21st century classical music

[jochanaan]

Sweet! That Hindemith/Krenek event was completely off my radar! But it goes to show something I tell my non-classical musical friends, that if you think you've discovered some radical musical effect, acoustic or electronic, it was probably already found sixty or70 years ago by someone like Messiaen or Varèse or Cowell or Nancarrow...

[not edward]

I think that what advances in technology have meant is that things that were difficult in the 50s are now easy. But there was live electronic improv in the fifties. Maybe even earlier. I ran across some reference to a show that Hindemith and Krenek (I think it was Krenek) put on in 1930, a live show using variable speed turntables to make music with. I've lost that reference. Last time I tried to Google it, what came up was my first post where I had mentioned that. Not useful!! I want the reference!!

It was Hindemith and Toch, which is in some way more pleasing since Toch is not conventionally regarded as being of a particularly experimental bent (it's always good when reality subverts expectations in this sort of matter, IMO).

Tinyurl link below for your delectation: http://tinyurl.com/nr4mggg

[some guy]

Thank you Edward.

Toch it is!!

Much better than Krenek, for the reason you mentioned.

And kudos for finding the reference for me. I feel stupid now but also very happy.

[San Antone]

Liza Lim ~ The Navigator

Excerpt from a longer interview:

The Navigator

Inspired by ancient Greek myth, the Mahabharata and the story of Tristan and Isolde (as told in the Breton folk tale and by Wagner), it also explores desire, war, creation and annihilation. Its structure is built on the in utero development of the five senses, its sexuality or obscure symbolism.

This is an opera about extremity of passion, about Eros and Thanatos, Desire and Death, the gamble of lovers and of war and choices made between annihilation or creation. The prelude to this 'alchemical dream opera' is played by a Ganassi recorder, an instrument long associated with lamentation, the erotic, and pastoral and supernatural realms. A counterpoint is provided by the sound of cicadas: a high pitch of desire and the rustle of the quivering feathers of an entrapped Angel of History. The Angel's gaze takes in landscapes of tidal blood, unwinding rivers, glaciers, a comet, the ocean, the desert, and finally – in a vision of rebirth during which a cicada is placed on the eye of a foetus – the submarine amniotic world of the womb.

The opera is not about narrative form nor psychological development – instead it describes a series of states of being. Musically, I work with this geometry as a kind of template – a 'pattern language' in which elements are moving past each other, are momentarily held in tensile balance which also creates some kind turbulence and then the elements continue on their trajectory. Wagner's famous opening Tristan motif is an example of this 'pattern' and I reference it at various points in the opera (though it's quite hidden).

This is an excerpt from my opera The Navigator (2008): Angel of History aria (libretto by Patricia Sykes, performed by Deborah Kayser, ELISION Ensemble conducted by Manuel Nawri, theatre direction Barrie Kosky, Brisbane Festival of the Arts).

https://www.youtube.com/v/DvnAwCcDl6U

[TheGSMoeller]

Johann Johannsson: The Miners' Hymns
Music From the Film by Bill Morrison

"The Miners' Hymns" is a collaboration between American filmmaker Bill Morrison and Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson who, with images and music, have created a wordless documentary to depict the ill-fated mining community in North East England. Created from BFI, BBC and other archival footage, "The Miners Hymns" celebrates social, cultural, and political aspects of the extinct industry, and the strong regional tradition of colliery brass bands.


Track No.1: They Being Dead Yet Speaketh
(not footage from the film)
http://www.youtube.com/v/b6CgxWFTOaw

[asin]B004MGMJ0C[/asin]

[San Antone]

Erdem Helvacıoğlu

One of his recent project is the album titled "Timeless Waves". This work was originally composed for a 47 channel/53 speaker diffusion system running on The Morning Line – an interdisciplinary art project by Matthew Ritchie, Aranda/Lasch and Arup AGU and was commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21). Sonically, "Timeless Waves" is based on the timbres of Togaman GuitarViol, Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, sine waves, various analog pedals and hardware fx processors. The music combines elements from genres such as electroacoustic, drone, noise and contemporary music blended with minimal melodies.

Soundcloud clip

[San Antone]

Kevin Drumm is an experimental musician based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Emerging from the city's improvised music scene, in the 1990s he became one the world's pre-eminent prepared guitar players. Drumm's work expanded to include electroacoustic compositions and live electronic music made with laptop computers and analog modular synthesizers. He has collaborated with many artists working in similar fields, including Japanese guitarist Taku Sugimoto, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jim O'Rourke, and many European improvisers such as Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and German trumpeter Axel Dörner. He has also worked with the artist group Simparch, composing a piece for their installation Spec, shown at Documenta XI in Kassel, Germany and at the Renaissance Society in Chicago. Drumm has also worked with saxophonist Ken Vandermark's Territory Band, which brings together American and Eurpoean players who work in both jazz and free improvisation. Drumm's work draws upon musique concrete, electronic sound, improvisation, heavy metal, and noise music, and has proved difficult to categorize. His solo and collaborative work ranges from challenging improvisations, ambient textures, and blistering walls of sound. Musical influences include Iron Maiden, Ralf Wehowsky, and The New Blockaders.

http://www.youtube.com/v/sX4mysdG-TY

[San Antone]

Johannes Maria Staud

https://www.youtube.com/v/2FaFqshsg3k

Staud studied with, amongst others, Brian Ferneyhough and Michael Jarrell. He gained a publishing contract with Universal Edition in 2000, and since then has won numerous prizes, including a special music prize of the Austrian Republic (2001), the composition award of the Salzburg Easter Festival (2002)and the Paul Hindemith prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (2009). His Apeiron. Music for Large Orchestra was premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle in 2005, and his Segue. Music for Violoncello and Orchestra was performed by Heinrich Schiff and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Daniel Barenboim at the opening concert of the 2006 Salzburg Festival.

