For the past few years, member station Q2 in New York City has been enlisting listeners in a thought-provoking year-end poll. Forget the best music of the last year — what are the very best compositions of the last century?
What I really like is that by stipulating voters must choose music composed on or after January 1, 1915, a lot of what is still called "modern" music is ineligible: no more Rite of Spring, Pierrot Lunaire or Jeux. In this way, the conversation keeps evolving, year by year — and because the voting is open-ended, there's lots of room for a wide array of opinions to be heard.
So help us define tomorrow's musical canon by responding in the poll below. (If you're hankering for some suggestions, check out last year's favorites, with Schoenberg's String Trio at No. 100 and Reich's Music for 18 Musicians in the top spot.)
Voting closes Saturday, Dec. 20. Q2 will webcast the top choices during a marathon countdown at year's end, beginning Saturday, Dec. 27 — and they'd love to mention some of your comments during their marathon. If you'd like to be publicly identified, please be sure to include your name or Twitter handle in the poll. Happy choosing!
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