Top 11 Favorite Contemporary Composers

[TheGSMoeller]

I can't get enough of this amazing work...

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[Brahmsian]

A new name to me; thanks for bringing him up! I only see one recording dedicated to his music available on Amazon (and it's out-of-print ), this intriguing-looking disc of his orchestral music:

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Do you have this CD or any other recordings of his music, Ray?

Sorry, I can't help you there, Kyle.    My experience with Astacio's music has been all live performances with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.  I don't have any CDs of his music.

The three works I have heard live, and I thought they were all great and very interesting pieces are:  Borealis, Spring's Promise, and Frenergy.

There is always You Tube! 

[kyjo]

Sorry, I can't help you there, Kyle.    My experience with Astacio's music has been all live performances with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.  I don't have any CDs of his music.

The three works I have heard live, and I thought they were all great and very interesting pieces are:  Borealis, Spring's Promise, and Frenergy.

There is always You Tube! 

That's okay, Ray. Are you familiar with the music of any other Canadian composers (I recall you discussing Eckhardt-Gramatte, though)? It appears that Canada hardly does anything to promote their music, which is quite sad (forgive me if I'm incorrect). The situation isn't much better in the US, though!

[Brahmsian]

That's okay, Ray. Are you familiar with the music of any other Canadian composers (I recall you discussing Eckhardt-Gramatte, though)? It appears that Canada hardly does anything to promote their music, which is quite sad (forgive me if I'm incorrect). The situation isn't much better in the US, though!

Yes, my Canadian composer knowledge, is sad to say:  quite limited.

Eckhardt-Gramatte is my absolute favourite, although she lived less than 1/2 her life in Canada.  She really is a European composer.

One very fascinating piece, is by Quebec composer Andre Mathieu (1929-1968), and his Piano Concerto No. 4 in E minor.  I had the absolute thrill of hearing this work performed live by the WSO and pianist Alain Lefevre, who is a devoted champion to Mathieu's music and trying to resurrect his music.  Has an almost Rachmaninovian flair and panache to it!  Definitely check it out, or see if you can get sound samples of it.

It is available:

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A popular Canadian composer is another Quebecois, Claude Vivier (1948-1983), but I have not heard a single note of his music to date. 

[kyjo]

Yes, my Canadian composer knowledge, is sad to say:  quite limited.

Eckhardt-Gramatte is my absolute favourite, although she lived less than 1/2 her life in Canada.  She really is a European composer.

One very fascinating piece, is by Quebec composer Andre Mathieu (1929-1968), and his Piano Concerto No. 4 in E minor.  I had the absolute thrill of hearing this work performed live by the WSO and pianist Alain Lefevre, who is a devoted champion to Mathieu's music and trying to resurrect his music.  Has an almost Rachmaninovian flair and panache to it!  Definitely check it out, or see if you can get sound samples of it.

It is available:

[asin]B001D7T352[/asin]

A popular Canadian composer is another Quebecois, Claude Vivier (1948-1983), but I have not heard a single note of his music to date. 

I have that Mathieu CD and agree with you that it is excellent-the Rachmaninov influence in the PC is very appealing to my tastes. Mathieu's Concerto de Quebec (also recorded by Lefevre) is another superb work in the Rachmaninovian vein. His tragic early death at age 39 was a great loss.

[kyjo]

A friendly suggestion would be to really seriously challenge yourself & explore the best of the 2nd half of the 20th century, most of which is contemporaneous with our time and of the modern zeitgeist; it will stretch your ears, open your mind, feed you knowledge .. and provide both a fuller context and insight into what today's younger composers might be about, plus give you a reference to compare & contrast.

Hate to break the bad news to you, James, but I don't care much at all for many of the composers you favor; Stockhausen, Boulez, Xenakis, and all the other members of the "Darmstadt School" that I've encountered have left me cold. I much prefer tonal music (though I like Schoenberg and Berg), and the great symphonists and orchestral writers of the 20th century hold the most appeal for me. I am unable to make a connection with music that, to me, sounds like noise for its own sake and doesn't really reveal any true emotion or substance. We have very different tastes and I'll leave it at that.

