21st century classical music

[San Antone]

Eric Wubbels - Viola Quartet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiK8pPQSZ0s

Eric Wubbels (b.1980) is a composer, pianist, and Executive Director of the Wet Ink Ensemble, a New York collective devoted to creating, promoting, and organizing adventurous contemporary music.

Wubbels's music has been performed throughout Europe, Asia and the U.S., by groups such as the Wet Ink Ensemble, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, ICE, Yarn/Wire, Ensemble Linea, Talea Ensemble, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and the Mivos Quartet, and featured on festivals including the Zurich Tage für Neue Musik (2013), Metz Festival (2014), and MATA Festival (2012).

He has received commissioning grants from Chamber Music America's Classical Commissioning Program, ISSUE Project Room, the Jerome Foundation, New Music USA, and Yvar Mikhashoff Trust, and has been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony and Civitella Ranieri Center (Italy).

As a performer, he has given U.S. and world premieres of works by major figures such as Peter Ablinger, Richard Barrett, Michael Finnissy, Beat Furrer, George Lewis, and Mathias Spahlinger. He has recorded for hat[NOW]art, Spektral, Albany Records, Carrier, and Quiet Design.

He holds a D.M.A. and M.A. in composition from Columbia University, and a B.A. from Amherst College, and has held teaching positions at Amherst College (2009-11) and Oberlin Conservatory (2012-13). His principal teachers include Lewis Spratlan, Tristan Murail, and Fred Lerdahl.

[Karl Henning]

Ivan Moody, Istella (2008) for bass flute and percussion

Ivan studied with John Tavener. [ bio on Wikipedia ]

[Karl Henning]

Okay, must add another:

Ivan Moody, Ossetian Requiem for choir and eight cellos

[San Antone]

Peter Eötvös

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z48W6CW6wY

Windsequenzen (2002) for fl. (picc., altfl.) , ob. (Eng. horn, windimitation), 2cl., bcl., tuba, double bass, bassdrum, accordeon

1. Windless I
2. Three sequences of the montain wind
3. Seven sequences of the whirlwind
4. Sequence of the morning breeze
5. Four sequences of the sea wind - North wind
6. Four sequences of the sea wind - South wind
7. Four sequences of the sea wind - East-west wind
8. Windless II

Klangforum Wien:
Eva Furrer,flauto, flauto contralto, ottavino
Markus Deuter, oboe, corno inglese, windimitation
Donna Wagner Molinari, clarinetto
Bernhard Zachhuber, clarinetto
Ernesto Molinari, clarinetto basso
Gérard Buquet, tuba
Uli Fussenegger, contrabbasso
Krassimir Sterev, accordion
Lukas Schiske, percussioni

Ensemble diretto da Peter Eötvös.

[petrarch]

Isn't 5:4 a member of GMG? I recall seeing his 5:4 avatar, but maybe that was on Facebook... In any case, his blog has been a good read. His Dillon's Nine Rivers coverage from a couple of years ago was quite excellent.

EDIT: He was a member indeed.

...and he's back! I see 5:4 re-registered yesterday.

[San Antone]

Alberto Posadas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmk77F8jvhQ

~ Glossopoeia (2009) .... For 3 dancers, 4 musicians, electronics and video.

Alberto Posadas was born in Valladolid in 1967. It was there that he began his musical training, which he continued and concluded in Madrid.

In 1988 he became acquainted with Francisco Guerrero, with whom he studied composition and whom he regarded as his most important mentor. The meeting represented an important turning point in his career. It was while studying under Guerrero that he discovered new techniques with which to shape musical forms, such as mathematical combinatorics and fractals. Nonetheless, his constant, self-determined quest to integrate aesthetics into this process led him to develop his own models of composition, such as the translation of architectural spaces to music, the application of topology and perspective-related painting techniques and the exploration of the acoustic features of instruments at the "microscopic" level.

[San Antone]

The site Composers Circle has started something new for 2014: each month they will post a themed playlist of some of the works featured previously on their daily composer posting.  January's playlist is NEW MUSIC FOR STRING QUARTET.

http://composerscircle.com/january-mixtape-new-music-for-string-quartet/

[San Antone]

Daniel Osorio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMSqJ32NKCI

Zikkus-F for flute and electronics (2008)

Karolin Schmitt, flute
Daniel Osorio, electronics

[San Antone]

Written in 1997, which is close enough -

German composer Isabel Mundry's (1963) "Gesichter"  for two sopranos (Salome Kammer and Claudia Barainsky in this recording for Col Legno), two percussionists, and live electronics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwKWVY47dhY

[some guy]

Well, I would argue that nothing happened musically in either 2000 or 2001 that changed the direction of music like Schoenberg's wind quintet or Stravinsky's early ballets did. Or like Berlioz' first symphony did. Or like Monteverdi's monophony did.

I would argue that we are in the era that started in 1939 with Cage's Imaginary Landscape #1.

And that the first twentieth century era went from 1906 to 1939.

(We all have our little hobbies.)

But Francisco Meirino put out some delightful stuff last year, of which this is one example:

https://soundcloud.com/auditoryfield/anextendedextract-francisco

And last year is unequivocally within the target area.

[kishnevi]

Well, I would argue that nothing happened musically in either 2000 or 2001 that changed the direction of music like Schoenberg's wind quintet or Stravinsky's early ballets did. Or like Berlioz' first symphony did. Or like Monteverdi's monophony did.

