Contemporary composers who've made an impression on you

[Mirror Image]

Joseph Bertolozzi (born 1959) is an American composer and musician with works ranging from full symphony orchestra to solo gongs to suspension bridge. With increasingly numerous performances across the US and Europe to his credit, his music is performed by groups ranging from the Grammy-winning Chestnut Brass Company to the Eastman School of Music, and he himself has played at such diverse venues as the Vatican and The US Tennis Open.

Bridge Music

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His most well known project is 'Bridge Music': using only the sounds of New York's Mid-Hudson Bridge, Bridge Music allows listeners to hear the bridge played like a musical instrument. The work was created for New York's 400th anniversary observance of Henry Hudson's voyage up the river that now bears his name. Originally intended to be a live performance piece, this "audacious plan" (New York Times) to compose music for a suspension bridge using the bridge itself as the instrument brought Bertolozzi wide international attention.

How gimmicky, but that's typical of so many composers today.

[petrarch]

How gimmicky, but that's typical of so many composers today.

Yes, just like grabbing a sequence of notes and playing it several times with slight differences, or displacing it a few notes up and down, or playing it backwards...

[The new erato]

Yes, just like grabbing a sequence of notes and playing it several times with slight differences, or displacing it a few notes up and down, or playing it backwards...

Yes, but then John doesn't like Bach either.

[Mirror Image]

Yes, just like grabbing a sequence of notes and playing it several times with slight differences, or displacing it a few notes up and down, or playing it backwards...

Irrelevant comment. I'm talking about the banging away at different parts of a bridge to make different noises doesn't strike me as a good idea for a piece of music.

[The new erato]

How gimmicky, but that's typical of so many composers today.

Not only of today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq_7w9RHvpQ

Arseny Avraamov - Symphony Of Factory Sirens (Public Event, Baku 1922)

or Antheil, for that sake....

and Mozart and Beethoven on wineglasses.

[petrarch]

Irrelevant comment. I'm talking about the banging away at different parts of a bridge to make different noises doesn't strike me as a good idea for a piece of music.

Irrelevant explanation. I am talking about close-mindedness that dismisses experimentation because it doesn't conform to comfortable and familiar approaches.

[Karl Henning]

http://www.youtube.com/v/y9P2V0_p6vE

[Mirror Image]

Irrelevant explanation. I am talking about close-mindedness that dismisses experimentation because it doesn't conform to comfortable and familiar approaches.

I'm not close-minded to experimentation. I just don't think the composer's idea was a particularly good one. That's okay to feel this way isn't it? I don't need to get a permit or license to give an opinion do I?

[dyn]

Irrelevant comment. I'm talking about the banging away at different parts of a bridge to make different noises doesn't strike me as a good idea for a piece of music.

why?

a bridge can make as many sounds as a piano, if not more so

it's just somewhat harder to fit on the stage of Carnegie Hall >.>

[Dax]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq_7w9RHvpQ

Arseny Avraamov - Symphony Of Factory Sirens (Public Event, Baku)

Very many thanks for posting that. Whether members approve of the idea or not, it's pretty remarkable for 1922. Experimental, yes. Gimmicky, no. At least not in the sense that its being used on this thread.

I was quite surprised when I looked up the word.

1.
a. A device employed to cheat, deceive, or trick, especially a mechanism for the secret and dishonest control of gambling apparatus.
b. An innovative or unusual mechanical contrivance; a gadget.
2.
a. An innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to promote a project: an advertising gimmick.
b. A significant feature that is obscured, misrepresented, or not readily evident; a catch.

[petrarch]

I'm not close-minded to experimentation.

I must have mistook "gimmicky" and "typical of most composers today" as close-mindedness. That surely is it... Yeah, that must be it.

I'm glad everyone has, and is entitled to, an opinion here. Including opinions about posts.

why?

a bridge can make as many sounds as a piano, if not more so

it's just somewhat harder to fit on the stage of Carnegie Hall >.>

This.

