Modern/Contemporary Music "Sightings"

[Bogey]

This thread is being started due to the interesting discussion that has taken place in Hornteacher's radio thread (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,338.0.html).  I thought it might be enjoyable to post any Modern/Contemporary music that you hear on either the radio or in concert, seeing that these seem to be somewhat less common when it comes to radio play or live perfomances that are offered.  As for the definition of Modern/Contemporary music, use your own judgement when posting and then we can hash out that said judgement here.

Tonight on the radio I heard:

George Antheil Violin Sonata No. 2
Mark Fewer, violin
John Novacek, piano

Enjoyed this one.  Would not mind tracking down a recording in the near future.

[Bogey]

Like it too! I only know the recording with Reinbert deLeeuw and Vera Beths who played this on their American tour -- jeesh, during the American bicentennial.

-egbdf

This was a live piece played by two local musicians here in Colorado.  (Not sure if they are originally from here or not.)  Each night for an hour on our station they play music performed by Colorado ensembles and soloists.  Just happened to catch this one.

[Maciek]

Like the idea for the thread, Bill. May I also suggest that we let each other know when an interesting contemporary item is coming up on the stations we listen to? I especially mean first performances of new works by famous composers etc.

[Bogey]

Like the idea for the thread, Bill. May I also suggest that we let each other know when an interesting contemporary item is coming up on the stations we listen to? I especially mean first performances of new works by famous composers etc.

Excellent idea.

[Sergeant Rock]

Next week, in my area, there will be several concerts by the STARZ or STARPF (see Abbreviation thread  ) featuring the music of Sallinen and Atterberg:

23/24.04 at the BASF Feierabendhaus in Ludwigshafen: Sallinen Shadows, Sibelius VC, Svendsen Symphony 2, Lisa Batiashvili violin, Ari Rasilainen conducting

27.04 in Mainz:  Sallinen Kammermusik, Prokofiev VC 2, Atterberg Symphony 3, Batiashvili, Rasilainen

29.04 in Mannheim's Rosengarten: Sallinen Chamber Music


Sarge

[not edward]

Good to see that Rasilainen is programming this music as well as recording it.

[Bogey]

Tonight on the radio:

Carter Pann Antares Antares (Innova)

[Maciek]

My cry for help: Polish Radio Channel 2 is going to be airing a recording of Boleslaw Szabelski's Concertino for piano and orchestra on Friday (May 11th) at 12:30 CEST (UTC+2). This piece has never been released commercially so this would be my only chance to hear it. BUT, as it is, I'll be away from home at that time (I'm going to Wroclaw) and will have no way of listening to it, let alone recording it. Could someone please, please, PLEASE record the webcast for me? The other piece on the program is the 2nd Sonata for violin solo by Grazyna Bacewicz. The whole thing will only last half an hour.

You can listen to the webcast at this address: http://www2.polskieradio.pl/sluchaj/play.aspx?p=i2.

An alternative address but sound is not as good (lower bit rate or something): http://www.polskieradio.pl/sluchaj/play.aspx?p=r2.

Chris? Guido? Sean? MOG? Anyone!

OK, maybe I'm not THAT desperate, they're bound to air it again another time but, seriously, just to be on the safe side - I'd really appreciate it if someone could record that and later post it somewhere on GMG (like The Broadcast Corner).

Cheers,
Maciek

[Bogey]

This on the radio in about two hours from now:

From the 2006 Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Jan Manasse, clarinet, Mark Fewer, violin, and John Novacek, piano, perform Patrick Cardy's Tango!, violinists Mark Fewer and Steven Copes perform Matthew Hindson's Little Chrissitina's Major Fantasy, and Robert Walters, oboe, Michael Kroth, bassoon, and John Novacek, piano, perform Andre Previn's Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano.http://www.kvod.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=249

Streaming to be found here (KVOD):

http://www.cpr.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=73&Itemid=131

[bhodges]

Carl Vine - Piano Sonata No. 1

12th Van Cliburn Competition Silver Medalist Joyce Yang performed this at my school's convocation this last Friday.  I also had the privilege of seeing her perform Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto later that evening. 

