# Can you nominate 5 faves for each year of the 1980s?



## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Many consumers of classical music seem to regard composers such as Shostakovich or Britten as the 'end of the line'. Such folks may not listen to compositions written after the 1970s or, if they do, they don't care much for what they hear and … so … have no favorites - neither composers nor works.

But it is possible for one to have favorites from relatively recent repertoire.

Listed below are individual works & their composers from 1980 through 1989. I've 'nominated' five per year (rather like the Academy Award nomination process for 'best' film score Oscar) to demonstrate that a single decade could well have 50 or more worthy pieces for consideration. I avoided higher-profile names such as Boulez, Takemitsu or Messiaen to illustrate just how much material there exists for anyone to consider and ponder upon.

Can any other TC member create another such listing? Perhaps for the 1990s … or other composers & works from the '80s with differences contrasting my posting?

1980

Magnificat by Jean-Louis Florentz 
The Heaventree of Stars by Alun Hoddinott 
Gondwana by Tristan Murail 
Angel of Dusk by Einojuhani Rautavaara 
Violin Concerto No.1 by Frederik van Rossum

1981

Concerto for Organ & Orchestra by Theo Brandmuller 
103 Regards dans l'Eau by Marius Constant 
Concerto for 12 Cellos by Einar Englund 
Piano Concerto by Maurice Ohana 
Cosmogonie/pour une Rose by Michel Tabachnik

1982

Sonata for Violin & Piano by Georges Delerue
Concerto for Bassoon & Strings by Anders Eliasson
Requiem by Renaud Gagneux
Tenebrae by Arne Nordhein 
Introit (towards the light) by Thomas Wilson

1983

Missa cum Jubilo by Gilbert Amy 
The Damask Drum by Paavo Heininen 
Challenger by Meyer Kupferman 
Crossings by Jukka Linkola
String Quartet by Serge Nigg

1984

Way to Olympus by Vyacheslav Artyomov 
3 Visions de l'Apocalypse by Jacques Casterede
Requiem by Andrew Imbrie
The Silence of Winds by Laszlo Tihanyi
Symphony No.2 by Isang Yun

1985

Yell by Edith Canat de Chizy 
l'Arbre des Songes by Henri Dutilleux
Piano Concerto No.2 by Ahmed Adnan Saygun 
Concerto for Orchestra by Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
Symphony No. 4 by Josef Tal

1986

Earth Dances by Harrison Birtwistle 
Yi by Chen Qiqang 
Elegy in Memory of Samuel Barber by Aubert Lemeland 
Time and Again by Tristan Murail 
Nel deserto by Alessandro Solbiati

1987

Mystic Symphony No. 2 by Claude Ballif
Loviisa by Eero Hameenniemi
Montsegur by Marcel Landowski 
Traverser la Foret by Henri Pousseur
Five by Charles Wuorinen

1988

The Singing Tree by Erik Bergman 
Jazz Symphony by Meyer Kupferman
Magma by Arne Nordheim 
Lux Noctis by Maurice Ohana 
Byzantine Prayer by Horatiu Radulescu

1989

Echoes from the Gorge by Chou Wen-Chung 
King, Queen & Ace by Per Norgard
Duplicates by Mel Powell 
La Noche Triste by Jean Prodromides 
Echange by Iannis Xenakis


----------



## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

My knowledge of this is next to nothing, so I just have a genuine question: is contemporary classical your main field of interest? I would imagine that one would have to listen to nothing but works from the last 40 years in order to come up with such a list. I am planning on getting into some contemporary music soon, and have already assembled a modest list of composers to check out that satisfy my relatively conservative tastes (I already like some Boulez, Messiaen, and Takemitsu). It is the kind of music that often fascinates me, but I could never imagine making it the sole focus of one's listening time. Just an honest inquiry! It says something about my current tastes/knowledge that my favorite post-1980 work is John Rutter's Requiem


----------



## chu42 (Aug 14, 2018)

Allegro Con Brio said:


> My knowledge of this is next to nothing, so I just have a genuine question: is contemporary classical your main field of interest? I would imagine that one would have to listen to nothing but works from the last 40 years in order to come up with such a list.


Right. I consider myself pretty well versed in the Classical Era but I could not name 5 favorite works for each year of, say, the 1770s.


----------



## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Allegro Con Brio said:


> My knowledge of this is next to nothing, so I just have a genuine question: is contemporary classical your main field of interest? I would imagine that one would have to listen to nothing but works from the last 40 years in order to come up with such a list. I am planning on getting into some contemporary music soon, and have already assembled a modest list of composers to check out that satisfy my relatively conservative tastes (I already like some Boulez, Messiaen, and Takemitsu). It is the kind of music that often fascinates me, but I could never imagine making it the sole focus of one's listening time. Just an honest inquiry! It says something about my current tastes/knowledge that my favorite post-1980 work is John Rutter's Requiem


Yes & no! 

