21st century classical music

[Cato]

The good thing there is, chances are excellent that you are enjoying some other composer's work, as well!  Or even, instead!

e.g. http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-golijov-issue-borrowed-music-or-stolen

An excerpt:

In interviews and program notes, Golijov has acknowledged that the principal melody of "Sidereus" came from the composer-accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman. The composer-critic Tom Manoff, writing on his blog after the Eugene concert, contended that Golijov used rather more than the melody itself—that something like half of "Sidereus" emanates from the trumpet-and-ensemble version of Ward-Bergeman's piece "Barbeich," which Manoff knew from having remastered a recording of it in his studio. ... I have heard neither work in performance, but I've looked at the scores side by side (the Golijov can be seen on the Boosey & Hawkes Web site), and the overlap is indeed extensive. For example, the sixteen-bar passage that the trumpet plays starting at bar 65 of "Barbeich" is duplicated in almost every detail in the piccolo trumpet and trumpet parts starting at bar 166 of "Sidereus," with various doublings elsewhere in the orchestra. To put it bluntly, "Sidereus" is "Barbeich" with additional material attached.

[San Antone]

e.g. http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-golijov-issue-borrowed-music-or-stolen

An excerpt:

Your selective quoting gives an incorrect impression, as can be seen from the next paragraph from the same article:

As it turns out, Ward-Bergeman knew what was happening. In a subsequent e-mail to Bob Keefer, he wrote, "Osvaldo and I came to an agreement regarding the use of 'Barbeich' for 'Sidereus.' The terms were clearly understood, and we were both happy to agree. Osvaldo and I have been friends and collaborators for years. I don't have anything else to say about the matter."

That said, I don't purport to have all the facts concerning Golijov and the accusations that he borrows excessively. 

[Brahmsian]

Lately I've been getting a lot of enjoyment from Osvaldo Golijov. I had the benefit of seeing Last Round live last year and it piqued my interest in his music. I guess there's benefit from programming horrible 21st century music with sacred cows. Hardly a year later and I own 5 CDs of his. I'm well on my way to being a full time degenerate.

I like Golijov's music too.  I had the great fortune of hearing Oceana performed live, with Luciana Souza as the solist vocal. 

I also love Tenebrae for String Quartet.

[San Antone]

I like Golijov's music too.  I had the great fortune of hearing Oceana performed live, with Luciana Souza as the solist vocal. 

I also love Tenebrae for String Quartet.

+1

[Karl Henning]

Your selective quoting gives an incorrect impression, as can be seen from the next paragraph from the same article:

That said, I don't purport to have all the facts concerning Golijov and the accusations that he borrows excessively. 

The follow-up appears to mean only that the owner of the source material consented to its being borrowed.  IMO, there remain questions of the morality of the entire exercise.  Many a prostitute is, arguably, a consenting adult.

[Cato]

The follow-up appears to mean only that the owner of the source material consented to its being borrowed.  IMO, there remain questions of the morality of the entire exercise.  Many a prostitute is, arguably, a consenting adult.

Thank you, Karl!

I did not "select" the quote to be biased, but to be salient.  By giving the link, I assumed people would read the entire article and decide for themselves, whether Golijov's composition met certain standards.

[Karl Henning]

Part of the morality pertains to the organizations paying Golijov a commission:  they paid Golijov to produce a Golijov composition, they did not pay Golijov, so that he should sub-contract the work out to other composers whose work he might negotiate to borrow.

Ward-Bergeman and Golijov "have been friends and collaborators for years," and the former has nothing else to say about the matter, why, do we suppose?  To deflect the follow-up questions of whether and how Ward-Bergeman was compensated for his consent, and the small matter of conspiracy of misrepresentation of the music by just having the name Golijov on the score.

Golijov is a contemptible scoundrel.  There seems little reason at present, to think much higher of Ward-Bergeman's character.

[torut]

A new disc that just arrived today, I discovered Marshall's music on Spotify, Fog Tropes to be exact. Adam Shatz is quoted on Marshall's website saying..
"Like the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, much of the music here has a quality of timeless lament, of inconsolable sorrow. Tenderly human in expression yet superhuman in scale, it seems to contemplate our condition from a very great height."
The disc I posted below features works written in the 1980s, but Marshall has works published as recent as 2014. I'm anxious to explore more from this composer.

