# Music of recent / living composers for study and enjoyment



## JohnG (Sep 4, 2010)

Although I'm the first to argue that a fair amount of the artistically-ambitious music of the last 50 years is utter rubbish, there are definitely composers I've enjoyed a good deal and continue to listen to with great interest.

I would be very keen to get others' lists of living composers whose work is not just polished but is pushing the envelope in some way, artistically. Could be film composers, could be concert composers.

Without attempting to define what I mean as "pushing the envelope artistically," I'll offer a few suggestions / recommendations:

Arvo Part
Phillip Glass (especially film scores)
John Corigliano
Thomas Newman
John Adams
George Crumb
Krysztof Penderecki
Gyorgy Ligeti (died in 2006 but still fun)

There are more, but this is a start. 

I chose them because I believe each makes a sincere effort to invent non-trivial new ways to write or present music, or use harmony / rhythm / harmonic relationships / orchestration. And also I like it.


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## poseur (Sep 4, 2010)

i agree with many of yr suggestions, jg.

arvo pärt
steve reich
john adams
giya kancheli
charles mingus
duke ellington / billy strayhorn
samuel barber (not just "adagio for strings")
paul hindemith
tyondai braxton
thomas larcher
leonard bernstein
django bates
ryuichi sakamoto
nino rota
tim berne
benjamin britten
antonio carlos jobim
henry mancini
ennio morricone
toru takemitsu

i decided to edit/add a bit more, here, though my list will remain incomplete.

a. schoenberg
k. stockhausen
lou harrison
terry riley
erik satie
a. hovhaness
yoshihiro hanno


and, etc etc etc

within all that & more,
i also usually strongly advise keeping some ear to the creative & sonic undercurrents
beneath (or, hidden by) many of the "popular" music idioms.

d


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## stonzthro (Sep 4, 2010)

I would certainly add
Joesph Scwantner
Alan Hovhaness (d. 2000)
Zbigniew Preisner


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## Narval (Sep 4, 2010)

John Williams.


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## stonzthro (Sep 4, 2010)

never heard of him.


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## David Story (Sep 4, 2010)

+1 for
Arvo Part 
Phillip Glass 
John Corigliano 
Thomas Newman 
John Adams 
George Crumb 
Krysztof Penderecki 
Gyorgy Ligeti 


I would add:
Steve Reich
Harry Partch
Laura Karpman
Toru Takemitsu 

Pushing envelope, not sure how much I like:
Brian Ferneyhough
Michael Daugherty
Bill Fontana
Magnus Lindberg


May I include this guy, for fun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKhtZ7F13UQ


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## poseur (Sep 4, 2010)

Narval @ Sat Sep 04 said:


> John Williams.



i'm sure this was a very thoughtful & considered suggestion, on your part.

of course: many others are well-known to already agree w/that suggestion,
from other, more relevant thread-subjects:
including john, the OP, here,
as is well-evidenced all throughout the many yrs & scribblings 
which describe the existence of this forum.
and, as you well know, i suppose.

i suppose that i shld now expect a response from you that "pokes fun" at my style of posting.

d


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## rgames (Sep 4, 2010)

Copland - died 1980, so he's recent, right? Not a big fan of his symphonies but his other works are generally outstanding. Probably the most unique sound of 20th century composers AND he was able to write music that people actually like.

Ahmed Adnan Saygun - love his symphonies.

Rautavaara - string quartets and violin concerto but not symphonies

Michael Daugherty - OK not pushing the envelope but it's fun stuff.

Lepo Sumera - Musica Profana, Sym 6, and Cello concerto. Sym 1-3 not so great, though.

Mason Bates - interseting combos of live and electronic elements. Especially like Red River and Amber Frozen but he has a lot of crap, too.

Christopher Gunning - sym 3 and 4

+1 Penderecki - especially like sym's #3 #4 #5 and Credo

+1 Arvo Part - again not sure how much Part really pushes the envelope but no question he's written some great stuff.

+1 Samuel Barber

-1 Takemitsu (sorry Toru... I just don't get your work...)

-1 Lindberg - I like his Concerto for Orchestra but not other work. Admittedly I haven't heard much of his opus, though.

