21st century classical music

Started by James, May 25, 2012, 04:30:28 PM

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James

Ok ..

Its 2012, we're 12 years into it .. the early part a century can be fruitful times if we look hard enough in our crowded, diverse world; the world of "classical" composition as it is in this century is also very diverse and all over the place .. so let's try to come up with 21st century compositions that we've either heard ourselves, like and would recommend to others OR perhaps read major "buzz" about  (i.e. positive acclaim, esteemed awards, big audience draws etc.) that would be worth exploring. Maybe some of our younger members will be much more in tune with what's going on? Who knows ..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21st-century_classical_music
Action is the only truth

TheGSMoeller

My favorite piece written in the 21st century is David Lang's Little Match Girl Passion,




Here's a live excerpt performed by Theatre of Voices. There's more percussion parts later in the piece. I really encourage all to check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/v/lH-giL7c7Ts

some guy

http://www.youtube.com/v/NN8xk7xTWLg

Also an excerpt from a live show, one I saw myself live when it was newer.

Mirror Image

I'm a keen listener of all things Lindberg, Salonen, and Saariaho. But I also keep up with what Arvo Part, John Adams, and a few others are doing. A composer lately that has interested me is Anders Hillborg. Keep an eye on this composer. He's going places IMHO. Norgard, Birtwistle, and Ades have also composed some fascinating work in this century so far.

Philoctetes3

Quote from: some guy on May 25, 2012, 07:08:11 PM
http://www.youtube.com/v/NN8xk7xTWLg

That's fantastic stuff, I have an entire thread dedicated to my adoration of the 21st century. It's easily my favorite time period for classical music. If I was going to ease someone in though, I'd start with something relatively soft, and tell them to listen to Part's 4th Symphony, and then depending on how adventurous they want to be, I could go in any variety of directions. The disc below is probably my most listened to, as  of recent.

[asin]B0054QPNGG[/asin]

TheGSMoeller

#5
Quote from: Philoctetes3 on May 25, 2012, 08:15:34 PM
That's fantastic stuff, I have an entire thread dedicated to my adoration of the 21st century. It's easily my favorite time period for classical music. If I was going to ease someone in though, I'd start with something relatively soft, and tell them to listen to Part's 4th Symphony, and then depending on how adventurous they want to be, I could go in any variety of directions. The disc below is probably my most listened to, as  of recent.

[asin]B0054QPNGG[/asin]

Great stuff, Philo. Have you heard these great discs from Gordon?





Another of my favorite contemporary composers is Pascal Dusapin, I've been hooked on his opera Perelà, uomo di fumo (Perelà, man of smoke)

[asin]B0007DAXUC[/asin]

Henk

#6
Great composers for me are Birtwistle, Sciarrino and de Raaff. These composers belong to the very large ones to me. Maybe also Aperghis, I just discovered this composer. I like Vivier also very much (haven't listened to much of his work however). I consider Pécou as a great composer as well. After them come Ligeti and Donatoni. I need to listen to Saariaho still, the fragments I heared sound interesting to me.

Other composers, I checked out allmost all of them, are less interesting to me. I recheck some of them now and then however. German composers are too strange to me. Their work is good (Stockhausen, Lachenmann, Rihm), but I just don't like to listen to it.

I don't like the spectralism of Murail and Grisey at all. Negative tensions I feel by this music. Pécou is a spectralist I like.

DieNacht

#7
Silvestrov, Nørgård, Saariaho, Gubajdulina, Georgy Dorokhov, Pärt and Carter are among the most recent composers I try to follow a bit.
My interest in Unsuk Chin, Toshio Hosokawa and Charles Wuorinen is probably going to get greater; would also like to hear more from Jan Klusak, Tristan Murail and Wilhelm Killmayer, for instance.

Philoctetes3

Quote from: TheGSMoeller on May 26, 2012, 03:16:31 AM
Great stuff, Philo. Have you heard these great discs from Gordon?

I've not, but thanks for putting them on my radar.

some guy

Some other grand and old(ish) people still working in this century (including some recently deceased):

Pierre Henry
Francis Dhomont
Eliane Radigue
Yasunao Tone
Robert Ashley
Christian Wolff
Mary Anne Amacher
Luc Ferrari
Henri Chopin

And some (very few) other, younger grand people (in no order):

Michele Bokanowski
Beatriz Ferreyra
Caroline Bauckholts
Ludger Bruemmer
Otomo Yoshihide
Lionel Marchetti
Jerome Noetinger
Simon Steen-Andersen
Gerard Eckert
Barry Truax
Hildegard Westerkamp
Elio Martusciello
Francisco Lopez
Heiner Goebbels
Zbigniew Karkowski
Mark Andre (not sure if this is who James was referring to--if so, never mind!)
Martin Tetreault
Robin Hayward
Diana Simpson Salazar
Natasha Barrett
Ricardo Mandolini

Fun times to be in!


some guy

Michael.

And that's the guy. Mark Andre. A new favorite of mine to be sure.

ibanezmonster

Lachenmann has written several works this century. As consistent as Elliott Carter, though not quite as prolific.

Sakura-Variationen for saxophone, percussion and piano (2000)
3. Streichquartett "Grido", string quartet (2001)
Schreiben for orchestra (2003)
Double (Grido II) for string orchestra (2004)
Concertini for large ensemble (2005)
...got lost..., music for soprano and piano (2008)
Berliner Kirschblüten, an arrangement with three variations on a Japanese folksong for alto saxophone, piano and percussion (2008) - a continuation of the Sakura-Variationen on the Japanese folksong "Sakura", an adjacent work
Concerto for 8 Horns and Orchestra (2010–11), for Musica Viva Munich

Nico Muhly is probably the youngest very well-known contemporary composer (30 years old). He's the only major composer I can think of whose entire output is in the 2000s. I haven't heard anything from him that I like yet, though.



