21st century classical music

[PaulSC]

He also serves who only bows and plucks...

[Johnll]

Wrong question.

Why would anyone put a piece of paper in front of him and tell him to write an SQ in which only bowing and plucking are allowed?

(There's nothing particularly sacred or valuable about bowing and plucking, is there?)

Anyway sanantonio, this discovery of yours gets my vote for the best discovery of the [any time period, here].

It should be blinding obvious even to you! String instruments are classical music and rocks dropped in a tray and breathing into a PA horn are not unless you "think" I cannot no satisfaction is classical music. DUH ! someguy

[Johnll]

A commission?
[/quote
The piece in question is not bad but the instrumentation is an affront. Even if I had the money for a commission I would not do it until he proved he could demonstrate he can compose without resorting to titillating our so sophisticated listeners with his drop a rock in tray or PA horn weirdo stuff.

[San Antone]

Jeffrey Holmes

String Quartet No. 2 'Kirurgi': III. Fantasy

Piano Trio "Oscularum Infame"

The music of composer Jeffrey Holmes has been called "Captivating...haunting and slightly disorienting" by the Los Angeles Times, "Drifting...ethereal" by the San Francisco Classical Voice, and "Interesting and musically arresting, music to be really heard and deserving of reflection" by the Society of Composers, INC. As a traditionalist, he composes music for acoustic orchestral instruments, using standard notational methods; as a formalist, he works within a complex and unique diatonic, chromatic, and microtonal language; as a transcendentalist, he combines the inherent abstraction of sound with a greater meaning and possibility of interpretation through the use of lyricism and overt expression.

His music has been performed at festivals such as the Darmstadt Ferienkurs für Neue Musik (Germany), La Pietra Forum for New Music (Florence, Italy), at "Microfest" (2003, 2005, and 2011) and both the "HEAR NOW" and "What's Next?" festivals (Los Angeles), and in venues including Carnegie Hall (New York), the Historic Dvorak Museum (Prague, Czech Republic), and the Chapelle historique de Bon-Pasteur (Montreal, Canada). He has received commissions and performances from groups including the Penderecki String Quartet, Bass-baritone Nicholas Isherwood (Germany), ECCE (East Coast Contemporary Ensemble), "Duo Resonances" – France (Frédérique Luzy and Pierre Bibault), Piano Spheres, the Eclipse String Quartet, Trio Terroir, California Institute of the Arts Orchestra, USC Thornton Symphony, Xtet, Inauthentica, the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, and others.

He holds a doctorate in music composition from the University of Southern California, and has studied with composers such as Georg Friedrich Haas, Donald Crockett and Stephen Hartke. Currently, he is Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory at Chapman University. His music is published by Edition Svitzer (Copenhagen, Denmark), Doberman-Yppan (Quebec, Canada), and J.W. Pepper (USA), and has been recorded on the Sono Luminus label, distributed worldwide by Naxos.

[petrarch]

Even if I had the money for a commission I would not do it

Your prerogative... And irrelevant.

[San Antone]

Anthony Donofrio

Twitch for Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon, Violin, Violoncello, and Marimba
University of Iowa Center for New Music; David Gompper, conductor

Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Anthony Donofrio completed the Ph.D. in Music Composition at the University of Iowa. He is very interested in fusing the compositional techniques found in literature and painting with his own approach to composing music. Along with Morton Feldman, Elliott Carter, and Stuart Saunders Smith, he cites Mark Rothko, David Foster Wallace, and Italo Calvino as his primary artistic influences. As a result of these influences, Anthony has taken an interest in creating half concert and full concert-length pieces, such as the 30-minute III for Saxophone, Piano, and Percussion, which will be premiered in April of 2013. Currently, Anthony teaches at Kent State University, giving courses in Music Theory, Post-Tonal Music, American Music, and is also the Director for the Kent State New Music Ensemble.

[Johnll]

Your prerogative... And irrelevant.

Its possible some just need to be titillated. But I understand you fancy yourself a composer please tell us how YOU would notate dropping some rocks in a tray or breathing into a PA horn.

[San Antone]

Marcos Balter

Chambers (String Quartet)
~ SpektralQuartet

A live recording of our "re-premiere" of Marcos Balter's "Chambers." This piece was written for us and premiered in the spring of 2011, and since then Marcos made some significant revisions to the piece.

Marcos writes about this piece:

""Chambers" is a three-part snapshot of my compositional personality. The first movement focuses on attentive listening, immersing oneself into seemingly static textures that in return gradually unveil their many complexities and hidden hyperactivity, primarily through timbre. The second movement in centered at around the role of spatial and temporal organization of musical ideas as well as at the physical and contextual questioning of music repetition. The third movement both summarizes the two previous movements and adds to them other elements dear to me: virtual polyphony (the illusion of a bigger instrumental force), internal and external counterpoint, stylistic plurality at the service of the music material, and close structuring of transitions and proportions. "

[petrarch]

But I understand you fancy yourself a composer please tell us how YOU would notate dropping some rocks in a tray or breathing into a PA horn.

Notation possibilities are quite diverse. It could be written down as a simple text directing the "gesture" as a single event, or as a set of more fine-grained events with higher levels of detail. It really depends on what are the intentions of the composer. A lot has been written about notation, particularly that covering extended playing and performing techniques, but the best way to go about it is still to look at the actual scores and see for yourself how composers have solved the challenge of specifying what they want.

[San Antone]

Ioannis Papaspyrou is a native Greek professional musician, performer, composer and arranger. He has received his Bachelor's in Music Composition and is currently studying towards his Master's degree at Georgia State University with Dr N. J. Demos. His piece "Mysterioso Agitato" was finalist at the 2011 "Soli fan tutti" composition competition at Darmstadt, Germany.