-1 Philip Glass - unique sound, for sure, but I find it inflexible. Not much in the way of expressive possibility.

rgames


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## JohnG (Sep 4, 2010)

I don't know if you've had a chance to hear Phillip Glass' score for "Notes on a Scandal." I found its sinuousness created a world for that movie that helped to set Judy Dench's performance off like a fireworks. 

It might convert you. It's also a lot less repetitious than, say, "Einstein on the Beach." I really like that one but I can empathise with those who don't.

I think Arvo P's pushing on a different envelope than the one that, say, Penderecki's doing; still, I see your point.

I'm going to check out some of these other composers people have mentioned -- should be refreshing.


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## Farkle (Sep 4, 2010)

+1 Samuel Barber. Not just 'cause he's from Philly (Go Curtis Institute), but because he has fantastic 20th century melodic instincts.

I did my master's thesis on him, studied his "Overture to School for Scandal", "Piano Concerto", and "Violin Concerto". Good orchestration, GREAT counterpoint, and amazing melodies.

I'm a big "populist" composer, so I like guys who channel popular music or aesthetic. Aaron Copland, John Adams, Michael Daugherty. Also like Hindemith a lot: his Mathis de Mahler is great (and has the Batman theme in it!), and his solo viola suites are excellent!

I'm a HUGE fan of Michael Torke... he's a post-Stravinsky composer who uses pop rhythms and harmonies as musical material. Check out his orchestral pieces (especially Green), and this piece, for violin, cello, flute, clarinet, piano:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHbpHNG-KQI

He wrote this as a student at Yale. I wish that when I was 21, I had written such a fun, bouncy, ebullient piece. 

So, those are my "post 1945" 20th century dudes. I hope you all take a chance to listen to the pieces I've listed above, I think they're a great listen!

Mike


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## Farkle (Sep 4, 2010)

Oh, and Aaron Jay Kernis' _Symphony in Waves_ is also excellent!


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## Stephen Hill (Sep 4, 2010)

Varied mix of lesser known or mentioned composers

Orchestral

John Psathas
http://www.johnpsathas.com/

John Corigliano
http://www.johncorigliano.com/

Byong Kon Kim (Atonal) studied with him in Graduate School (I'm more from the Howard Hanson, Roy Harris School, but the lessons with Dr. Kim were very good)
http://www.amazon.com/Music-Byong-Kon-Kim/dp/B000003XO5

Michael Torke (Minimalist, Jazz, etc. influence)
http://www.ilike.com/artist/Michael+Torke?src=onebox


I teach High School Band and Orchestra. There is a big opportunity for performance of new music with College and High School level Wind Ensembles.

Music for Wind Band 

Joel Puckett - Ping Pang Pong 
(Turn Volume down for opening chord) http://www.joelpuckett.com/pingmarines.html 

Vincent Persichetti - Parable IX
http://www.classicsonline.com/catalogue ... x?pid=5272

David Maslanka - Some of my high school band students recently performed "Give us this Day" with our District Honor Band
http://www.davidmaslanka.com/

Joseph Schwantner - "...and the mountains rising nowhere."
http://www.schwantner.net/works.htm

Stephen Melillo - Attributes Erich Wolfgang Korngold as a big influence
http://www.google.com/search?client=saf ... 8&oe=UTF-8


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## David Story (Sep 4, 2010)

Torke is fun, I like "July" too.
+1 for Barber, he's my favorite neoromantic before JW.
Barber, Menotti and Bernstein we're all classmates, isn't that amazing?!

+1 for New Zealand composers, Psathas, Lilburn, Claire Cowan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lh9m-ovjfs

There's a stunning youtube video where Glass demonstrates live how he developed the theme for Notes. I can't find it now!

Check out Laura Karpman, a contemporary concert and media composer:
http://www.laurakarpman.com/clips/128mp3/32.mp3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTl-Fg9GWn4


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## Narval (Sep 4, 2010)

I think, in spite of being overshadowed by the film scorer, John-Williams-the-concert-music-composer is no less worth studying than the other concert music composers mentioned in this thread.

http://www.encoremusic.com/horn/1250155.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc8TT6HlBHY


OT -

poseur, 
I never "poked fun" at your style of posting.


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## bryla (Sep 5, 2010)

I would just ADD to this great list of composers:

Peter Maxwell-Davies


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## nikolas (Sep 5, 2010)

Thanks John! Multy thanks for your suggestions and for the thread! 