Here's this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_21st-century_classical_composers

Lethevich

Quote from: James on May 27, 2012, 01:32:06 PM
Krzysztof Penderecki

Double Concerto for Violin, Viola and Orchestra (2012)

I didn't know about this. I want~
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

snyprrr

Quote from: James on May 27, 2012, 03:47:01 PM
Continuing the 21st century survey .. which includes some of the most polarizing composers of art music
in the last 50 years or so, in their later periods of creativity .. 3 Americans ..

Philip Glass .. (partial list below)
In the Penal Colony (2000; voice & string quartet)
Galileo Galilei (2001; opera)
Symphonies 6-11 (2002-2011)
Concerto for 2 Timpanists & orchestra (2000)
Piano Concerto Nos. 1 & 2 (2000, 2004)
Harpsichord Concerto (2002)
The Hours (2002; commercial film score)
Orion (2004; Philip Glass Ensemble)
Waiting for the Barbarians (2005; opera)
The Passion of Ramakrishna (2006; orchestra, soloists, chorus)
Songs & Poems for solo cello (2005-2007)
Book of Longing (2007; song cycle with Leonard Cohen)
Appomattox (2007; opera)
Violin Concerto No. 2 "The American Four Seasons" (2009-2010)
The Perfect American (2011; opera about the death of Walt Disney, premiere 2013)

[asin]B007K57SNA[/asin]
Steve Reich
Dance Patterns (2002)
Cello Counterpoint (2003)
You Are (Variations) (2004)
Variations for Vibes, Pianos, Strings (2005)
Daniel Variations (2006)
Double Sextet (2007) Pulitzer Prize for Music
2x5 for 2 drum sets, 2 pianos, 4 electric guitars, 2 bass guitars (2008)
Mallet Quartet for 2 marimbas, 2 vibraphones or 4 marimbas (or solo percussion & tape) (2009)
WTC 9/11 for string quartet & tape (2010)

[asin]B003RXXZT0[/asin]
John Adams
(2001) Nancy's Fancy
(2001) Guide to Strange Places
(2001) American Berserk
(2002) On the Transmigration of Souls (Pulitzer Prize for Music)
(2003) My Father Knew Charles Ives
(2003) The Dharma at Big Sur
(2005) Doctor Atomic
(2007) Doctor Atomic Symphony
(2007) Son of Chamber Symphony
(2007) Fellow Traveler
(2008) String Quartet
(2009) City Noir
(2010) Absolute Jest

[asin]B0002JNLNM[/asin]


Nooo!! :o NO! :o! NOOOOO!!! :o

We're doomed! :'(


However, the rest of the old guard (everyone cool who's still alive) all seem to have been trying to write Masterpieces of late. Hey, I just don't trust anyone born after 1957,... right? 8) (I say it's 1962-3, but, just take a look at the wiki...a precipitous decline in awesome Composers seems to happen right after the Finnish explosion of the late '50s)

some guy

Depends on how you define "awesome," I guess. (A lot of younger composers strike me with awe.)

But has it occurred to you that you may just be seeing a bit of how history and looking backwards works? Would you have thought Bartok was "awesome" if you'd first heard of him in 1932? (Think of all the awesome work he did after 1932, too. So there's that, too. Someone born in 1980 is only 32. And not everyone gets started as early as Mozart or Schubert--or, fortunately, gets cut off as soon.)

In any event, looking at wiki is questionable. Wiki is in the same "too recent to tell" quandary you find yourself in, which quandary you would not find yourself in were you to just get out there and listen to some music! Plenty of stuff going on now that's worth hearing by composers born since 1957. More than plenty.

The only precipitous decline, I'd venture to guess, is in the number of awesome young composers you'd be likely to find in wiki.

val

Two suggestions:

Wolfgang Rihm: Fetzen, for string Quartet

Hugues Dufourt:   Le Cyprés Blanc for viola and orchestra

UB

An interesting source of music of this century and late 20th century is here. It usually not up to date and there are a number of composers that the keepers of the site do not seem to think important but what is there is usually accurate.

Also almost every day there is one or more pieces of contemporary music on the web. I usually check in with comptradio to see what is available. Often there are world premieres by both unknown and well known composers that will either never get to commercial recordings or if they do it could be many months or years.

One good thing about young composers (35-40)is that most of them have excellent websites often with either full pieces or extended sound clips to listen to. Their sites can usually be found by searching, but some take a lot of digging. Of course also as mentioned here, there are often full works on YouTube. So if anyone wants to explore music of this century, there is plenty to hear.

Finally one of my favorite composers born after 1970 Bruno Mantovani. I will let his music speak for itself...you will either like it or you will not.
I am not in the entertainment business. Harrison Birtwistle 2010

Szykneij

Quote from: UB on May 28, 2012, 12:14:27 PM
Finally one of my favorite composers born after 1970 Bruno Mantovani. I will let his music speak for itself...you will either like it or you will not.

Nothing like the Mantovani records my aunt used to listen to ...
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. ~ Satchel Paige

Mirror Image

What is up with these Scandinavian composers born between late 40s and late 50s? Lindberg, Salonen, Ruders, Saariaho...man...what a list.

North Star

Quote from: Mirror Image on May 28, 2012, 06:03:44 PM
What is up with these Scandinavian composers born between late 40s and late 50s? Lindberg, Salonen, Ruders, Saariaho...man...what a list.

And if you replace Ruders with Aho, they're all Finnish.
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

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