Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, whose official title is the Queen's Master of Music, described Hirst's work - which recently raised £111 million at auction - as "manufactured artefacts without content."
In a speech to the conference of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, he also criticised politicians and educationalists and warned that the country was in an "age of commercial depravity and irresponsibility".
He expressed concern over the perception that classical music was elitist, which he described as inverted snobbery, and said politicians had dumbed down so much they were "almost below the horizon".
Sir Peter, 74, used Hirst's record breaking auction at Sotheby's last month, which included The Golden Calf, a bull with gold horns and hoofs in a tank of formaldehyde that sold for £10.3 million, as an example of what was wrong with art today.
"I think we can all learn from a recent auction of art as an instantly recognisable iconic commodity, where it has become part of the entertainment industry, crossed with investment banking," he said.
"The artist had wit to sell a golden calf and other bejewelled trinkets, but all creative artists, in whatever branch of the arts they work, must ponder the implications of so much money scrambling after manufactured artefacts without content, with just a brand tag supposed to guarantee market value.
"The pressures on us to conform to this image of 'success' in our various art worlds are enormous.
"It reminds me of the Liberace museum in Las Vegas, where the great man's tatty stage costumes are exhibited, each with a fabulous price tag, and we are supposed to be uplifted.
"There are, of course, interesting visual artists out there, but this auction pantomime reflects the reductio ad absurdum (Latin for "reduced to the absurd") of an art world where the principles of the market reign supreme."
Sir Peter, who lives in Orkney and is known to his friends as Max, is regarded as one of Britain's most important living composers and conductors.
He told his audience at the Royal Overseas League in London that Britain's composers led the world, but the pressures on them to conform to market forces were incredible. He traced the current malaise back to Margaret Thatcher.
"Over the last decades, since Thatcher, every commodity, including culture, not only has to be 'approachable,' but, above all, have a measurable market, or commercial value, and must be demonstrably accessible to the largest spread of public. My main concern is how this is changing the face of our musical culture," he said.
"Politics has dumbed itself down to almost below the horizon, with the public given no credit for intelligence or intellect, while, ironically, ever fewer people trouble to vote, such is the disillusion and disgust.
Sir Peter also took a swipe at educationalists and the "lowest common denominator" rule which meant that "nothing must be challenging, where blandness is all-pervasive, where students at all levels must feel good, confident, and at all costs never be allowed to imagine they could ever, if they don't work, be considered a failure".
Hirst, 43, dominated the art scene in the 1990s, largely due to his association with the collector Charles Saatchi, and last month took the unusual step of selling a complete show at Sotheby's, breaking the record for a one-artist auction in the process.