Here are some futher ideas:

Sofia Gubaidulina
Michalis Travlos (actually a fabulous composer from Greece, for various idioms and orchestrations)
Philip Cashian (ok, my former supervisor, but still a very nice composer)
Birtwhistle
Jani Christou (dead since the 70s, but I swear have a look at one of his scores, or listen to one of his tracks and you'll know why I keep mentioning him).
Gyorgy Kurtag
Per Nørgård (copied from wiki, thus the weird characters, but he also created the infinity series which is great fun! :D)
Kancheli (wrote a very tonal, yet great, piece for viola and huge orchestra+choir, featured on Deutche Gramophone CDs and he's earned my 'support')
Alfred Schnittke (ok, dead, but still huge fun and without any 'issues' that usually contempary composers come along with! :D)

and I can't think of many others, although I'm sure they are there...

and, btw, whlie I have plenty of CDs from Arvo Part, I never really 'got' him. Just get irritated with his music somehow...


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## JohnG (Sep 5, 2010)

Links, please!

Would love to hear some of these composers' work.

I think what I like about Part's work is that it feels as though the result is vaguely familiar -- one recognises the architectural vocabulary -- but it feels as though the conception, the thought process behind the writing, is either novel or else very, very old. But either way to me it feels like the somewhat-familiar being presented anew, which I enjoy.

That said, nobody has to like anybody.


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## poseur (Sep 5, 2010)

somehow,
i left out one of my favorite living composers:
maybe, because i've so repeatedly mentioned his name, here.
*
tigran mansurian*

and:
+3 to nikolas' mentions of both 
kurtag
christou
schnittke!
(one of my youngest son's longtime favorites, who introduced me to his work.....)


as an aside, to nikolas:
some yrs ago,
my (violist, then 14yr old) son & i were invited to meet with giya kancheli,
at a premiere (of a piece he'd written for the ever-luminous kim kashkashian);
it was a thrilling & very edifying day.

i wonder if very few film-composers
still/ever float in the emotion-laden currents of their innocent love for music,
and if this becomes reflected in a lack of desire/motivation to continue exploring works
--- current, recent &/or past ---
that lie well outside the "inflicted" (&, "self-inflicted"?) borders of film-music.....
..... this, wondered from what appears to me to be the appearance of some continuity
shown in the "direction(s)" that film-music seemingly takes.

in any case,
i'm not much interested in "envelopes" being "pushed",
nor great feats of craft & technology,
but in music that moves me.
always!


d


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## nikolas (Sep 5, 2010)

Sofia is well known and should be easy to track down.

As for Travlos: http://soundcloud.com/michael-tra Just listen to his concerto for 2 pianos, or the solo piano piece further down! WOWOWOWOW!

Jani Christou, there's very little to be found actually, since the works are very hard to perform and usually are linked to installation-al effects by the orchestra (thus a recording, or even a video is not sufficient). Still:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n96acmVF6aQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zj1UtdxQfk and part 2 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=BVfHYdisr0s&

Kancheli: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyD_L5G_AFs (Was reffering to Styx)
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=ChsrIzEUMRU&

For Schnittke, I'll just do the obvious (bullshit way of providing a link): http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... ittke&aq=f :D I, honestly, can't pick between his many works, from his theatrical to his concertos, to his requiem, to his mass (is it a mass?)

Phillip Cashian there's nothing, but he's written a couple of commission for the BBC orchestra of Whales (one called "Io") which follow rather closely a more 'developed' Stravinksy...

More to come.

PS: d: You've met Giya?!? That must've been wonderful. I do hope to meet with a few contemporary music composers in a few days/weeks, for something I have in mind and I do have to confess that I'm feeling VERY thrilled and honored to have been accepted to meet them...


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## lux (Sep 5, 2010)

as I merely happened to listen to him today while watchin a movie i would add who i consider a master of modern _pastorale _ and which is John Barry. Just from an emotional significance point of view i rarely heard a composer able to blend different human feelings like he did. His dramatic and at the same time hopeful and heartening adagios worth a listen imo.

Luca


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## Nick Batzdorf (Sep 5, 2010)

i heard a Shostakovich violin concerto on the radio yesterday while driving that totally knocked me out.


