[Trout]

Thank you both for your lists! They are very helpful. I am honestly not familiar at all with Gabriela Lena Frank so I will do some research to see how important her work seems to be to the classical music world today. I do know Donatoni, however, and agree that he would be a good addition. On the list, I only know and enjoy some of the 2-/3-star works so I look forward to learning more!

 

[20centrfuge]

You are completely welcome to use or not use the info on Frank at your discretion. It was a valuable experience for me to sift through her work so I won’t view it as time wasted in the event that she isn’t put on the list at this time.

Sincerely, just think of me as your servant who did a little work on your behalf. I appreciate all the hard work you have put into this list of contemporary repertoire.

 

[Portamento]

You are completely welcome to use or not use the info on Frank at your discretion. It was a valuable experience for me to sift through her work so I won't view it as time wasted in the event that she isn't put on the list at this time.

I think it's harder to put younger composers on the list because there hasn't been enough time for "history" to evaluate their work. Obviously, that's also part of the beauty with contemporary music!

 

[calvinpv]

But I hope this is not just a one-man show and that anyone knowledgeable about the era can provide some guidance or anyone simply interested can share their opinions on the music. After all, I'm hoping to learn as much as anyone else through this process.

Since I'm due up to present a work by Philippe Manoury in the 1980-2000 listening group, I'll use this opportunity to listen/re-listen to a number of his works over the next couple weeks and then create a list of recommendations. He's a good one to add to the project and is a good example of being one of those composers who's famous everywhere in the contemporary music world except on TC.

 

[Trout]

A Philippe Manoury list would be great! I know much less about him than I probably should.

I made some new entries in the past week or so:

- Franco Donatoni
- Luc Ferrari
- Fausto Romitelli
- Claude Vivier

And here are some updates, mainly to old entries:

Abrahamsen: Marchenbilder (now listed)
Adams, JL: Become Desert (now 2-star)
Adams, JL: Canticles of the Holy Wind (now listed)
Andriessen: Hoketus (now 2-star)
Andriessen: Workers Union (now 2-star)
Babbitt: Consortini (now listed)
Babbitt: Groupwise (now listed)
Babbitt: Images (now listed)
Babbitt: Melismata (now listed)
Babbitt: Phonemena (now listed)
Davies: Symphony No. 3 (now 2-star)
Davies: Symphony No. 6 (now 2-star)
Kagel: Acustica (now 2-star)
Kurtág: ...quasi una fantasia... (now 2-star)
Kurtág: Double Concerto (now listed)
Kurtág: Messages of the Late Miss R.V. Troussova (now 3-star)
Kurtág: Splinters (now listed)
Murail: Portulan (now listed)
Murail: Tellur (now 2-star)
Nono: Sarà dolce tacere (now listed)
Pärt: Psalom (now listed)
Rihm: IN-SCHRIFT (now listed)
Wuorinen: Spinoff (now listed)

 

[cougarjuno]

only suggestions as these five are all significant composers that I do not see on your list:

Michael Daugherty
Eric Ewazen
Alan Hovhaness
James MacMillan
Michael Torke
Robert Ward

 

[RogerWaters]

Out of curiosity, what is your definition of 'contemporary classical music'? Much of this sounds no different from ambient music, in everything but instrumental choice. This makes me wonder whether ambient electronic artists such as (but certainly not limited to) Tangerine Dream; Klaus Shulze; Ash Ra should be included. I can think of two criterion for potentially ruling them out, which you might be using:

1. Artists must make music for instruments that are also used for more traditional forms of classical music? (This would seem a bit arbitrary, and anyway some the composers on your list do use electronic instruments).
2. Artists must create scores, which are played by other people, rather than being 'recording artists'?

 

[Trout]

Out of curiosity, what is your definition of 'contemporary classical music'? Much of this sounds no different from ambient music, in everything but instrumental choice. This makes me wonder whether ambient electronic artists such as (but certainly not limited to) Tangerine Dream; Klaus Shulze; Ash Ra should be included. I can think of two criterion for potentially ruling them out, which you might be using:

1. Artists must make music for instruments that are also used for more traditional forms of classical music? (This would seem a bit arbitrary, and anyway some the composers on your list do use electronic instruments).
2. Artists must create scores, which are played by other people, rather than being 'recording artists'?

I'll be honest and say that I let others do the thinking for me. All composers included have a fairly broad consensus behind them being "classical".

But those are some good philosophical questions. There was a thread a few years ago about this very topic: When can electronic music be considered classical?.

 

[vincula]

Alfred Schnittke: Viola concerto (1985). A work of beauty.

Yuri Bashmet seems to "own" the work, but I'm currently listening my preferred rendition on disc: Nobuko Imai/Malmö Symphony Orchestra/Lev Markiz.

Schnittke's work is vast and fascinating. Just don't expect him to cheer you up...

Regards,

Vincula

 

[Guest]

New musical concepts are not mandatory new sensibility.
Audio technique is not music ; you might be a technical genius, a great designer of "new musical bases" , and create no music.
Most mathematicians have utmost competences ; they never find any new theorem, but they lecture others what is the essence of maths.
Is progressivism progress as often as destruction ?


Please correct my approximate English

 

[calvinpv]

Apologies for waiting so long to do Manoury. I was going to work my way through his music and develop a list as I went, but I got about half way before getting sidetracked with other composers. It's hard to listen to one composer at a time with no breaks for other music. Lesson learned, I guess.

Anyways, I just compiled tonight Manoury's most important works with your rating system. One thing I'm not sure of is whether to include pieces that get regularly performed (that is, "regular" as far as contemporary music is concerned) but have no commercial recording or recording of a live performance. I did include several of those, but I can take them out if you want. On the other hand, if you want all of Manoury's works, I can do that too.