I'd never heard of Carl Vine before, and this piece, written in 1991 I believe, was quite a grand introduction to this Australian composer.  Huge waves and clusters of sound - as Yang described it, "organized chaos."

The same could be said of George Antheil's Ballet Mecanique for four pianos and percussion (originally for sixteen player pianos), though I wouldn't even try to compare the two (I'm actually involved in a performance of this piece next month as one of the four pianists).  The Vine Sonata was more "impressionistic" while the Antheil is more percussive and mechanical (hence the title).

I like Carl Vine's Piano Sonata No. 1 a lot.  First (and only) hearing was on this CD by Sergei Babayan, which is excellent.  (Babayan is based in Cleveland, and apparently is more committed to teaching than performing.)  The CD has Messiaen, Ligeti and Respighi (and if you like the program you should definitely check out this pianist) but the Vine was the most unusual revelation.



--Bruce

[jochanaan]

This on the radio in about two hours from now:

From the 2006 Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Jan Manasse, clarinet, Mark Fewer, violin, and John Novacek, piano, perform Patrick Cardy's Tango!, violinists Mark Fewer and Steven Copes perform Matthew Hindson's Little Chrissitina's Major Fantasy, and Robert Walters, oboe, Michael Kroth, bassoon, and John Novacek, piano, perform Andre Previn's Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano.http://www.kvod.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=249

Streaming to be found here (KVOD):

http://www.cpr.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=73&Itemid=131

And very fine performances they are!

[Maciek]

This one's sort of deadish... Thought I'd give it a bump. 0:)

[André]

Bumping up this thread.

I realize I have a problem defining and opposing  (if needed) "contemporary" music vs "modern" music.

Recently I posted on the "Amazing shortcomings" thread (excellent idea BTW) and I mentioned I had very little "modern" music. A few posts down the line, MI mentioned a rather long list of composers HE thought fit the description.

It so happens that I have PLENTY of those, and many more, which I do not by any means consider "modern". 

IOW my idea of what is "modern" seems to be quite different from other people/mélomanes'. 

In my view, modern music is something that goes against the grain in terms of consonance and fluidity of discourse. The way I hear it, Modern Music is essentially post-1950 stuff I feel confronts and challenges me by dint of its non-tonal (not necessarily atonal), chromatic, unconventional way of making sounds.

To take a very simple, maybe oversimplified example:  music made up of electronic sounds, aleatoric pitch, random vocal shouts, whether as "pure", "dance" or "theatre" music, especially when relying on non-conventional musical formations (often percussion only).

OTOH, "contemporary" music, in my uncultured mind, means merely stuff written during the post 1950 (Darmstadt) period that picks up on, and continues to use standard musical forms, instruments and  idioms. Generally speaking, I do not have trouble relating to that kind of stuff. When it's "modern stuff", my "USS Enterprise" magnetic shield tends to keep them at bay.

This came to my me while listening to a "disc" I made up a few years ago, when gleaning upon tons of internet links then available before copyright laws closed down the AliBaBa cave. I listened first to Wolfgang Rihm' Vers une symphonie Fleuve IV (1998), followed by Heiner Goebbels' Aus einem Tagebuch (2003). The former struck me as immediately "accessible" in that I could relate instantly to "older" forms of musical language and structure; OTOH, Goebbels' "Diary" was a bird of a totally different feather. No "form" I could detect, no musical idiom I could relate to. I loved the former, but I'll have to warm up (if possible) to the latter. I'm just not there *yet*.

SO... is there a real difference that I should take into account when  listening to post 1950 music  ?

[kishnevi]

For me, the difference is more chronological
Modern is music written in my lifetime (in my case, from 1959 on).
Contemporary is usually more recent, composed since 2000, and/or by a composer currently alive and active.
But both are so diverse they probably need to be broken apart into compositional schools or genres.

[San Antone]

I take a more historical view: 

Modern music is what developed after post Romanticism, i.e. from 1910-1950, but before serialism and the post-1950 avant garde.  It is also separate from the late romanticism that continued well into the 20th century by composers such as Sibelius, Vaughan Williams and Rachmaninoff.  Modern composers would be Stravinsky, Ravel, Shostakovich.

Contemporary music is that which is written by living composers.  It does not indicate a style but merely that which is occurring "now".

