21st century classical music

[some guy]

Logically, that approach does indeed make good sense.

The bogging down, however, near as I've been able to tell, happens prior to the actual contact with the art. That's a thing I'm not sure there's any solution to. How does one convince someone who has already decided, but who is convinced that their decision followed some contact, that the art is really fine, just fine?

Near as I've been able to tell, it's impossible.

Historically, that seems to have been the case as well, too. The bogging down as a historical phenomenon, so far as it can be documented in the evolution of programming and in contemporary reactions, preceded the earliest examples of the 20th century avant garde popularly believed to have been responsible for the alienation of audiences world-wide.

Preceded.

[San Antone]

Logically, that approach does indeed make good sense.

The bogging down, however, near as I've been able to tell, happens prior to the actual contact with the art. That's a thing I'm not sure there's any solution to. How does one convince someone who has already decided, but who is convinced that their decision followed some contact, that the art is really fine, just fine?

Near as I've been able to tell, it's impossible.

Historically, that seems to have been the case as well, too. The bogging down as a historical phenomenon, so far as it can be documented in the evolution of programming and in contemporary reactions, preceded the earliest examples of the 20th century avant garde popularly believed to have been responsible for the alienation of audiences world-wide.

Preceded.

I don't worry about that.

All I am doing with this thread is putting some composers and works in front of the members of this forum.  How they respond is not really my concern.  Some (A few? One?) will hear something they like, others (most?) will ignore the information altogether, and still others will make snarky comments.

[Karl Henning]

And my first thought was, how the music itself may appeal to the listener, where clunky (or, worse, vapid) verbiage about the music can be off-putting.

[San Antone]

Joshua Marquez (b. 1990) is a Filipino-American composer, conductor, and classical guitarist.

As a composer, Joshua is interested in writing for both large and chamber ensembles of varying instrumentation.  He is currently working on his Masters thesis - a piece combining songs of the humpback whale with a chamber ensemble (electronics, Bb clarinet, 4 off-stage sopranos, violin, violoncello, and piano).  In doing so, he hopes to create an environment for the "whale" (recordings controlled through live manipulation) and the chamber ensemble to interact in a more versatile way than in previous compositions.  The goal of this project is to take the listener into the "world of the whale" and create a line of communication between the ensemble performers and the "whale" (laptop performer).  For this project, Joshua is working with Dr. Alejandro Rutty, Dr. Patricia Gray, and the Dr. Roger Payne Sound Archive. 

a frayed, jute whipping knot for reed quintet (2012)
Akropolis Reed Quintet: Tim Gocklin, Oboe; Kari Dion, Clarinet; Matt Landry, Saxophone; Andrew Koeppe, Bass Clarinet; Ryan Reynolds, Bassoon

http://www.youtube.com/v/f22h6r6h7zE

[Karl Henning]

Ivan Moody, Nocturne of Light, Pt 1:

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

Nocturne of Light was written specifically for Paul Barnes and the Chiara Quartet. Dr Barnes had asked me for a work that would be impregnated with the spirit of Byzantine chant, a requirement with which I was more than happy to comply, given that so much of my work takes its inspiration in Byzantine Orthodox music, poetry and theology.

I had, in addition, long wanted to write a Nocturne, and here I had an opportunity to write a Nocturne for Christ - the "three days' space" between His burial and his Resurection. To that end, the principal thematic material of the work is the communion chant for Holy Saturday, "Exigerthi os o ypnon", "As One Who has slept", speaking of the ineffable mystery of the "sleeping" God and His arising. Almost all the other material of the work derives from this chant, which is heard near the beginning of the piece, following an introductory passage, in the piano, divided into three segments. Thereafter the music deals with, as it were, human reflection on this momentous event, exploring grief, anger and, always, hope.

In the Orthodox icon of the Resurrection, Christ is depicted as trampling down the gates of Hades, while He frees Adam and Eve. Near the bottom of the icon, one can see the shattered locks and keys, and I have endeavoured to suggest this by means of a very short section which makes use of pizzicato strings and the pianist playing inside the piano. Thereafter there is an unstoppable build-up to the joy of the Resurrection, symbolized specifically by the use of another chant, "Christos anesti", "Christ is risen". This is also used in combination with the first chant, resulting in a whirlwind of celebratory joy and light.

Nocturne of Light represents, then, the three days' space in the tomb both from a ceremonial and a human, affective, point of view. I wanted to portray awe and shock and bewilderment and then joy, but still without it having always the composer's ego as the driving force. It is present of course, because Christianity uniquely values the human individual, but, and even though this is not liturgical music and I have no reason or need to make comparisons with icon painters and their rigorous discipline, something of that is still there, and the music therefore has a ritual, ceremonial dimension as well as a human one.

[San Antone]

A 21st century composer writing orchestral music in the Jean Sibelius school?  Meet Steven R. Gerber.

