The American Composers

Aaron Copland (1900-1990) was a student of Nadia Boulangy and composed a great deal of original music for the piano including a set of piano variations (1930), a Piano Sonata (1939-1941) and the Piano Fantasy (1955-1957). Elliot Carter (1908-present) composed his sonata, night fantasies (1982) and also was a student of Nadia Boulangy. Samuel Barber (1910-1981) wrote primarily the 4 excursions (1944), his Sonata Op. 26, and his Ballade in 1977. Milton Babit was an extremely mathematical composer and had his own way of composing. Then you have countless other composers such as Willaim Bolcom and Albright (both composers in the Rag style), John Adams (minimalist), Ewsky Frederick (famous for the composition of "People United Will Never Be Defeated"), Liebermann, Cowell (most influential composer in terms of getting us to work inside of the piano during performance), John Cage (heavily influenced by eastern philosophy and perhaps most famous for his compositional work of 4:33), and George Crumb (more romantic that has a large emphasis on symbols of the sound and music).