20th Century Composers

like van morrison and john williams, he isnt dead yet, so it is hard to talk about his "legacy", but I would say, minimalism and Einstein On the Beach

Re John Williams.. compare him to Beethoven???? All they have in common is that maybe they wrote for violins. 50 years after Williams is dead no one will remember him for anything serious concerning music. See you at the movies

right. But in the long run it's WHAT THEY COMPOSED that matters, the value of the compositions,, not just the fact that they "did their own thing". Everyone from pure hack to genius can do their own thing, make a living, whatever, but that's not what we care about (not what I care about anyway). What I care about is the product. And if I look at Beethoven's product--what he wrote--it's in a league altogether different than John Williams--maybe not simply because the latter wrote movie music, but for many other reasons. And maybe John Williams is the equal of Sousa...so what?--in terms of comparisons to Beethoven, they are both marching in the wind.

Ok so to answer the posed question (at last), for me: Coltrane, Stravinsky, Glass