[torut]

Shulamit Ran - Under the Sun's Gaze (2003-2004)
(Concerto da Camera III), 2 fl, 2 cl, soprano sax, perc, piano, violin and cello
The Northern Illinois University New Music Ensemble, Dr. Gregory Beyer
performed on November 29th, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/v/yKnHI1owzpE

http://www.youtube.com/v/ea6YQmlgDSg

Bluesy theme, sometimes sounds like Stravinsky.

Shaulamit Ran is an Israeli-American composer. Her Symphony (1990) won her the Pulitzer Prize.

[San Antone]

Natasha Barrett ~ A Collectors Chest

Live electronics composition with POING-FEED performing (classical guitar, percussion, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, double bass, accordion and spatialised electroacoustic sound). Live recording from the premier at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2013.

interview & audio

[San Antone]

Clara Maïda ~ Mutatis Mutandis (2008) ... for 12 amplified strings ....

https://www.youtube.com/v/Fpda3n2oPjE

[San Antone]

World premiere performance of Vivian Fung's Dreamscapes (2009), performed on November 20, 2009 at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. Featuring Jenny Lin on piano and Metropolis Ensemble led by conductor Andrew Cyr.

https://www.youtube.com/v/ftcq6dqec08

[San Antone]

Iancu Dumitrescu is considered one of the leaders of the spectral music trend at a worldwide level. In 1976 he founded the HYPERION Ensemble, proposing a new aesthetic in today's music, hyper-spectral, based on the radiant power of sound, within its microcosmic complexity - which is questioned, analyzed, re-composed ​​from a spectral perspective. Ana-Maria Avram is a composer, pianist, conductor, born in 1961 in Bucharest, Romania. She studied composition at the National University of Music- Bucharest and musical aesthetics at Sorbonne, Paris. She has been a member of the Hyperion Ensemble since 1988. Her music is affiliated with the spectral music trend and incorporates the outward semblance of abstraction of archetypal sound, achieving its full development in the synthesis of electroacoustic and instrumental sources.

Vimeo link

https://www.youtube.com/v/c-7aJAwBoY8

https://www.youtube.com/v/jlrUThDDGE4

[San Antone]

Ramon Lazkano : Lur-Itzalak (2003)

https://www.youtube.com/v/1JyL4ZrlX68

[torut]

Andrea Di Paolo

https://www.youtube.com/v/HegItEAacQU&list=UU1P-kTkphAxVG7P65yCcgMQ

Das Universum for string quartet

Andrea Di Paolo's first symphony will be premiered on April 6th, 2014 in Lviv, Ukraine. I wonder what the circumstance of the performance would be like. I like the string quartet a lot.

On 6th April 2014 in the Great Hall of the Lviv Philharmonic in Lviv (Ukraine), will be the world premiere of SYMPHONY No.1 "CORONA AUSTRALIS" for Orchestra, written by Andrea Di Paolo (2013-2014).

The SYMPHONY No.1 "CORONA AUSTRALIS" is divided into 4 movements:
1. Mysterium
2. Australis 
3. Life pulses
4. In Limbo

Orchestra: LVIV PHILHARMONIC (UKR)
Conductor: ILYA STUPEL (SWE)

more info on http://www.philharmonia.lviv.ua/en

[San Antone]

one I really like

Carola Bauckholt — Zugvögel

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

[EigenUser]

one I really like

Carola Bauckholt — Zugvögel

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

If Ligeti had scored Hitchcock's "The Birds", I think that the result would have been nearly identical.

But seriously, that's really neat. I had no idea what "zugvogel" meant, but somehow I knew that it had something to do with geese. I googled it and, sure enough, it means "migratory birds". Not something I'd listen to on a regular basis, but it is remarkable just how geese-like it sounds.

[San Antone]

another nice one

Turgut Erçetin - String Quartet No.2 "Contra-statement"

https://www.youtube.com/v/Kj6BsbqqKk4

[torut]

one I really like

Carola Bauckholt — Zugvögel

another nice one

Turgut Erçetin - String Quartet No.2 "Contra-statement"

! Both are incredible. Thank you. Bauckholt is just amazing. Love Erçetin's fragile beauty, it's like a delicate glass sculpture.

[Philo]

For the night: Sophie Lacaze

Voices of Australia, for solo flute and recorded voices (2002)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA5rKI1NXHk&list=WLACC4B73F08165787