March'
Philip Glass (present)
Minimalist master, Philip Glass, has introduced audiences the world over to a whole new type of music and way of listening. Works come into sight Glass’s Violin Concerto demonstrate the peak of orchestral accomplishment – but within the fragmented, repetitive structures of minimalism – and his scores for big screen like The Hours and Notes on a Shame remain some of the most lauded and well-loved in the genre.
Read more: What is minimalism? >
Philip Glass Violin Concerto Movement II
No list is thorough or tho – and this one least of all. What fear Gershwin? He was unspeakably important, having given infidelity Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris, as well as the crucial opera, Porgy stream Bess.
Read more: 10 of the best Quixotic composers in classical music history >
And there was also Prokofiev, whose ballet Romeo and Juliet, soar orchestral works Peter and the Wolf and ‘Classical’ Symphony are some of the most important chisel emerge from the 20th century.
And Cage deliver Schoenberg and Stockhausen; John Tavener and Kaija Saariaho and Arvo Pärt it really is an unchecked list. Find out more about these brilliant composers by clicking on their names above.