EDIT: I just made Tensio and Le Livre des claviers ***. I also suspect La Trilogie Köln will become a *** as time goes on, but it's too early to tell.

I also added Partita II

- Cryptophonos [piano solo] (1974) **
- Numéro huit [103 musicians] (1980, rev. 1987)
- Zeitlauf [mixed choir, ensemble, tape & live electronics] (1982)
- Jupiter [midi-flute & live electronics] (1986-1987, rev. 1992, 1996) ***
- Le Livre des claviers [six percussionists] (1987-1988) ***
- Pluton [midi-piano & live electronics] (1988, rev. 1989) ***
- La Partition du Ciel et de l'Enfer [midi-flute, piano, midi-piano, ensemble & live electronics] (1989)
- Neptune [2 midi-vibraphones, marimba/tam-tam & live electronics] (1991)
- Michigan Trio [clarinet, violin & piano] (1992)
- En écho [soprano & live electronics] (1993-1994)
- Passacaille pour Tokyo [piano solo & 17 instruments] (1994)
- Métal [six sixxens] (1995)
- 60e Parallèle [opera] (1995-1996)
- Ultima [clarinet, cello & piano] (1995-1996)
- Fragments pour un portrait [30 musicians] (1998) **
- Toccata [piano solo] (1998)
- Sound and Fury [109 musicians] (1998-1999) **
- K … [opera] (2000-2001) **
- La ville [piano solo] (2001-2002)
- Fragments d'Héraclite [mixed choir] (2003)
- Partita I [viola & live electronics] (2006) **
- Trakl Gedichte [mixed choir] (2006)
- Veränderungen [piano solo] (2008)
- Stringendo [string quartet] (2010)
- Synapse [violin & orchestra] (2010)
- Tensio [string quartet & live electronics] (2010) ***
- Echo-daimónon [piano, orchestra & live electronics] (2011-2012)
- Partita II [violin & live electronics] (2012)
- Illud etiam [soprano, clarinet & live electronics] (2012, rev. 2015)
- Melancolia (d'après Dürer) [string quartet] (2013)
- Zones de turbulences [two pianos & orchestra] (2013)
- La Trilogie Köln (2013-2019) **
--- Ring [grand spatialized orchestra] (2016)
--- In situ [group of soloists, string orchestra & eight spatialized orchestral groups] (2013)
--- Lab.Oratorium [2 actors, soprano, contralto, chamber choir, grand amateur choir, grand spatialized orchestra & live electronics] (2019)
- Le temps, mode d'emploi [two pianos & live electronics] (2014) **
- Bref aperçu sur l'infini [cello & orchestra] (2015)
- B-Partita (in memoriam Pierre Boulez) [violin, ensemble & live electronics] (2016) **
- États d'alerte [two percussionists & orchestra] (2017)
- Kein Licht [opera] (2017) **
- Saccades [flute & orchestra] (2018)
- Anticipations [grand spatialized orchestra] (2019)

 

[calvinpv]

Though I won't get to them right away, other more recent, well-known contemporary composers I can do are:

Mark Andre
Pierluigi Billone (Andre and Billone are, imo, Lachenmann's two best students)
Rebecca Saunders (one of Ferneyhough's best students, though her aesthetics is closer to Lachenmann)
Simon Steen-Andersen (a creative multi-media composer like van der Aa and who challenges the boundaries of music in a Cagean fashion)
Enno Poppe
Bernhard Lang (Poppe and Lang use algorithms to generate their music. Specifically, Poppe uses mathematical models of plant growth and Lang is into "loop aesthetics")

Also, someone should do Richard Barrett, though I'm familiar with his work.

 

[calvinpv]

Also, someone should do Richard Barrett, though I'm familiar with his work.

This should read: I'm NOT familiar with his work, so someone else ought to do it.

 

[hoodjem]

Don't overlook Jennifer Higdon.

Has Aaron Jay Kernis been mentioned?
Or Morten Lauridson?
Or Howard Skempton?
Robert Moran?
Caleb Burhans?
Tobias Picker?
Alexander Knaifel?
Anna Thorvaldsdottir?
Kim Andre Arnesen.

 

[hoodjem]

Some composers who blur the boundary between classical and new age:
Wim Mertens,
Johann Johannsson,
Hildur Guonadottir,
Max Richter,
Ludovico Einaudi,
Ola Gjeilo,
Maria Huld Marian Sigfusdottir,
Olafur Arnalds.

 

[Guest]

What's this? The Classical Hot 100? No thank you. I like music by dead guys - the deader the better.

 

[20centrfuge]

Thanks for sharing, Jerome

 

[Trout]

Hi, everyone.

I appreciate the (mostly) constructive activity on this thread. Just to let you know on the current status of things, I took a bit of a break due to some big life events but things are starting to settle down now. I have had an entry on Pauline Oliveros nearly complete for some time and hope to publish it soon (Manoury will be on deck shortly). I've been doing some rethinking on how I consider genre for this project and I think I may reverse one criterion I had earlier, namely that all the works listed need be strictly classical, mainly thanks to Oliveros whose works tended to straddle a few different genres. Thus, I think I will be adding some Terry Riley and La Monte Young works/albums I otherwise excluded. But all other entries should remain the same.

Lastly, the Google site will be forcibly receiving a makeover soon enough as it seems Google is no longer supporting this older format. I'll be working on that in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

 

[Kjetil Heggelund]

Hello mr. Trout! How about having Arne Nordheim of Norway on your list?

 

[Trout]

Hello mr. Trout! How about having Arne Nordheim of Norway on your list?

That's the third mention of him in this thread, so I suppose I will have to investigate at some point soon!