Living Composers

[Dr. Dread]

Who's hot? Who's not? And how do you find all this stuff out?

[karlhenning]

I'm not hot, and you don't want to know how I found that out.

[Dr. Dread]

I'm not hot, and you don't want to know how I found that out.

You're hot on GMG. 

[karlhenning]

Gosh! 

[Lethevich]

Since the death of Ligeti (and inevitably imminent deaths of Carter, Boulez & Co.), there will be no more "obvious" choices - you will recieve as many names as you get replies. Depending on what you are looking for, perhaps some recommendations could be tailored to your taste?

I suppose Ades may qualify as "hot" at the moment, simply due to the sheer amount of marketing he recieves, but this isn't a sign of his quality - there are dozens of living composers of equal interest.

[springrite]

Saariaho and Salonen
I found out about these two because I lived in Los Angeles for 22 years, for most of that time Salonen was MD, and presented many Saariaho works, many of them premiere performances. In the earlier years he did not play his own music much. But did so much more later on, especially in the Green Umbrella Series (New Music Series). I have come to love both composers' works, lately Salonen even more than Saariaho.

Carter
Well, this is a gradual thing. For many years Carter's music was a tough nut to crack. But I could sense there is so much in it worthy of further effort. Eventually I got into it. The first work that I really liked was Triple Duo.

Kurtag
He is still alive, isn't he? I loved the (seeming?) simplicity of many of his works. But even more than that, I love how everything about the music and the man is so genuine. I got the first CD out of curiosity (Games, for two pianos). After that, I couldn't stop. I have a friend going to Hungary next month. I will ask her to get everything she can find of Kurtag.

Eotvos
Well, I actually have very little of his works. Just two to be exact. But I have heard more from other sources. I first took interest of him because of his conducting. When I read on the booklets about him also being a composer, I became curious. Three Sisters is a masterpiece! Atlantis is very interesting although I do not listen to it much. I will look for more of his works.

Henning
Well, last but certainly not least, the composer more responsible for global warming than fossil fuel. I have two bootleg CDs that gets frequent play. I especially love the Passion. Vanessa is more partial to the mousetrap.

[Dr. Dread]

Depending on what you are looking for, perhaps some recommendations could be tailored to your taste?

Well, I'm a baby. I need at least a little structure. (Free jazz or free anything doesn't do much for me--yet().)  Voices or instruments randomly hooting or shrieking or whatever, not my bag. Yuk.

[Dr. Dread]

Saariaho and Salonen
I found out about these two because I lived in Los Angeles for 22 years, for most of that time Salonen was MD, and presented many Saariaho works, many of them premiere performances. In the earlier years he did not play his own music much. But did so much more later on, especially in the Green Umbrella Series (New Music Series). I have come to love both composers' works, lately Salonen even more than Saariaho.

Carter
Well, this is a gradual thing. For many years Carter's music was a tough nut to crack. But I could sense there is so much in it worthy of further effort. Eventually I got into it. The first work that I really liked was Triple Duo.

Kurtag
He is still alive, isn't he? I loved the (seeming?) simplicity of many of his works. But even more than that, I love how everything about the music and the man is so genuine. I got the first CD out of curiosity (Games, for two pianos). After that, I couldn't stop. I have a friend going to Hungary next month. I will ask her to get everything she can find of Kurtag.

Eotvos
Well, I actually have very little of his works. Just two to be exact. But I have heard more from other sources. I first took interest of him because of his conducting. When I read on the booklets about him also being a composer, I became curious. Three Sisters is a masterpiece! Atlantis is very interesting although I do not listen to it much. I will look for more of his works.

Henning
Well, last but certainly not least, the composer more responsible for global warming than fossil fuel. I have two bootleg CDs that gets frequent play. I especially love the Passion. Vanessa is more partial to the mousetrap.

Thanks. I've heard some Salonen (decent), Carter (challenging) and Henning. I appreciate your detailed recommendations.

[springrite]

Thanks. I've heard some Salonen (decent), Carter (challenging) and Henning. I appreciate your detailed recommendations.

I am quite sure you will like Kurtag.

[Dr. Dread]

I am quite sure you will like Kurtag.

I will begin the search... 

[bhodges]

Dave, see if this excerpt from Alex Ross's article on John Luther Adams whets your interest, and if so, you can listen to Dark Waves free, at the end of the article.  It's only about 12 minutes long, so it's not a huge investment in time.

Although Adams is content to write for electronics, small ensembles, and percussion groups, he still longs to write for larger forces, and, above all, for orchestra. For most of the eighties, he was the timpanist for the Fairbanks Symphony, which, at the time, was led by the conductor, composer, and environmental activist Gordon Wright. During Adams's cabin-in-the-forest period, Wright was living nearby, and the two became close friends, often trekking into the wilderness together. Once, they drove into the Alaska Range while listening to Bruckner's Eighth Symphony, music that has the weight of mountains. "This may be where our musical worlds meet," Adams said to him.

