Michael Tippett was never satisfied with one kind of musical form. Operas, symphonies, concertos, sonatas, choral works, string quartets -- he dabbled in them all. Even within a single work, he was fond of combining numerous influences, from Beethoven to English folk music to reggae to rap. Tippett's

20th-century music, Composed, Eclectic, Intense, Layered, Sensual

Born in a small farm town in Germany in 1928, progressive composer Karlheinz Stockhausen found his greatest pleasure in listening to the radio with his mother and playing what he heard on the piano. He began piano lessons at the age of six. At eight, he was performing popular tunes for tips and food

20th-century music, Collage, Dense, Musique concrete

During the climactic battle scene in Kurosawa's "Ran," the camera gazes on soldiers pierced with arrows or thrust against burning battlements. In the castle tower, a patriarch searches in vain for a sword with which to commit hara-kiri. As our eyes take in the tragedy, we hear neither the cries of me

20th-century music, Contemplative, Ethereal, Moody, Organic, Silence

Shostakovich is often, in musical circles, called the greatest composer of the twentieth century. Yet the quality of his music is so uneven that, while a third of it is the brain-bombing work of a divine genius, another third is almost worthless, and another third scares young violinists into abandon

20th-century music, Catastrophe, Lyrical, Melancholy, Moody, Pathos, Visceral