Will there ever be a Bach, Beethoven or equivalent for these times.?

Question

there doesn't seem to be any great composers anymore? I wonder why not.?

will any of todays music still be listenable in 100 years time?

Answer 1

In my opinion, Beethoven himself has answered this in a best way: after a quarrel with his friend and sponsor Prince Von Lichnowski he has written in his famous letter the following:
"Prince! What You are, is due solely to the fact of your birth. What I am, is due only to myself. There have been and there will be a lot of Princes, but Beethoven will be only one!"

I also think that there will never be another Bach or another Beethoven.

Answer 2

The trouble with answering this question is that posterity tends to provide the answer eventually. It is ridiculous to suppose that only composers born 200-300 years ago can be 'great'. There was nothing in the water then that means that composers today can't be great. The trouble is, we can't judge things in the way that they will be judged in 200-300 years' time.

There are plenty of first-rate composers that have been active in recent times or who are alive even now. I think some of these are already recognised as 'great' composers and I think time will treat them and their music kindly. Among those I am talking about (and I realise some of the first ones have been dead a while now) are (in no particular order):

Igor Stravinsky
Béla Bartók
Sergei Prokofiev
Dmitri Shostakovich
Edgar Varèse
György Ligeti
Olivier Messiaen
Witold Lutosławski
Vagn Holmboe
Toru Takemitsu
Benjamin Britten

And, among those alive now:
John Corigliano
Kalevi Aho
Elliott Carter (100th birthday in 2008!)
John Adams
Per Nørgård
Arvo Pärt
Erkki-Sven Tüür
Thomas Adès

And I believe some of the great songwriters will be remembered and revered in centuries to come:

Stephen Sondheim
Cole Porter
George Gershwin
Bob Dylan
John Lennon
Paul McCartney
Richard Rodgers (with Hart and Hammerstein)
Jerome Kern

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

Arvo Part is taking his own direction, just like Bach and Beethoven did. Eric Whitacre is cutting a fold in choral music. John Williams has become the film composer of his time. I don't think we will see an equivalent, but we are currently seeing composers who are taking their own roads. Bach, Beethoven, and the boys are certainly influences and we may hear traces of their themes, but Bach and Beethoven had to first carve their own niche. That is what modern composers must do.

Answer 4

To be a great composer like Bach or Beethoven a person needs to be trained in classical music from a very young age in addition to having a natural talent for composition.
Very few people receive such training today as pop music has taken over as the dominant music form. Yes, there are still many people who learn classical piano , violin etc. but there is nobody out there commisioning great works of music like there was in Bach's day.
In other words ; there is very little incentive to compose a symphony ; the closest is composing film scores.

Answer 5

Another thing to consider about art music vs. pop music is that we are in the age of the "university composer" - composers who get jobs at universities instead of relying solely on their writing for income. There ARE some great composers out there today and they will continue to receive recognition after they die, but I don't think we have a singular prodigy such as Bach/Mozart/Beethoven alive today.

Another thing to consider - outside of film music, name a famous living Italian/German/English composer? It's not easy (unless you're using Google). When was the last time in history that you could not name a famous composer from those areas?

Answer 6

Your question makes me so angry because you are so right. There are no good composers anymore. I get so disgusted that rap has become the most popular "music," or that it is even considered music. I think the reason we will never see any more Beethovens, Bachs, or other musical geniuses is due to society becoming lazier in general. In our modern day we can get away without putting in effort or having discipline. For this reason I highly doubt we will see more Shakespeares or Einsteins as well. I also blame new (worse) forms of entertainment. Now we have TV, video games, and movies to waste hours watching instead of practicing the piano or violin.

Answer 7

Who knows? Bach was hardly known outside his local area until 100 years later when people like Mendelssohn rediscovered his music. To suggest, however, as one answer does that they were writing the 'pop music' of their day is just daft. Who knows what composers are writing today whose music never gets heard?

Later. I've just read the posting that states no great 'classical' music has been written in the past 50 years. What utter poppycock! This ignores (from a British point of view) most of Britten, for example, and John Taverner, still alive an writing (try and get hold of a copy of 'The Protecting Veil') To be less insular, Shostakovich was writing within the last 50 years. Those are just three off the top of my head.

Answer 8

I think the answer to your question lies in an observation of the music created in recent times. There has been no great music created in recent times... say the past fifty years. Even the most acclaimed composers after about the middle of the last century are acclaimed because of the lack of Bachs or Beethovens during their time. When there is a lack of genius the banal rises to the top. However, fifty years is not that long in the big scheme of things and most classical music composers do not achieve recognition in their own lifetimes. Great music has to withstand the test of time to become "great." The other thing is that the greatness of Bach or Beethoven is also a product of the milieu in which their music is created. If a Beethoven were alive today, would anybody even notice?
The world today seems to have little capacity for such milieu to give rise to greatness.

Answer 9

I don't think there will be.

I think people who could compose classical music will be remembered for different things. In a different time, I think John Williams, Nobou Uematsu or Yoko Kanno could be considered great composers in a different timd but now they wouldn't get that same recognition now because they do movies, video games and anime respectively.

Even great artists may now longer be recognised because they do computer graphics or graffiti instead of works on canvas.

However peoples work are never fully appreciated in their own times, and it could take a long time after their deaths before people are accepted as the genius composers they still were. It's just because the medium is different. Composers don't really work to put stuff on stage, but stuff in different forms of entertainment so they may be famous and their work may be loved, but it's not going to mean something for the most part because they aren't on stage.

Answer 10

I think pieces that raise one's mind to goodness, truth and beauty would have the hallmarks of truly great works. Good music, like Bach's and Mozart's have order and balance.

I don't know who all the "classic" composers are today, but at least some modern pieces are disordered.