I would argue that we are in the era that started in 1939 with Cage's Imaginary Landscape #1.

And that the first twentieth century era went from 1906 to 1939.

(We all have our little hobbies.)

But Francisco Meirino put out some delightful stuff last year, of which this is one example:

https://soundcloud.com/auditoryfield/anextendedextract-francisco

And last year is unequivocally within the target area.

I'm not sure Cage's work back then was an inflexion point, around which we can see a change in the musical landscape,  so much as a pioneering work that showed the way for later developments: it's not in the category of the Schoenberg and Stravinsky works you refer to.

Up to 1939 I'd call the decline of the late Romantic and the development of non tonal music(perhaps what you refer to as the "first twentieth century era", but I pick 1939 as a pivotal date because of a non-musical event, WWII;  then from the end of WWII to about 1980 the development of musical types we associate with Boulez, Stockhausen, Nono, etc, as well as a separate stream more closely tied to tonal/Romantic, of which Britten and Barber are handy examples; and then what might be called the modern or contemporary era, as newer composers began to draw from both,  began to choose what they consider useful or good elements and combine them eclectically.  I wouldn't pick a particular musical event, or even a specific year beyond using 1980 as a vague reference point (IOW, if you can think of a better one,  go ahead and use it): tje difference being more a change of generations, with newer composers coming into prominence.  I do agree that the last fifteen years are not so dramatically different from the preceding period to warrant a different category on any grounds other than chronological convenience.

[Henk]

But Francisco Meirino put out some delightful stuff last year, of which this is one example:

https://soundcloud.com/auditoryfield/anextendedextract-francisco

And last year is unequivocally within the target area.

Is this classical music?? Sounds noise to me.

[San Antone]

History is much more seamless than musicologists prefer and so century datelines are natural demarcations.

I don't have a problem with this thread being mostly post 2000 works. 

[kishnevi]

History is much more seamless than musicologists prefer and so century datelines are natural demarcations.

I don't have a problem with this thread being mostly post 2000 works.

My own mental title for this thread is "Music being produced NOW"

[San Antone]

My own mental title for this thread is "Music being produced NOW"

There is also a thread for music 1950-1999.

[some guy]

Yeah, I don't really have a problem with it, either. It was more agreeing that 1997 is "close enough."

But I'm glad I posted, because Jeffrey brings up a distinction that I have not spent as much time thinking about as I would like. And so I'm going to do that.

I think he's right. Ives' Unanswered Question is where I would date the beginning of the twentieth century (round one), but that piece had no real, immediate affect. Not like those Schoenberg and Stravinsky things. It did embody certain principles that I find to be valuable in distinguishing the twentieth century from the nineteenth is all. Says more about me, probably than about the music.

[kishnevi]

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Strahlen (2002)

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Strahlen/Rays (2002)
für einen Schlagzeuger und 10-kanalige Tonaufnahme.
László Hudacsek, vibraphone; Kathinka Pasveer, sound projection.
Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 75. Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag, 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strahlen

Just curious. Do you feel that this sort of thing says anything fresh ? Isn't this all really derived from stuff that was already pioneered long ago (well,  several decades ago, to be precise) by several composers, only one of whom was Stockhausen?

[Mirror Image]

Such naive questions but ..

Yes, it is fresh, and could have only been authored or composed by him. He had one of the most unique & original minds & voices in all of art or classical music. The music is derived from only his own dynamic work & personal vocabulary. A lifetime. Expressed here thru percussion & electronics (areas he helped put on the map in such a way that few others have historically & compositionally). But he tended to do that being the visionary and great musician that he was; he opened new doors with his work, that many others have passed through.

Spoke the greatest fan of Stockhausen on the planet. No biases here folks. Just James running his mouth again about how much of a 'visionary' Stockhausen was, but totally ignoring the hard evidence, which is his music only appeals to a small percentage of classical listeners and these listeners don't even make up enough people to actually support the so-called 'music' Stockhausen churned out over a lifetime.

Give up on Stockhausen, we have Dvorak now.

[Mirror Image]

His music has a much broader appeal than just your stereotypical 'classical listener' (or performer) of course. And being of 'our time' that is how it ought to be. High level composition & performance is much broader in the 20/21 centuries than a select handful of old concert halls, or traditional models and instruments. He was an obvious testament to that, able to support himself quite well, and the commissions never ceased, nor did the interest. A busy, fruitful, musical life .. composing, teaching, rehearsing, conducting, touring, recording, writing, publishing, garnering awards & honors, films/books etc., etc. ..  and to this day, concerts do well and occur frequently, recordings & scores are sold via his own record label and publishing, and students and interpreters are always studying his music. In fact, there is a whole foundation built supporting & preserving his music. Its very much alive out there.

Another copy/paste job again I see?

[Mirror Image]

Why is it I can go see Dvorak's 9th, for example, performed by any major orchestra, even provincial orchestras for that matter, but I would have to wait until a 'Rest Is Noise' festival to hear any of Stockhausen's muzak? There may be performances of his music taking place but in order to see them you would have fly all the way across the world just to attend a concert. In other words, no, James, you're wrong and delusional. Stockhausen is only listened to by a small minority of classical listeners and I'm certainly not excluding you within this minority.