Prizes included the Guggenheim; the Prix de Rome that awarded three years of study at the American Academy of Music; the Pulitzer Prize; and the National Academy of Arts and Letters. Composers’ works were published by awards from the Eastman School of Music, Juilliard, and the Society for the Publication of American Music. In addition, the League of Composers commissioned much 20th-century music (Machlis 350). Begun in 1921, the International Composers Guild allowed aspiring musical artists to join a professional organization. This was followed by the International Society for Contemporary Music, the American Composers’ Alliance, and the National Association of American Composers and Conductors. An 1927 magazine called New Music was founded to promote the generating of new ideas.

As prominent music schools started to pay attention to young and new composers, they allowed these musicians to serve as school directors and to teach composition. Famous Parisian instructor, composer, and conductor Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) taught many Americans: Aaron Copland, Roy Harris (1898-1979), Walter Piston (1894-1970), Douglas Moore (1893-1969), and Quincy Porter (1897-1966), to name a few. Copland, in turn, made a great impact on Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990). An active music educator and pianist, conductor and composer, Bernstein fused jazz with musical theater, which resulted in the very popular West Side Story.

When the Great Depression hung over America in the 1930s, music helped lift the pessimistic mood. Folk songs, spirituals, and work songs ensured that musicians would still be financially supported. At the end of the 1930s and later, composers became interested in native American music, American religious music, patriotic songs, work songs, and jazz "city music" (Machlis 377). Like Europe, Latin American music was supported by the government. Popular styles from this country had an impact all over the world, and both ragtime and jazz reached Europe in no time.

World War II caused great chaos in the musical life of Europe. Bombs ruined opera houses and concert halls, and many European composers came to the United States to seek refuge and artistic freedom. During the years of Nazi rule, America enjoyed being the musical center of the world, with legendary composers like Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Paul Hindemith, Darius Milhaud, Ernst Krenek, and Czechoslovakian Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959). This, of course, left a void in German music after the war.

Evolved with the intent to express emotions that were important during the 19th-century period, "New Romanticism" has brought modern styles full circle with composers like American Samuel Barber (1910-1981) and Thea Musgrave (b. 1928) from Scotland. Minimalist music was invented to eliminate all nonessentials and focus on repetition of a few important details. Minimalism is seen in music of Terry Riley (b. 1935) and Philip Glass (b. 1937).

In the 1950s, scientists came out with the RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer that produced tones electronically. Radio also became accessible throughout Europe. The LP record from 1948 and the tape recorder eliminated some expenses, and recording equipment was used in villages (particularly by Bartók and Kodály) throughout the world to capture the essence of folk music. Society grew from disc recording to magnetic tape recorders, and electronic and acoustic instruments were put into use. Beginning in the 1960s, computers were programmed to synthesize sounds as well as used to compose. Today we have MIDI, or Musical Instruments Digital Interface, allowing for computer music and composing electronically.