[amw]

A popular Canadian composer is another Quebecois, Claude Vivier (1948-1983), but I have not heard a single note of his music to date. 

Vivier's worth checking out, though his untimely death (murder, I believe) prevented the nascent mature voice of his later music from developing beyond a few works—if he'd lived he probably would have been one of the most significant composers post WWII (some might argue that he already is). The "early" music is hardly juvenilia either. (Random link: http://5-against-4.blogspot.co.nz/2010/07/proms-looking-forwardback.html) May not be to everyone's taste; if Messiaen is too weird for you, you might be even more lost in Vivier. Or maybe not.

Among contemporary Canadian composers R. Murray Schafer is probably the best-known (I've heard some of his string quartets, of which there are about 12) along with Gilles Tremblay (one of Vivier's teachers), Jacques Hétu, and—electroacoustically speaking—Hildegard Westerkamp and Francis Dhomont. They're all on the older side though, I'm sadly unaware of what most younger Canadians are doing nowadays, apart from Chiyoko Szlavnics who's based in Berlin anyway. Among older Canadian composers there's obviously Colin McPhee. Henry Brant is technically Canadian but worked in America for most of his life.

Not living in, being anywhere near to, or knowing much about the musical traditions of Canada, I'm not the most reliable source around. Apparently there are lots of Canadian composers though. Wikipedia sez.

[Mirror Image]

In no particular order...

Sculthorpe
Vine
Aho
Rautavaara
Lindberg
Salonen
Part
Kurtag
Adams (although I haven't been too impressed with his output lately)
Silvestrov
Dalbavie (based on the few works I have actually heard --- I enjoy his style very much)

[kyjo]

Sculthorpe
Silvestrov

Could've very well included these two!

[Mirror Image]

Could've very well included these two!

Sculthorpe is one of those composers whose music I fell in love with almost instantly. It's so lyrical and he gives the music room to breathe. He never overstates anything. It's direct and to-the-point. Silvestrov's music, on the other hand, haunts me to no end. I hate using the word 'nostalgic' but he tends to evoke memories I've had in my life and I get all sorts of mental images of simpler times. I can't listen to his music often for this very reason.

[Wanderer]

In no particular order:

Gubaidulina
Birtwistle
Wuorinen
Vine
Salonen
Rzewski
Lauridsen
Penderecki
Kernis
Sallinen
Kurtág
Corigliano
Lachenmann
Rihm
Andriessen

[Sergeant Rock]

Boulez
Kats-Chernin
Del Tridici
Sallinen
Rautaavara
Asia (yeah, I like him...shoot me  )
Aho
Silvestrov
Glass
Henning
Kernis (provisional, based on a limited amount of music heard so far)


Sarge

[Karl Henning]

From my heart, I thank you, sir.

[Sergeant Rock]

From my heart, I thank you, sir.

Sincerely meant...but I'm sorry you have to share a list with Daniel Asia 

Sarge

[Brahmsian]

From my heart, I thank you, sir.

Psst, check my list Karl.  Sincerely.

[Karl Henning]

Ray, hadn't meant to neglect your'n!

Sincerely meant...but I'm sorry you have to share a list with Daniel Asia 

Sarge

Like Aunt Dahlia's chef Anatole, I can take a few smooths with the rough!

[vandermolen]

Vasks (esp Symphony 2)
Kinsella (esp symphonies 3 and 4)
Arnold Rosner
Rautavaara
Asia (Symphony 3)
Gerber
Jaz Coleman
Tavener
Aho
Poul Ruders
Eshpai

[71 dB]

I haven't explored comtemporary composers much (I don't have a clue who the hell Kinsella is  ), but I enjoy music by:

Philip Glass
Arvo Pärt
Michael Torke
John Adams

Rautavaara lived years near me (a few hundreds of meters away), but ironically I haven't heard many works by him. Do I like his music? I really don't know... 

[DavidW]

Rautavaara was your neighbor and you never mentioned that before!?!?!Q?!?!?!?!?!Q

[Wanderer]

Hey, I thought Karl was hors concours! I'm Fedexing my amended list and a commission for a piano concerto (with soprano saxophone obbligato) to Boston as we speak.