Of course, these are simply how I think of these terms, YMMV.

[jochanaan]

Bumping up this thread.

I realize I have a problem defining and opposing  (if needed) "contemporary" music vs "modern" music.

Recently I posted on the "Amazing shortcomings" thread (excellent idea BTW) and I mentioned I had very little "modern" music. A few posts down the line, MI mentioned a rather long list of composers HE thought fit the description.

It so happens that I have PLENTY of those, and many more, which I do not by any means consider "modern". 

IOW my idea of what is "modern" seems to be quite different from other people/mélomanes'. 

In my view, modern music is something that goes against the grain in terms of consonance and fluidity of discourse. The way I hear it, Modern Music is essentially post-1950 stuff I feel confronts and challenges me by dint of its non-tonal (not necessarily atonal), chromatic, unconventional way of making sounds.

To take a very simple, maybe oversimplified example:  music made up of electronic sounds, aleatoric pitch, random vocal shouts, whether as "pure", "dance" or "theatre" music, especially when relying on non-conventional musical formations (often percussion only).

OTOH, "contemporary" music, in my uncultured mind, means merely stuff written during the post 1950 (Darmstadt) period that picks up on, and continues to use standard musical forms, instruments and  idioms. Generally speaking, I do not have trouble relating to that kind of stuff. When it's "modern stuff", my "USS Enterprise" magnetic shield tends to keep them at bay.

This came to my me while listening to a "disc" I made up a few years ago, when gleaning upon tons of internet links then available before copyright laws closed down the AliBaBa cave. I listened first to Wolfgang Rihm' Vers une symphonie Fleuve IV (1998), followed by Heiner Goebbels' Aus einem Tagebuch (2003). The former struck me as immediately "accessible" in that I could relate instantly to "older" forms of musical language and structure; OTOH, Goebbels' "Diary" was a bird of a totally different feather. No "form" I could detect, no musical idiom I could relate to. I loved the former, but I'll have to warm up (if possible) to the latter. I'm just not there *yet*.

SO... is there a real difference that I should take into account when  listening to post 1950 music  ?

Don't sweat it.  Many folks here call The Rite of Spring contemporary (and thus anathema)!

[André]

There's nothing new under the sun, I guess. I just listened to some Gioacinto Scelsi chamber works written 1944-1961 and found them almost unsufferable. I know this is bad, bad  .

Whereas the Wolfgang Rihm orchestral work from 50 years later I also heard today was much more palatable, even interesting.

Why then does some music sound like aural barbed wire, whereas other music of the same time - even later - picks up and bridges the time gaps to produce something that is pleasing (even if really challenging)  ?

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I take a more historical view: 

Modern music is what developed after post Romanticism, i.e. from 1910-1950, but before serialism and the post-1950 avant garde.  It is also separate from the late romanticism that continued well into the 20th century by composers such as Sibelius, Vaughan Williams and Rachmaninoff.  Modern composers would be Stravinsky, Ravel, Shostakovich.

Contemporary music is that which is written by living composers.  It does not indicate a style but merely that which is occurring "now".

Of course, these are simply how I think of these terms, YMMV.

I share a similar view, although for me I keep having a feeling that music written after, say, the late 80s in my mind tends to be somehow different from music in previous decades. I have no idea what it is, but I feel a closer connection with music from the 80s to now than earlier music.

[jochanaan]

There's nothing new under the sun, I guess. I just listened to some Gioacinto Scelsi chamber works written 1944-1961 and found them almost unsufferable. I know this is bad, bad  .

Something for me to listen to! 

[musicrom]

The most contemporary music I've heard in concert was:

Kurtag - The Answered Unanswered Question (1989), and "Ruhelos" from Kafka Fragments (1985-1987)
Shostakovich - Symphony No. 10 (1953)
Martin - Violin Concerto (1951)
Klein - Partita for String Orchestra (1944)
Vaughan Williams - Symphony No. 4 (1935)

There was also a concert I went to before I really got into classical music which I don't really remember that well, but looking it up, it's possible that there was  Skrowaczewski, Schnittke, Raykhelson, Shostakovich, and Takemitsu on the program.