21st century classical music

[torut]

Daniel Lentz - The Red of My Blue Dream
Performed by Hamiruge - The LSU Percussion Group, November 9, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/v/kYSAjbwtizs

A new percussion work of Daniel Lentz. Dreamy and beautiful. He is one of my favorite contemporary composers whose music I want to hear as much as possible. I am eagerly looking forward to new piano album, In the Sea of Ionia.

[7/4]

Daniel Lentz - The Red of My Blue Dream
Performed by Hamiruge - The LSU Percussion Group, November 9, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/v/kYSAjbwtizs

A new percussion work of Daniel Lentz. Dreamy and beautiful. He is one of my favorite contemporary composers whose music I want to hear as much as possible. I am eagerly looking forward to new piano album, In the Sea of Ionia.

That's beautiful!

[Philo]

Susan Frykberg's Piano Study (hints of Nancarrow, Barraque, Wyschnegradsky, and Bogusław Schaeffer)

https://www.youtube.com/v/hPZlzW-rpAg

[torut]

Scott Worthington - Even the Light Itself Falls (2011-12) for clarinet, percussion, and double bass
https://www.youtube.com/v/3nEVMIuQyuA

His bio describes Worthington's compositional style very well.

"[...] I try to write music that is calm and still which hopefully inspires a kind of meditative state for listeners. Sometimes I think about it as some kind of mash up of Morton Feldman and Brian Eno."

Even the Light Itself Falls is a very delicate work. I was actually reminded of Feldman, but it's a lot more lyrical. Only few notes are used, and the length is very long (90 min), but it sustains tension throughout and keeps attracting the listener's interest. It is becoming one of my favorite 2014 releases.


http://populistrecords.bandcamp.com/album/scott-worthington-even-the-light-itself-falls

[7/4]

Even the Light Itself Falls is a very delicate work. I was actually reminded of Feldman, but it's a lot more lyrical. Only few notes are used, and the length is very long (90 min), but it sustains tension throughout and keeps attracting the listener's interest. It is becoming one of my favorite 2014 releases.

I didn't know there were any recordings other than the string qt. Thanks.

[7/4]

I didn't know there were any recordings other than the string qt. Thanks.

oops...got him confused with another composer.

Yes, sounds like Morton Feldman.

[torut]

oops...got him confused with another composer.

I guess ... Stephen Whittington? I have been searching for his other recordings but couldn't find any so far.

(Recently I bought Tom Johnson's album (from the same label, populist records), having mistaken it for Dennis Johnson's. )

[7/4]

That's right, Stephen Whittington!

[Philo]

If you've not visited Culture.pl you should:

Marzena Komsta
http://culture.pl/en/artist/marzena-komsta

Desire for Tape
http://vimeo.com/5589374

One word comes to mind when I consider the work above: craftsmanship.

[torut]

Going through a bunch of CDs I recently got from Kairos, primarily by spanish composers. All quite worthwhile. Listening to this now, definitely worth checking out:

[asin]B00303WQ42[/asin]

Some of the works are quite avant-garde, and some are colorful and kaleidoscopic, almost entertaining. A very enjoyable album.  Thanks for the post.

[Purusha]

Does anybody knows what happened with Jay Greenberg? He was touted as a prodigy early on and then he was quickly forgotten. He should be 23 years old now. It is still too soon probably, but this is usually when the first early signs of maturity begin to appear.

[kishnevi]

Not sure where exactly to put this one...
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hanukkah-miracle-at-boston-museums-joint-israeli-iranian-show/
Oddly the MFA website makes no explicit mention of Seekers.

[Karl Henning]

Does anybody knows what happened with Jay Greenberg? He was touted as a prodigy early on and then he was quickly forgotten. He should be 23 years old now. It is still too soon probably, but this is usually when the first early signs of maturity begin to appear.

The adverb usually would not seem to apply when a child prodigy is accorded massive international publicity.  Such a feedback loop bombards him with noise when he is probably too young to have developed a strong sense of musical self.

[kishnevi]

Wikipedia's most recent data is for 2012.  At which time he published a quintet for brass and was studying music as Cambridge University.
The quintet was published as Opus 25, so presumably he was not overflowing with compisitions in his teens.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Greenberg

[Artem]

From Another Timbre website:
Composer Martin Iddon, whose first CD 'pneuma' was released on Another Timbre early in 2014, has won a British Composer's Award in the chamber music category for his string trio 'Danäe', which featured on the CD. For a limited period we have posted the entire piece on soundcloud, and you can listen to it https://soundcloud.com/anothertimbre/martin-iddon-danae

[some guy]

OK, I guess I'll be the first to say that this was quite a fun listen.

Very unsettling balance (or did I mean misbalance) between almost nineteenth century sounds and 20th century sounds, between gawky almost notes and gritty noise.

Not sure I liked it on first listen, which is what I tend to prefer nowadays. (At this point in my listening, it's all too easy to like things immediately, having heard everything--or "everything"--and so finding everything to be familiar.

This one had everything familiar, but the way he handles the materials was not. Hence the adjective, which probably only applies to me at this stage in my listening.)

I'll keep an ear out for Mark Iddon, for sure.

[Artem]

I enjoyed it on the first listen. I liked how for the most part it sounds very industrial and almost like musique concrete but then the instruments reveal themselves closer to the end of the piece. I'm not very familiar with Lachenmann string quartets, but did anyone found it somewhat similar to them? I'll have that cd whishlisted probably.

[torut]

I enjoyed it on the first listen. I liked how for the most part it sounds very industrial and almost like musique concrete but then the instruments reveal themselves closer to the end of the piece. I'm not very familiar with Lachenmann string quartets, but did anyone found it somewhat similar to them? I'll have that cd whishlisted probably.

Those two (Lachenmann and musique concrète), and also some free improvisations of double bass, are what it reminded me of. I like the rawness of the sound. I think Pierre Schaeffer and/or Pierre Henry composed a piece using creaking sounds of a wooden door.

[Fagotterdämmerung]

Daniel Lentz - The Red of My Blue Dream
Performed by Hamiruge - The LSU Percussion Group, November 9, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/v/kYSAjbwtizs

A new percussion work of Daniel Lentz. Dreamy and beautiful. He is one of my favorite contemporary composers whose music I want to hear as much as possible. I am eagerly looking forward to new piano album, In the Sea of Ionia.

That is mellowness personified. I approve.

[EigenUser]

Those two (Lachenmann and musique concrète), and also some free improvisations of double bass, are what it reminded me of. I like the rawness of the sound. I think Pierre Schaeffer and/or Pierre Henry composed a piece using creaking sounds of a wooden door.

Or you could be like Stockhausen and take a sledgehammer to a door...