Wright died last year, near Anchorage, at the age of seventy-two; he was found one night on the deck of his cabin. A few days later, the Anchorage Symphony played the première of Adams's "Dark Waves," an extraordinary piece for orchestra and electronics, which the composer dedicated to Wright. One of the most arresting American orchestral works of recent years, it suggests a huge entity, of indeterminate shape, that approaches slowly, exerts apocalyptic force, and then recedes. Every instrument is, in one way or another, playing with the simple interval of the perfect fifth—the basic building block of harmony—but at the climax the lines coalesce into roaring dissonances, with all twelve notes of the chromatic scale sounding together.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_ross?currentPage=all

--Bruce

[Dr. Dread]

Dave, see if this excerpt from Alex Ross's article on John Luther Adams whets your interest, and if so, you can listen to Dark Waves free, at the end of the article.  It's only about 12 minutes long, so it's not a huge investment in time.

Although Adams is content to write for electronics, small ensembles, and percussion groups, he still longs to write for larger forces, and, above all, for orchestra. For most of the eighties, he was the timpanist for the Fairbanks Symphony, which, at the time, was led by the conductor, composer, and environmental activist Gordon Wright. During Adams's cabin-in-the-forest period, Wright was living nearby, and the two became close friends, often trekking into the wilderness together. Once, they drove into the Alaska Range while listening to Bruckner's Eighth Symphony, music that has the weight of mountains. "This may be where our musical worlds meet," Adams said to him.

Wright died last year, near Anchorage, at the age of seventy-two; he was found one night on the deck of his cabin. A few days later, the Anchorage Symphony played the première of Adams's "Dark Waves," an extraordinary piece for orchestra and electronics, which the composer dedicated to Wright. One of the most arresting American orchestral works of recent years, it suggests a huge entity, of indeterminate shape, that approaches slowly, exerts apocalyptic force, and then recedes. Every instrument is, in one way or another, playing with the simple interval of the perfect fifth—the basic building block of harmony—but at the climax the lines coalesce into roaring dissonances, with all twelve notes of the chromatic scale sounding together.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_ross?currentPage=all

--Bruce

Hey, thanks. Will do, when I get home tonight.

[Lethevich]

Hmm, perhaps give this track a shot. It is the first movement of Erkki-Sven Tüür's violin concerto.

His music is an accessable hybrid of modernism and minimalism (his music seems to be an ever more refined attempt to reconcile the two). His mature pieces tend to have quite a strong structure despite their sparse nature, and by even mid-20th century standards the "modern" elements are quite tame. I find him comparable at times to Peter Eötvös - who springrite has already mentioned - in his free combination of electronics and ensemble, confident writing for large orchestra, and also a certain similarity in atmosphere.

[Cato]

Henning
Well, last but certainly not least, the composer more responsible for global warming than fossil fuel. I have two bootleg CDs that gets frequent play. I especially love the Passion. Vanessa is more partial to the mousetrap.

Ahem: Mr. Henning to you!  

Out In The Sun is an all-around fave!   0:)

[Dr. Dread]

Hmm, perhaps give this track a shot. It is the first movement of Erkki-Sven Tüür's violin concerto.

His music is an accessable hybrid of modernism and minimalism (his music seems to be an ever more refined attempt to reconcile the two). His mature pieces tend to have quite a strong structure despite their sparse nature, and by even mid-20th century standards the "modern" elements are quite tame. I find him comparable at times to Peter Eötvös - who springrite has already mentioned - in his free combination of electronics and ensemble, confident writing for large orchestra, and also a certain similarity in atmosphere.

Thanks, Sara. Will do, later.

[Dr. Dread]

Also, I will take the contemplative and even-tempered over the shrieking and discordant.

[karlhenning]

Also, I will take the contemplative and even-tempered over the shrieking and discordant.

With that Henning cat, of course, you sometimes get contemplative and discordant.

[Dr. Dread]

With that Henning cat, of course, you sometimes get contemplative and discordant.

If it's more one than the other, that's fine. I don't mind it as a meaningful episode within a composition. Otherwise, it doesn't really fit my personality.

[Dr. Dread]

And I'm not afraid of complexity, if that helps. 

[some guy]

Who's hot? Who's not? And how do you find all this stuff out?

I'd rather just answer this original post than do any tailoring, esp. as Mn's tastes seem to get narrower and narrower with each post, or at least more exclusive of the kinds of things one could reasonably consider to have some heat to them.

So in spite of Lethe's assessment of the post-Ligeti landscape, here are some* fairly dominant figures in new music. (You find this stuff out like you find out anything, I guess. You listen, you read, you talk, and if you're lucky, you hang out with some of the hot whos.)

In no order:

Helmut Lachenmann
Zbigniew Karkowski
Eliane Radigue
Lyn Goeringer
Christine Kubisch
Brandon LaBelle
Francis Dhomont
Dennis Smalley
Giles Gobeil
Natasha Barrett

Gosh, maybe Lethe was right!! Or at least, if s/he meant that after Ligeti, there are so many who are hot that no one stands out (which I've heard at least one warm composer advance as the new orthodoxy).

*very very few, actually