Mysterioso Agitato for flute, clarinet in A, viola & piano
Members of the Soli Fan Tutti Ensemble, Darmstadt, Germany

[San Antone]

AMERICAN MASTERS FOR THE 21ST
SOCIETY FOR NEW MUSIC

[asin]B0006UYOWY[/asin]

This 5-CD collection is excellent.

[San Antone]

Gerhard Stäbler ... Warnung mit Liebeslied

http://www.youtube.com/v/8ykYxeA_Oc0

The "Cornelius Cardew Memorial Prize" (1982) was the first in a series of awards, prizes, commissions and scholarships he received as a composer. From the onset of his career until today, Gerhard Stäbler has not only been active as a composer, but he was also involved in political and organizational arenas. The New Music festival "Aktive Musik" was initiated by Stäbler, who also served as the artistic director of the 1995 World Music Days of the ISCM in the Ruhr Valley. A third vital point of his activities lies in teaching: during workshops and seminars Stäbler has worked with many young international composers.

He was composer-in-residence and visiting professor throughout North and South America as well as in the Middle and Far East. Stäblers music often transcends the conventional framework (and therefore the audience's expectations), be it through the use of gestures or movement in space, through lighting and olfactory stimulation, or an active integration of the audience - it is very important to him to stimulate the imagination, to sensitize the ears and other perceptory organs towards unexpected perceptoral and thought processes. This is also the origin of his interest in the interaction between composition and improvisation, which feeds off of the unique tension between performers during the pre-formed yet open musical moment - as to be seen in the graphical score Red on black (1986). By the same token his music is always characterized by extremely contemplated development, and contains elaborate constructs that don't impede the direct musical statement.

Especially since the 1990's Stäbler has created Work-"groups" that shed a musical light on different aspects of a thematic complex (e.g. the compositions surrounding CassandraComplex). In some cases works that stand autonomously can be performed simultaneously. Stäbler repeatedly causes the listener to critically reflect upon the music, without his music having to be overtly political: the shriek of a crow is musically interpreted in it's possible implications (in old myths or as harbinger of doom) in Karas.Krähen (1994/95). The music doesn't just exploit its own symbolism, but always points towards our individual actions in this world we live in.

[Johnll]

Notation possibilities are quite diverse. It could be written down as a simple text directing the "gesture" as a single event, or as a set of more fine-grained events with higher levels of detail. It really depends on what are the intentions of the composer. A lot has been written about notation, particularly that covering extended playing and performing techniques, but the best way to go about it is still to look at the actual scores and see for yourself how composers have solved the challenge of specifying what they want.

Unfortunately I cannot read a score and the question one of curiosity more than anything else. I appreciate your response!

[petrarch]

Unfortunately I cannot read a score and the question one of curiosity more than anything else. I appreciate your response!

Not all scores are unreadable--particularly since "text scores" and "graphical scores" came to the fore. Just check the following--it is the full score for Stockhausen's Richtige Dauern, from his Aus den Sieben Tagen cycle:

http://www.sonoloco.com/rev/stockhausen/14.html#Anchor%201

[dyn]

a piece by Benedict Mason called felt | ebb | thus | brink | here | array | telling, a bit over an hour long, for spatial ensemble using various sound sources

the CD may actually be out of print—it's not listed on col legno's website, and most retailers seem to be out of stock—but for the curious, audio can be found through sites of questionable legality :s

[San Antone]

a piece by Benedict Mason called felt | ebb | thus | brink | here | array | telling, a bit over an hour long, for spatial ensemble using various sound sources

the CD may actually be out of print—it's not listed on col legno's website, and most retailers seem to be out of stock—but for the curious, audio can be found through sites of questionable legality :s

I haven't heard the work you mention but there are some recordings of his music on Spotify.  This for example:

[asin]B000003GJ3[/asin]

I am listening to his String Quartet right now. 

[San Antone]

Vykintas Baltakas

COMMENTUM for violoncello and piano (2011)

[dyn]

I haven't heard the work you mention but there are some recordings of his music on Spotify.  This for example:

[asin]B000003GJ3[/asin]

I am listening to his String Quartet right now.

yes, that's the CD that first got me interested in Mason's music as a matter of fact

Currently - Ars magna lucis et umbrae - transmission IV from Richard Barrett's Dark Matter. i haven't really found the time to sit down and listen to this entire album as a cycle (as it was meant to, i imagine) but each individual part i've heard has been quite impressive.

[Johnll]

Not all scores are unreadable--particularly since "text scores" and "graphical scores" came to the fore. Just check the following--it is the full score for Stockhausen's Richtige Dauern, from his Aus den Sieben Tagen cycle:

http://www.sonoloco.com/rev/stockhausen/14.html#Anchor%201

Thanks for the reply. You are right I can read this score and in essence I think it says improvise. I discovered I have a small piece of Aus den Sieben Tagen "arranged" for piano. I am not entirely clear how you arrange a piece that is improvised but that is a rhetorical question for me to ponder. I am still trying to make up my mind about experimental music, but but this point some of the music makes more sense than the talk.

[San Antone]

Yohanan Chendler is an Israeli composer and violinist, his chamber, solo and vocal works have been performed in prestigious festivals and venues in Israel, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, Japan and the US. He received his Bachelors degree in music theory and composition from the Jerusalem Academy of Music where he studied with Mark Kopytman. He also studied composition with George Tsontakis at the Aspen Music Festival and with Azio Corghi at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. Chendler has recently received his Ph.D in composition from Brandeis University. An avid new music player, Chendler is based in Boston where he frequently performs and teaches regularly.

Romancero for clarinet, piano and percussion
Marco Ortolani, clarinet; Daniel De Simone, piano; Maurizio Ben Omar, percussion