[Mirror Image]

I must have mistook "gimmicky" and "typical of most composers today" as close-mindedness. That surely is it... Yeah, that must be it.

I said typical of many composers today. Not most. If you're going to quote me, then at least use the correct quotation, but yeah, I think the whole idea is pretty lame and it speaks volumes, for me, about the composer and his lack of imagination.

[San Antone]

It is possible to dismiss any compositional method or process as a gimmick.  And while I am interested in understanding how a work was conceived and written, in the final analysis all that matters is how it sounds.  In the case of Bridge Music - I find it interesting and in many ways a beautiful piece. 

As a listener I don't care what process or method was used to produce the work - I am either engaged by the sound of the music or not; and this is true whether the work is of the avant garde or the most traditional works from any period.

[San Antone]

John Morton is a composer best known for his use and manipulations of music boxes and their sounds. This may be compared to Conlon Nancarrow's use of the player piano and John Cage's use of the prepared piano. Born in Los Angeles, he studied privately with David Sheinfeld in San Francisco and then attended the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied with Morton Subotnick and Lucky Mosko. In summer 2009 he created the Sound Tunnel in New York City's Central Park.

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[petrarch]

John Morton is a composer best known for his use and manipulations of music boxes and their sounds.

In the same vein, there's Warren Burt and his exploration of the sound of tuning forks in The animation of lists and the Archytan transpositions:

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[San Antone]

If you like music written, taylored for music boxes .. check out Stockhausen's Tierkreis (1974-75), twelve melodies. Quite dreamy little tunes that introduce a new flexibility of scale & expression to the concept of melody formula. A number of editions of the melodies have been published for a variety forces & time-scales.



Samples >> http://www.stockhausencds.com/Stockhausen_Edition_CD24.htm

I am very familiar with Tierkreis - I've heard it performed with other instruments.  One of the more interesting, to me, is done with electric bass and electronics.

[San Antone]

Lawrence English

Lawrence English (born 1976) is a composer, media artist and curator living in Brisbane, Australia. For over a decade he has been an increasingly active force in Australian sound art and experimental music - both as a creator and curator.

For/Not For John Cage

[San Antone]

Mohammed Fairouz (born November 1, 1985) is an American composer.

Fairouz began composing at an early age and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. His teachers included Gunther Schuller, Halim El-Dabh, György Ligeti and John Heiss.

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[San Antone]

With music described as "evocative" by The New York Times, Canadian-born Vivian Fung has distinguished herself as a composer with a powerful compositional voice, whose music often merges Western forms with non-Western influences such as Balinese and Javanese gamelan and folk songs from minority regions of China.

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[dyn]

Now listening to Alexander Khubeev's Sounds of the dark time (a Gaudeamus Muziekweek '13 nominee).

it invites comparison with Mikrophonie I (albeit here done with string instruments), but it is much narrower & more focused in scope—whereas Mikrophonie I opens out a vast & evocative sound world this piece, as the title might imply, aims to create a much bleaker atmosphere. the reliance on the idea of friction as a primary compositional element also owes something to electronic drone of the dark ambient variety, i suspect. there are glissandi & quasi-electronic hoots later on (i have no idea if this piece uses electronics or not) that point to a greater sense of humour behind it all, & overall i think the composition is a lot less subtle in many respects. still, a very enjoyable piece.

Vivian Fung has distinguished herself as a composer with a powerful compositional voice, whose music often merges Western forms with non-Western influences such as Balinese and Javanese gamelan and folk songs from minority regions of China.

not to shoot the messenger here, but someone at the new york times should be asking themselves: how does that help distinguish her from all the other composers of non-Western origin? literally every one of them is described as "merging Western forms with non-Western influences" despite this being just as applicable to Stockhausen or Debussy, and despite the differences between e.g. Takemitsu, Ge Gan-ru and Unsuk Chin far outweighing any similarities. honestly it feels like there's quite a bit of subtle racism at work here