Symphony #1 (1st movement)
Russian Philharmonic Orchestra; Thomas Sanderling, conductor

http://www.youtube.com/v/VyW_j0-NiJ0

[Parsifal]

Ivan Moody, Nocturne of Light, Pt 1:

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

I agree that this work reminds me of being in a tomb.   

[Sean]

I've had a good look through this topic on recent music but I think it's better if I don't reply... S

[San Antone]

Nina C. Young - Memento Mori - JACK Quartet

https://www.youtube.com/v/mKNyNFHfNIk

[Johnll]

Nina C. Young - Memento Mori - JACK Quartet

https://www.youtube.com/v/mKNyNFHfNIk

This is a nice piece with musical interest but it is is still so dark and foreboding. This is part of life but it is not all. Texan can you find me a piece of "serious" c20/c21 music that celerbrates the happiness and joy I think we want for ourselves?

[some guy]

I once played one of my favorite electroacoustic pieces for some friends. Michèle Bokanowski's L'ètoile absinthe.

The response? Dark!

Well. It surprised me. And when I mentioned it to Michèle next time I saw her, she said "Dark? That's the bright one!"

So rather than supply a piece that celebrates happiness and joy--or at least that I identify as so doing--I think I'd rather work on that whole "dark/happiness" thing. Regardless of its putative subject matter, a piece that impresses you or that pleases you has impressed you or pleased you. Done. Listening to Dvořák's Noonday Witch always makes me happy, for instance. I find the music to be pleasing. The subject matter, however?

Gross!!

[Johnll]

I once played one of my favorite electroacoustic pieces for some friends. Michèle Bokanowski's L'ètoile absinthe.

The response? Dark!

Well. It surprised me. And when I mentioned it to Michèle next time I saw her, she said "Dark? That's the bright one!"

So rather than supply a piece that celebrates happiness and joy--or at least that I identify as so doing--I think I'd rather work on that whole "dark/happiness" thing. Regardless of it's putative subject matter, a piece that impresses you or that pleases you has impressed you or pleased you. Done. Listening to Dvořák's Noonday Witch always makes me happy, for instance. I find the music to be pleasing. The subject matter, however?

Gross!!

Personal insult removed by Knight.....we don't need that kind of comment.

[San Antone]

Helen Grime | Three Whistler Miniatures: 1 ~ Claremont Trio

https://www.youtube.com/v/u7itwUVmW_Q

[San Antone]

ROBERT CARL | Excerpts of his music and interview ~

https://www.youtube.com/v/QeS70eJdU2g

Article by Robert Carl ~ Eight Waves a Composer Will Ride in This Century

[HIPster]

Cross-posting from the Classical Listening thread:

[asin]B000068THR[/asin]

A very interesting release.

Like a sort of Baroque Eighth Blackbird album. . .

[San Antone]

Amy Williams ~

http://www.youtube.com/v/BPm4fTLQh4Y



[asin]B00C5J1XQO[/asin]

Crossings
by Amy Williams
(Albany)

Performers:
JACK Quartet
Amy Williams
Jeffrey Jacob
The Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo

[San Antone]

Robert McClure

Cyprus

Also, on his blog he features music from the 20th-21st century that he thinks is noteworthy in a series of posts he calls "Top Fifty".

[San Antone]

https://www.youtube.com/v/LAnGxFgRCvs

[some guy]

A 21st century composer writing orchestral music in the Jean Sibelius school?  Meet Steven R. Gerber.

Hmmm. I missed this earlier.

Yes, Steven is alive today (far as I know), but the symphony in question (no. 1) is from 1989. And last I checked, 1989 is not the 21st century by any metric.

It's strange how the rejection of perfectly ordinary and delightful new music has developed into a cottage industry of retro-music in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Some composers in the 19th century, after the anti-modernist reaction had gotten going pretty strong, did try to write like it was 1777, but concert audiences weren't having any new music, whether new as in new or new as in just recent.

Nowadays, concert audiences will go ape-shit over pastiche. That's a serious sea-change, and not into something rich either but certainly into something strange. A 21st century composer in the Jean Sibelius school? To me that sounds creepy and disgusting. But not to many other people.

Imagine a composer in 1813 writing in the school of Vivaldi. If anyone then had tried that on, they would have been laughed off the stage. And once off, they would have had to suffer unspeakable humiliations involving rotting vegetables and circus freaks. In 2013, however, composers can build successful careers from that kind of tat and be honored and admired citizens in their communities.

Incroyable.

Love the cover art to the Igoa, though. I've got that to comfort me in my pain, and no one can take that away from me!

[The new erato]

Imagine a composer in 1813 writing in the school of Vivaldi. If anyone then had tried that on, they would have been laughed off the stage. And once off, they would have had to suffer unspeakable humiliations involving rotting vegetables and circus freaks. In 2013, however, composers can build successful careers from that kind of tat and be honored and admired citizens in their communities.

But that is because music and artists plays a decidedly different role in todays society then it did then, as you surely are aware.