Who was America's leading composer for classical music?!
Question: Je comprends pas l'anglais ! Mais il y eut Charles Ives pour la musique d'avant garde à la fin du XIXème début XXème et Barber pour la musique post-malher comme vraiment grand, puis je ne sais plus si Philipp Glass est américain mais Adams oui c'est le courant minimaliste, mais pour avoir entendu sa musique en vrai et surtout maintenant qu'il est très vieux (100 ans) c'est la musique d'Eliot Carter qui est magnifique.
Answers: Je comprends pas l'anglais ! Mais il y eut Charles Ives pour la musique d'avant garde à la fin du XIXème début XXème et Barber pour la musique post-malher comme vraiment grand, puis je ne sais plus si Philipp Glass est américain mais Adams oui c'est le courant minimaliste, mais pour avoir entendu sa musique en vrai et surtout maintenant qu'il est très vieux (100 ans) c'est la musique d'Eliot Carter qui est magnifique.
You want FACT ( impossible!) or opinion? In jazz, most aficionados will agree that with an output of over 2,000 compositions ( thank you , Billy Strayhorn, too) Duke Ellington takes top spot. Classical/art music? You will get a LIST here from all responders - Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Steven Sondheim, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin - you can see that that list will wander into The American Songbook, too, and Broadway music. If you narrow this down by genre, style period, century - you lists will get shorter - but you will NOT get The One Right Answer to this - ever.
Mamianka is right, you will get a lot of different answers, and that's because you can't really pick the best composer because everyone has their own opinion. I personally like Aaron Copland the most. His style is so original and when you hear, makes you think so much of America and it's traits.
I hope you get a lot of great answers!
Of course this is opinion. I hope there are lots of other opinions posted.
Dead: Charles Ives
Living: John Adams
Lois Armstrong is by far the most important American musician/composer I don't think thats even an opinion but simply observable fact. Most 20th century music flows from him big time.
Charles Ives
Frank Zappa
and, last but not least ....
Duke Ellington
Also...
Edgar Varese
Leonard Bernstein
George Gershwin
I'll discount jazz and popular composers as you ask specifically for classical composers. Taste dictates who is the 'leading' composer, but as an Englishman with a liking for American classical music I'll throw in a few names (in no particular order):-
Edward MacDowell
Charles Ives
Roy Harris
William Schuman (one 'n', no relation of Robert)
Walter Piston
Virgil Thomson
John Philip Sousa
Victor Herbert
Aaron Copland
Samuel Barber
Leonard Bernstein
George Antheil
William Grant Still
Amy Beach
As one of the above responders expressed, you will get as many different opinions as there are music lovers.
I personally, don't care for jazz in any form: never listen to it.
That being said, I will offer my six "favorite" American composers:
Charles Ives
Charles Griffes
Scott Joplin
Aaron Copland
George Gershwin
Edward MacDowell
I would like to call special attention to Charles Griffes: a great composer who unfortunately like Mozart, died at a very early age.
His two masterpieces are: "The White Peacock" and "The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan". Anyone who considers themselves a classical music lover, should listen to these at some time in thier life.
Alberich
I don't know about leading but my all time fav is Howard Hanson.
Perhaps one of the best known American compositions of serious instrumental music (There were no American composers of the classical period), is Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin. He also composed an American jazz opera "Porgy and Bess."
The two greatest American composers of American opera today are Philip Glass and John Adams, whose most recent work "Doctor Atomic" (about J. Robert Openheimer and the development of the Atom Bomb) premiered a year or two ago in San Francisco.
I HATE PHILIP GLASS AND COPLAND!
My favourite is Barber!
And after that comes.....hmmmm......Gershwin!!!
EDIT: My personal motto: AVOID JOHN CAGE AT ALL COSTS!!!
many say aaron copland
You will get a thousand answers from a thousand 'experts'.
Charles Ives was an astounding innovator. Aaron Copeland was prolific but less than innovative. Samuel Barber was not really an American, as his heritage was thought to be Briton by most. John Philip Sousa is not really a 'classical' composer, although he is likely the most well known and best published. Lord, this is all opinion, so here I go. Charles Ives.
Good luck finding a consensus.
You have received many great answers! Lucky you! My personal favorite is Aaron Copeland.