# Modern composers anyone?



## IvanP (Mar 15, 2006)

Hey, can you guys point me to modern composers' masterworks? I love hearing new things, but nowadays there are some many names it's very easy to miss excellent works!

So far my favorites are John Adams, Vask, Rautavaara, Whitacre etc... but I'm sure there are other names and works I'm missing...

Names and works anyone? :lol: 

Thks in advance, 

IvÃ¡n


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## IvanP (Mar 15, 2006)

Boomp!


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## Thonex (Mar 15, 2006)

I'm actually waiting for someone to fill me in too :smile: 

T


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## zonobono (Mar 15, 2006)

a couple of my favorites:

arvo pÃ¤rt
http://www.musicolog.com/part.asp
1977 Tabula Rasa 
Partitur - UE 17 249 
concerto for 2 violins (or violin and viola), 
string orchestra and prepared piano 

krystof penderecki
http://www.scena.org/lsm/sm3-6/sm36pene.htm

henryk gorecki
http://www.ransomfellowship.org/Music_Gorecki.html


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## IvanP (Mar 15, 2006)

Thks, Zonobono, Gorecky's symphony of sorrows is also a favorite 

All those names are more 3/4 of 20th century, is there any end of century (final 80s-90s) masterwork or beggining of this one? (maybe it's too soon )


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## zonobono (Mar 15, 2006)

ooops sorry, missed your point


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## scribe (Mar 15, 2006)

Ivan,

here's a list of Grawmeyer composition winners (largest monetary award given for contemporary compositions) that might be a good place to start:

http://www.louisville.edu/ur/onpi/grawemeyer/music/

What's really cool is when the composer's there to talk about his piece before it's performed by the Louisville Orchestra.

I'm particularly fond of Takemitsu myself. 

happy listening!


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## IvanP (Mar 15, 2006)

Thank you guys!

Very helpful links!


Keep'em coming! :mrgreen:


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## danpowers (Mar 18, 2006)

I'll add a few:

Jennifer Higdon, especially her Concerto for Orchestra, recently recorded by the Atlanta Symphony

Michael Torke. I like a lot of his pieces, but "Javelin" is my favorite.

http://www.richarddanielpour.com/ (Richard Danielpour). I love his "Sonnets to Orpheus" recorded on his "Elegies" CD.


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## IvanP (Mar 18, 2006)

Great, thks again!!

Dan, Torke's Javelin is awesome indeed... and I heard it can be thrilling to follow on a score, since it doesn't have tempo changes!


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## Frederick Russ (Mar 18, 2006)

Agreed on John Adams - in fact his _Harmonielehre_ has some really fresh ideas that were clearly ripped off by some of Don Davis' Matrix Revolutions score (thanks Folmann for the heads up). You might want to check out Juriaan Andriessen especially his Sinfonia II - Flume.


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## fictionmusic (Mar 18, 2006)

Cool thread.
I love Penderecki especially his Romantic stuff like Symphony 3 and of course his more Sonorist stuff like Symphony 1 and Threnody. 
Ligeti's string quartets are beautiful and following the series you can see a very strong Bartokian influnece gradually yield to a modern atonal approach and a dependence on extended techniques. I haven't heard it yet, but I hear his opera is quite stunning.

Some composers worth a listen:
Samuel Barber-very tonal, very dramatic...sounds like what so many film composers are trying to do now. His most famous piece is Adagio (sad funereal music played at official state funerals I believe...also used to death in Platoon) which is based on his 1st String Quartet, but his Essays are gorgeous as is his 1st Symphony.

Harry Somers (one of my personal favorites) http://www.harrysomers.com/ .hios music ranges from simple tonal children's choir stuff, to totally serialistic works with multiple meters and tempi. His famous piece The North Country Suite is pure Canadiana, but his piece Concerto for Harp has bartokian overtones. My favorites are Symphony #1, Lyric for Orchestra, 5 songs for Dark voice and the Harp Concerto.

Linda Bouchard-http://www.lindabouchard.com/
Gorgeous dramatic and mostly atonal. Lung ta for string quartet is beautiful as is her orchestral piece Elan. A real favorite.

Edgard Varese- not so modern as Somers and Bouchard but a contempory of Barber's. His music is often big blocks of sounds and abounds in extremely complicated rhythm figures and percussion parts. He wrote one of the first and certainly the most enduring electronic piece "Poeme Electronique" but his earlier stuff was written for full orchestra.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgard_Varese



I could go on and on but I'll stop before I write an essay.



BTW Fred, I went by the Don Davis site a while back when others were mentioning him and the very first piece I heard sounded like Petrushka (big-time). I really liked his concert music, but I think some of his film work is pretty derivative. Stunningly done though.

Here is a site that concentrates mostly on American writers but it is an excellent resource

http://www.newmusicbox.org/
check the archives out for some great interviews with some really talented composers.


