Page "Music of New York City" Paragraph 28

In the middle of the 20th century, the most influential New York composers included the Massachusetts native and conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, known for his works Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs, Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion, Chichester Psalms and the musicals On the Town and West Side Story.

Another major composer was Elliott Carter, whom John Warthen Struble claimed would likely be remembered as " the most significant of the mid-20th century ... composers he reconceived and restructured the fundamental language of Western art music in evolving his powerful personal style ... his music has earned immense respect from colleagues of virtually every esthetic stripe, as well as three generations of performing musicians and audiences ".

Carter's compositions include Eight Etudes and a Fantasy for Wind Quintet and a Sonata for ' cello and piano.

In addition to Carter and Bernstein, in the mid-20th century, New York produced the film composer Bernard Herrmann, Gunther Schuller and serialist Leon Kirchner.