[jvardon]

Hey guys,
So I've been planning my senior recital (undergrad - baritone) and finding music has been a bit of a challenge. I've looked at hundreds of art songs (German, Italian, French, English), as well as many arias and now my voice teacher suggests looking at more contemporary stuff.
Do you guys know any modern/contemporary art songs, or baritone arias that are new age in style? I've looked into Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, and John Adams - I have found that I am not really a fan of their minimalism and contemporary harmonic palettes.
If you guys know art songs or arias more like the music of Ludovico Einaudi I'd love to know what they are.


PS. minor keys, and broken chords always a big plus.

 

[Nereffid]

My guess would be that Einaudi-style minimalism doesn't lend itself well to song; the absence of variety in the music could lead to a nursery-rhyme effect.
Have you tried Ned Rorem, Jake Heggie, or Jonathan Dove? They're the first names that come to my mind when thinking of "accessible" contemporary song - but my knowledge of the area is limited.

 

[jvardon]

I ordered some of their stuff from my college library and a lot of it is still a little too contemporary for my tastes.

Interestingly, a week or two ago, I found this

I really like it, but I do get what you mean about it being a little dry - its a beautiful piece, but it doesn't do very much. I am looking into finding the sheet music for it, or I might try to transcribe it and create the score myself.

 

[SanAntone]

Holly Winter - Thirsty Hearts

performed by Projēkt Chamber Voices:
Chamber Choir (SATB), Sarah MacDonald (soprano)
Thirsty Hearts by Holly Winter (2020)

 

[Torkelburger]

One of my favorite contemporary pieces for baritone is The Seven Deadly Sins by Robert Beaser (long-time chairman of the composition department at Julliard). It is a wonderful piece. Beaser is a rare breed, in that he is one of a very few composers who have carried on/updated the Bernstein sound/tradition. So that is golden in my book. Below is a site where you can read the score and hear a little bit. It's probably not exactly what you are looking for, as it is quite operatic (but playfully jazzy at times as you'll see) and has some recitative here-and-there to get through the text (these are based on long poems; duration 24 minutes but you don't have to do all of them), but great music nonetheless. There is an excerpt to listen to at the site of a performance with the American Composers Orchestra (I own this CD, all tracks are marvelous). The score at the site is for piano and baritone.

https://www.eamdc.com/psny/composers/robert-beaser/works/the-seven-deadly-sins/

 

[Mandryka]

Hey guys,
So I've been planning my senior recital (undergrad - baritone) and finding music has been a bit of a challenge. I've looked at hundreds of art songs (German, Italian, French, English), as well as many arias and now my voice teacher suggests looking at more contemporary stuff.
Do you guys know any modern/contemporary art songs, or baritone arias that are new age in style? I've looked into Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, and John Adams - I have found that I am not really a fan of their minimalism and contemporary harmonic palettes.
If you guys know art songs or arias more like the music of Ludovico Einaudi I'd love to know what they are.

PS. minor keys, and broken chords always a big plus.

If I were you I'd explore music by Laurence Crane and Antoine Beuger -- these are for female voice though

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/shop/chants-irene-kurka/

Also, and this is a bit of a longshot, Bogenstrich by Harrison Birtistle, which has a seriousness about it which reminds me of Brahms

Or another longshot -- Thomas Larcher's A Padmore Cycle

 

[Mandryka]

Also Jurg Frey a possibility maybe

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/shop/jurg-frey-24-worter/

I think the most important contemporary song composer is Wolfgang Rihm - but what he does is definitely in the lieder tradition. You should certainly check out something like the cycle Das Rot if you don't already know it.

 

[SanAntone]

Since this is the closest thing to a thread for contemporary vocal music, I will be using it to post new works for voice, and not focussing on the OP.

If others have a problem with that, I will create a separate thread for new vocal music.

 

[SanAntone]

Caroline Shaw & Sō Percussion - To the Sky

Their new album Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part is excellent.

 

[SanAntone]

Nico Muhly: A Good Understanding
Los Angeles Master Chorale & Grant Gershon

It's taken me a while to accept the music of Nico Muhly.

Early on I had this nagging sensation that it was gimmickry. BUt alowly, over the years, and with each new work I'd sample - usually by accident, i.e. one by an artists I was interested in for different reasons - I found myself enjoying the music.

Then last year I watched his opera at The Met, Marnie, and could find nothing objectionable with it.

This CD contains some of his choral music with organ accompaniment and it is wonderful.

Still, I can't help feeling I'm being conned. But like any mark, I simply don't care.

 

[SanAntone]

Arnulf Herrmann: Tour de Trance (2019/20)

Arnulf Herrmann (*1968)
Tour de Trance, for soprano and orchestra (2019/20)
after a poem by Monika Rinck

Anja Petersen, soprano
Sinfonieorchester des Bayrischen Rundfunks
Pablo Heras Casado, conductor

World Première, 12 November 2021, Musica Viva '21