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Twentieth Century
Classical Music |
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The term
classical music is a convenient shorthand that refers to the
body of Western art music, as distinguished from popular or folk music.
It is an
important component of Western culture to which glbtq people have
contributed significantly. |
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Nadia Boulanger |
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 Samuel Barber
(1910-1981), was an American composer who contributed to the cultural
life of the United States and the world.
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 Leonard
Bernstein (1918-1990) was a popular, glamorous, brash American
composer who lived a closeted life. |
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Marc
Blitzstein (1905-1964) attempted to create politically relevant
music.
Nadia Boulanger
(1887-1979) was one of the greatest teachers of musical composition in
the twentieth century.
Benjamin Britten
(1913-1976) created many works that were inspired by his relationship
with his lover, tenor
Peter Pears
(1910-1986).
John Cage
(1912-1992) ironically emphasized the importance of silence in music.
Aaron Copland
(1900-1990) composed many musical works that embody the idea of
American history, struggle, and courage.
John
Corigliano (b. 1938) has composed some of the most moving music
inspired by the AIDS epidemic.
Henry Cowell
(1897-1965) sought to create an "ultramodern" style based on Western,
Asian, and African music.
David Del
Tredici (b. 1937) is a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer
and pianist noted for his neo-Romantic style.
Manuel de Falla
(1876-1946) is one of the most illustrious twentieth-century Spanish
composers.
Lou Harrison
(1917-2003), an American composer, is particularly well known for his
use of instruments from the East, especially the Javanese gamelan.
Hans Werner Henze
(b. 1926), a German composer and conductor, employs of a wide range of
styles in his music.
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 Gian Carlo
Menotti (b. 1911), an Italian-born American composer, had a
successful career even though he lived an openly gay life when it was
dangerous to do so.
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Francis Poulenc
(1899-1963), an openly gay French composer, was one of the most
thoughtful composers of the twentieth century.
Maurice Ravel
(1875-1937) was one of France's most distinguished composers. He
projected a public identity as a dapper man-about-town.
Ned Rorem
(b. 1923) is one of the most accomplished composers of art songs in the
world.
Dame Ethyl Smyth
(1858-1944) was the most important female composer of English music in
the early twentieth-century.
Karol Maciej
Szymanowski (1882-1937) is revered as the father of
contemporary Polish music even though he expresses homoeroticism in his
work.
Virgil Thomson
(1896-1989) created an American form of classical music that is both
serious and whimsically sardonic.
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Photo
Credits: The
photos of Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti are details from
portraits by Carl van Vechten. The photograph of Leonard Bernstein is a detail from a portrait by Fred Palumbo. All photographs in this
spotlight appear courtesy of the Library of
Congress Prints and Photographs Division. |
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