Top 5 New Complexity

[Mandryka]

Ferneyhough, string quartet 6
Ferneyhough, Transit
Finnissy, Violin sonata
Finnissy, English Country Tunes
Finnissy, Third quartet

I hope that someone likes James Dillon.

[Luke]

Don't worry, I do, very much. This list will do for now, but some of these are more variable than others

Dillon - Windows and Canopies
Ferneyhough - Transit
Ferneyhough - Etudes Transcendentales
Finnissy - Red Earth
Finnissy - English Country Tunes (but sometimes there are other piano pieces of his to rival this one - I adore Finnissy)

[amw]

Richard Barrett > Dark Matter
Brian Ferneyhough > La terre est un homme
James Dillon > Nine Rivers
Michael Finnissy > Verdi Transcriptions, ECT, or some part of aHoPiS
Evan Johnson > L'art de toucher le clavecin, 2 [if this counts] / Aaron Cassidy > I, purples, spat blood, laugh of beautiful lips [if it doesn't]

These are just the first to come to mind, but maybe I'll think of more

[71 dB]

This board makes me feel stupid. I had not heard about the term "new complexity" before and I just Googled it. All the composers listed are unknown to me. After nearly 20 years of classical music listening there are obviously corners totally unknown to me. Life is too short for this business... 

Naxos doesn't seem to do "new complexity" (?), so I suppose exploring this stuff is for oil sheikhs.

[mc ukrneal]

Never heard of it either. Off to google I go.. (or maybe you could post something here and save me the effort). I recognize some composers, just not the term.

[San Antone]

Along with Ferneyhough, Dillon and Finnissy, I would include Elliott Carter and Harrison Birtwistle, as well as more I am sure who work in a style which could be considered complex.  It is a somewhat misleading term, "new complexity", since there is nothing new about complex music.  However, I suppose the term dates back to when the music appeared to be a response to the music of Glass and Reich and the minimalism they represented.

Also, Michael Finnissy has written music which would not fit the new complexity style, 7 Sacred Motets for example, and other works which are very approachable and not "thorny".

But as with all reductive stylistic buckets, I resist it and prefer to listen to Ferneyhough (and any others) outside of the prism of the label, since it doesn't seem to add much to the appreciation of the music.

[chadfeldheimer]

Don't know so many "new complexity"-works, but the following (some already mentioned) are very good imo:

Brian Ferneyhough - Terrain
Brian Ferneyhough - SQ No. 6
Brian Ferneyhough - Bone Alphabet
Richard Barrett - Dark Matter
James Dillon - Philomela

Along with Ferneyhough, Dillon and Finnissy, I would include Elliott Carter and Harrison Birtwistle, as well as more I am sure who work in a style which could be considered complex. 

If "Old Complexity" composers like Carter and Birtwistle are included, I see no reason why composers like Xenakis, Stockhausen, Babbit, Ligeti, Nancarrow or Boulez should not be included as well and the thread be renamed to  "Top 5  Complexity"

It is a somewhat misleading term, "new complexity", since there is nothing new about complex music.  However, I suppose the term dates back to when the music appeared to be a response to the music of Glass and Reich and the minimalism they represented.

Agreed

[Mandryka]

Richard Barrett > Dark Matter

Couldn't get on with this but your mentioning it makes me think I should give it another go

James Dillon > Nine Rivers

How much of this have you heard?

aHoPiS

Hmmm. It would be interesting to have a listening group on it, but there probably aren't enough interested people. Have you deciphered it? All the allusions?

Evan Johnson > L'art de toucher le clavecin, 2 [if it doesn't]

L'art de toucher le clavecin 3 is very much my sort of thing, but I haven't heard 2 -- can you let me have it?

Aaron Cassidy > I, purples, spat blood, laugh of beautiful lips [if it doesn't]

That's new to me, and so thanks.

[Mandryka]

Thanks for all the James Dillon suggestions above.

[Mandryka]

If "Old Complexity" composers like Carter and Birtwistle are included, I see no reason why composers like Xenakis, Stockhausen, Babbit, Ligeti, Nancarrow or Boulez should not be included as well and the thread be renamed to  "Top 5  Complexity"Agreed

The wikipedia article is fairly good about the meaning of "New Complexity", and Carter and Boulez aren't caught by it. But that article does list a whole bunch of composers who I would like to explore some time.

Finnissy seems to have moved off in a new direction; maybe Ferneyhough too (have you heard  O Lux?)

[amw]

How much of this have you heard?

Whole thing. I need to re-listen though. If you're starting somewhere, two of the pieces are on the disc with Windows and Canopies recommended by Luke

Hmmm. It would be interesting to have a listening group on it, but there probably aren't enough interested people. Have you deciphered it? All the allusions?

A lot of them are specifically indicated in the score, and the liner notes are pretty extensive. I haven't actually listened to the whole thing in one go with a mind to 'decipher' it though—a listening group would be fun, if we could get enough people.

L'art de toucher le clavecin 3 is very much my sort of thing, but I haven't heard 2 -- can you let me have it?

It's on Spotify! (This is a great album) I'm still awaiting a cd copy in the post
https://play.spotify.com/album/7MdGESjUPBjGIf06uvQ7eC


Regarding 'new complexity' I've never been 100% sure where to put some of the modern composers—I guess Chris Dench and Liza Lim are usually considered to count, but what about say Rebecca Saunders, Beat Furrer, Mark Andre, Pierluigi Billone, Sciarrino etc. Or the 'new complexity'ists avant la lettre such as Klaus K Hübler and H-J Hespos, who definitely present a distinct compositional profile from the Lachenmanns and Birtwistles of 'old complexity'. So in the end it's a label I don't find very helpful.

I don't see Finnissy as necessarily moving 'away' from complexity—his music is still complex in a Mahlerian sort of sense, it 'contains the world'. Or something.

[Mandryka]

Thanks for that link to the Evan Johnson track. It's immediately appealing music I think.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Ferneyhough: Terrain
Dillon: The Soadie Waste
Ferneyhough: String Quartet no. 6
Chris Dench: Permutation City
Chris Dench: Light Strung Sigils