I like the music of Ingram Marshall very much. I read an interview with him by Strickland and found it interesting (and was a bit surprised) that Marshall and John Coolidge Adams are very close friends and they influenced each other.
He seems a spiritual person.

[Rinaldo]

!

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

https://www.youtube.com/v/f_bCKcz63pE

[Cato]

!

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

https://www.youtube.com/v/f_bCKcz63pE

QUARTER-TONE...ACCORDION!?!?!?     I will need to look into this for sure!

[Cato]

QUARTER-TONE...ACCORDION!?!?!?     I will need to look into this for sure!

Okay, I have listened twice to the above work, and find it in general okay.  The quarter-tone aspect is mainly for glissandos and massive sound blocks a la Penderecki, which is quite fine in one sense, depending on where the music seems to go.  Certainly it has comic aspects, and parts would make great cartoon music.  I found the opening part more interesting and fun than the second.  e.g. At around 12:00 or so I was reminded of a kind of mad version of Rameau's La Poule.   

Do not expect to hear quarter-tone scales as used by e.g. Wyschnegradsky, i.e. in a thematic sense with harmonic aspects.

[San Antone]

Roxanna Panufnik : using music to bridge religious differences

Panufnik is the daughter of a Jewish mother and a Polish Catholic father, the composer Sir Andrzej Panufnik; the co-existence of religions and cultures is an essential part of her identity.

She says, "there's so much common ground between the monotheistic faiths. Obviously there are some fundamental differences in the way we practice. But I think that too much time and energy is spent on the differences and not enough on the things that we all share. That's what I want to do musically - to highlight those universal elements."

Read more and hear audio samples here.

[Cato]

Another (fairly recent) work by Lera Auerbach: Russian Requiem

https://www.youtube.com/v/lKxjS-fzKQQ

[Rinaldo]

I found the opening part more interesting and fun than the second.

Agreed.

[Karl Henning]

Cross-post from WAYLT?

Mark Gresham (b.1956)
Four Rivers (2015)
World premiere commissioned by the Peachtree String Quartet

http://www.youtube.com/v/urDa08a8cSw

[San Antone]

Morgan Krauss : the clashing of emotional opposites



Her music is focused on the latent instability of seemingly fixed gestures where the interaction between performer and the score creates yet a third entity, often guided by improvisation and the clashing of emotional opposites.

More info and audio clips can be found HERE.

[San Antone]

Missy Mazzoli : composer for a new dark age



Missy Mazzoli (born 1980) is an American composer and pianist living in Brooklyn, New York who has received critical acclaim for her chamber, orchestral and operatic work.  One of her recent works, Vespers for a New Dark Age, is a 30-minute suite for singers, chamber ensemble and electronics, which inhabits the sometimes disturbing intersection between technology and humanity. The piece, commissioned by Carnegie Hall for the 2014 Ecstatic Music Festival, takes up the bulk of her new album of the same name released in March, 2015.

Vespers reimagines the traditional vespers prayer service, exploring the intersection of our modern technological age with the archaic formality of religious services.

[San Antone]

On the occasion of his birthday ...

Erkki-Sven Tüür : Questions ...



As a composer, Tüür wishes for his music to raise existential questions.

"What is our mission? It is the main question asked by thinkers and philosophers from different cultures. One of my goals is to reach the creative energy of the listener. Music as an abstract form of art is able to create different visions for each of us, for each and every individual being, as we are all unique."

[San Antone]

Alla Zagaykevych :composer; performance artist; musicologist



Alla Zahaikevych or Zagaykevych (December 17, 1966) is a Ukrainian composer of contemporary classical music, performance artist, organiser of electroacoustic music projects, musicologist. List of Zagaykevych's works include symphonic, instrumental and vocal chamber music, electro-acoustic compositions, multi-media installations and performances, chamber opera, music for films.

A recording of her electro-acoustical works is available, Nord/Ouest.

[San Antone]

Mauricio Pauly : electroacoustic chamber music



Mauricio Pauly is a Costa Rican composer based in the United Kingdom since 2007. He specializes in writing music for chamber instrumental ensembles, which he often augments with performatory amplification and real-time electronic processing. His music is designed under the assumption that the listener can be primed to experience a sense of poetic structure; that a temporal mold can be offered where listeners can pour their own semantic biases and create a sense of personal, heuristic navigation.