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## fictionmusic (Mar 18, 2006)

here is a link from New Music Box that shows a list of some of the composers they have interviewed
http://www.newmusicbox.org/ar.nmbx


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## Herman Witkam (Mar 18, 2006)

Frederick Russ @ Sun Mar 19 said:


> You might want to check out Juriaan Andriessen especially his Sinfonia II - Flume.



Yeah - definitely. And you might want to check out the other Andriessen (Louis Andriessen). Especially the piece 'The State', which has some minimalism in it, but instead of morphing like Reich, Louis Andriessen tends to use thematic material like blocks that are in contrast with each other.

Another composer I would recommend is Aram Khatchaturian (I especially like his trio for clarinet, violin and piano)


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## gamalataki (Mar 18, 2006)

Probably not exactly what you're looking for, but check out some of the recordings anyway. One of my favorites: http://www.erjn.it/mus/stevens.htm
With over 35 albums, there's got to be something you'll like. Smart, he lowers the sample/bit rate on his online demos, so if you want the real thing, you've got to support the arts.
Compositionally everything's there; from Bach to tomorrow, and you can feel every note. Living in Spain you're more likely to hear him live than in the US, as he tours Europe constantly.






IvanP @ Wed Mar 15 said:


> Hey, can you guys point me to modern composers' masterworks? I love hearing new things, but nowadays there are some many names it's very easy to miss excellent works!
> 
> So far my favorites are John Adams, Vask, Rautavaara, Whitacre etc... but I'm sure there are other names and works I'm missing...
> 
> ...


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## CFDG (Mar 19, 2006)

Wolfgang Rihm 
http://webmail15c.wanadoo.fr/webmail/fr ... firm.html#

And Henri Dutilleux is still here - "Shadows of time", 1997 Seiji Ozawa cond. WEA/Erato.

CFDG


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## danpowers (Mar 19, 2006)

One more: Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996). He wrote a lot of music for Japanese media, including several of Kurosawa's films. But he's probably better known for his concert music. My favorite is "Twill by Twilight." Several recordings are available. Some of the most gorgeous orchestral writing you'll ever hear.


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## danpowers (Mar 19, 2006)

One more: Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996). He wrote a lot of music for Japanese media, including several of Kurosawa's films. But he's probably better known for his concert music. My favorite is "Twill by Twilight." Several recordings are available. Some of the most gorgeous orchestral writing you'll ever hear.


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## fictionmusic (Mar 19, 2006)

Herman Witkam @ Sat Mar 18 said:


> Frederick Russ @ Sun Mar 19 said:
> 
> 
> > You might want to check out Juriaan Andriessen especially his Sinfonia II - Flume.
> ...



Oh yah his stuff is brilliant. I first heard his music on a cd included with a BBC magazine. It had John Adams' "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" which featured a woodblock ticking out a metronomic pulse (reminded me of recording into a sequencer actually) that may have been based on Andriessen's piece
"De Snelheid" which has a similar (but hugely expanded) woodblock pulse. Apparently Adams was a composer-in-residence in San Francisco when that orchestra played the Andriessen piece.

The John Adams stuff was cool, and very approachable (and that attitude has certainly served him well) but the Andriessen piece was absolutely brilliant. I have listened to the cd hundreds of times and always skip over the Adams stuff straight on to Andriessen. Highly recommended.


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## zonobono (Mar 19, 2006)

> Yeah - definitely. And you might want to check out the other Andriessen (Louis Andriessen).



does anybody have a link to a site with musical examples of louis andriessen?`i can't find anything.


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## Herman Witkam (Mar 19, 2006)

zonobono @ Sun Mar 19 said:


> > Yeah - definitely. And you might want to check out the other Andriessen (Louis Andriessen).
> 
> 
> 
> does anybody have a link to a site with musical examples of louis andriessen?`i can't find anything.



http://www.amazon.com (www.amazon.com) has some.


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## zonobono (Mar 19, 2006)

thx herman!


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## fitch (Mar 19, 2006)

i was at a seminar held by Steve Reich a few weeks ago. It was one of the most inspirational things ever ... to hear the philosophy and listen to the Q+A from such a great composer.

I'm a fan 

BTW hermann... is it your birthday today :D you have a giant cake with a candle in it in youe avatar :D

happy birthday if it is :D


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## Herman Witkam (Mar 19, 2006)

fitch @ Sun Mar 19 said:


> BTW hermann... is it your birthday today :D you have a giant cake with a candle in it in youe avatar :D
> 
> happy birthday if it is :D



Hi Claire - Thanks, yes - it's my birthday. :D


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## fitch (Mar 19, 2006)

yaayyy !!!! Happy Birthday 


hope you're having a great one


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## Herman Witkam (Mar 19, 2006)

Thx again


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