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## Narval (Sep 5, 2010)

If you mean this one I totally hear you -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2og9Ue1W ... re=related


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## David Story (Sep 5, 2010)

For Travlos, I like "Black-Red". That's serious fun, cool textures. The double concerto is good also imo. Excellent orchestration and ensemble.
http://soundcloud.com/michael-tra

I can't believe that THIS is given 4/6 difficulty:
http://www.encoremusic.com/horn/1250155.html 
Try 7/6.

Barry is able to sustain a grand, serious ambience, even in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_fAEdw7ts0

tigran mansurian, pretty amazing, Thanks poseur!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3GDruQVXpc
Got to find a score...


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## Farkle (Sep 5, 2010)

Links to Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, 1st and 3rd movement. Played by Hilary Hahn (also studied in Philly). I think she does one of the best interpretations of the Barber melodies I've heard. And, she *blazes* on the third movement. I've never heard it played that precisely and that fast. Whoa...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2IPbc9Z6dA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM978akH ... 1&index=70

Love the orchestration on the first movement, very spare and open.

Michael Torke's stuff: the orchestral piece "Green", very ebullient and fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdrkOA2c ... re=related

Monstrous dominant fanfare for the first 4 bars. 

Now, Torke's piece "July" for sax quartet. A really fun piece, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9AfvRQn ... re=related

OOoo, forgot about this one. 1st Movement of John Adams' "Harmonium", for choir and orchestra. This is called "Negative Love"... It has these gorgeous rippling waves of sound... just so eerie and serene, all at once. Gives me chills when I hear it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZOTgRZoIBw

There ya go, John! 

Mike


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## poseur (Sep 5, 2010)

David Story @ Sun Sep 05 said:


> tigran mansurian, pretty amazing, Thanks poseur!
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3GDruQVXpc
> Got to find a score...



this is the work that first got me started on mr. mansurian.....






.... for which i do have a copy of the original score, but am constrained to not reproducing it.

it is, for me, sooooo beautiful.

d


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## JohnG (Sep 5, 2010)

Thanks everyone -- this is great.

Can't believe I left Mansurian off my own list!


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## JohnG (Sep 6, 2010)

Penderecki's "Flourescences"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cAYFJCe3gg


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## dedersen (Sep 6, 2010)

Ooh, so many interesting composers to dig into it. Thanks for the lists.



nikolas @ Sun Sep 05 said:


> Per Nørgård (copied from wiki, thus the weird characters, but he also created the infinity series which is great fun! :D)


Hehe, the "weird characters" are additional Danish vowels.


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## bryla (Sep 6, 2010)

Yes and it translates in to Per Noergaard


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## nikolas (Sep 6, 2010)

Just wanted to explain how I got to use such characters (by copy pasting the name from wiki)...


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## Narval (Sep 6, 2010)

[quote:826f38ab80="nikolas @ Sun Sep 05, 2010 9:32 am"]Per Nørgåròœ   å˜œ   å™œ   åšœ   å›œ   åœœ   åœ   åžœ   åŸœ   å œ   å¡œ   å¢œ   å£œ   å¤œ   å¥œ   å¦œ   å§œ   å¨œ   å©œ   åªœ   å«œ   å¬œ   å­œ   å®œ   å¯œ   å°œ   å±œ   å²œ   å³œ   å´œ   åµœ   å¶œ   å·œ   å¸œ   å¹œ   åº   å»   å¼


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## bryla (Sep 6, 2010)

http://tinyurl.com/39ej4m7


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## Narval (Sep 6, 2010)

A, music by numbers, thanks. A very inspired way to invent melodies and compose music:

0, 1, -1, 2, 1, 0, -2, 3, -1, 2, 0, 1, 2, -1, -3, 4, 1, 0, -2, 3, 0, 1, -1, 2, -2, 3, 1, 0, 3, -2, -4, 5, -1, 2, 0, 1, 2, -1, -3, 4, 0, 1, -1, 2, 1, 0, -2, 3, 2, -1, -3, 4, -1, 2, 0, 1, -3, 4, 2, -1, 4, -3, -5, 6, 1, 0, -2, 3, 0, 1, -1, 2, -2, 3, 1, 0, 3, -2, -4, 5, 0, 1, -1, 2, 1, 0

http://oeis.org/classic/A004718


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