Contemporary classical is around 50% of my interests; my music collection and listening time is divided into halves - half motion picture soundtracks and half classical. I listen to a lot more than only the past half-century, too. The earliest music that I listen to is by Vincent d'Indy. If a musical work was written prior to 1870 and its composer was born before 1850, then I'm not interested. In spite of my above posting, my favorite decade is actually the 1960s. However, when chatting about the '60s, many TCers shoe-horn 'war horses' by Shostakovich or Britten into the thread which continues to obscure the promotion of music by lesser talked-about composers like, say, Jolivet or Dallapiccola.


----------



## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

My list is much more mainstream than Prodromides's list. I only know a handful of composers from this time period really well, and my lack of knowledge really shows in the fact that I have less than 5 works for 1981-1982. So I gave a few extra for 1987, which seems to have been a good year for composing.

1980

Bayle: Erosphère (1978-1980)
Cage: Roaratorio: An Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake (1980)
Harvey: Mortuos plango, vivos voco (1980)
Murail: Gondwana (1980)
Vivier: Lonely Child (1980)

1981

Adams: Harmonium (1980-1981)
Andriessen: De Tijd (1980-1981)
Ginastera: Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 53 (1981)
Vivier: Prologue pour un Marco Polo (1981)

1982

Murail: Désintegration (1982)
Nono: Quando stanno morendo, Diario polacco No. 2 (1982)

1983

Adams: Shaker Loops (1978, revised 1983)
Schnittke: String Quartet No. 3 (1983)
Messiaen: Saint François d'Assise (1975-1983)
Reich: Eight Lines (1983)
Xenakis: Tetras (1983)

1984

Birtwistle: Secret Theatre (1984)
Boulez: Répons (1981, revised 1984)
Boulez: Dérive 1 (1984)
Grisey: Les chants de l'amour (1982-1984)
Rădulescu: Clepsydra, Op. 47 (1982-1984)

1985

Feldman: Piano and String Quartet (1985)
Grisey: Les espaces acoustiques (1974-1985)
Lachenmann: Ausklang (1984-1985)
Nono: Prometeo, Tragedia dell'ascolto (1981-1985)
Risset: Sud (1985)

1986

Birtwistle: The Mask of Orpheus (1986)
Birtwistle: Earth Dances (1986)
Ferneyhough: Mnemosyne (1986)
Saariaho: Lichtbogen (1986)
Szymański: Dwie Etiudy (1986)

1987

Benjamin: Antara (1985-1987)
Ferneyhough: String Quartet No. 3 (1987)
Kurtág: Kafka-Fragmente (1985-1987)
Manoury: Jupiter (1986-1987)
Rădulescu: infinite to be cannot be infinite, infinite anti-be could be infinite, Op. 33 (1976-1987)

Reich: Electric Counterpoint (1987)
Saariaho: Io (1986-1987)
Saariaho: Jardin secret III: Nymphéa (1987)
Sciarrino: Sui poemi concentrici I-III (1987)

1988

Andriessen: De Materie (1985-1988)
Górecki: Already it is Dusk, Op. 62 (1988)
Ligeti: Piano Concerto (1988)
Lutosławski: Piano Concerto (1987-1988)
Ustvolskaya: Piano Sonata No. 6 (1988)

1989

Dhomont: Novars (1989)
Manoury: Pluton (1988-1989)
Nono: "Hay que caminar" soñando (1989)
Rădulescu: Intimate Rituals, Op. 63 (1985, arranged for cello and 4 sound icons, 1989)
Xenakis: Rebonds A + B (1989)


----------



## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

You did very well, calvinpv.


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Prodromides said:


> Many consumers of classical music seem to regard composers such as Shostakovich or Britten as the 'end of the line'. Such folks may not listen to compositions written after the 1970s or, if they do, they don't care much for what they hear and …


Well, as a "consumer" of classical music (or as Milton Babbitt might say, in his sneering way, a "conspicuous consumer" of music), it seems apparent that the era of classical music ended in 1975. Hey, don't blame me -- it's not my fault! 

I enjoy quite a few pieces written after that date, but can't think of any of them as very meaningful or important. Just stuff, as disposable as 90% pop/rock. In fact, I suspect that the best pop/rock will outlast almost all of that stuff. It's already happening.


----------



## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

I couldn't do this with any decade of any kind of music, but look forward to using this thread for suggestions.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Well, I don't have a list of compositions with year ready, so instead I looked at some of my favourite composers of the period and compiled the following list. I'm sure I'm forgetting quite a few - also, on purpose I did not look at the previous lists.

Gorecki - Harpsichord/Piano Concerto, Op. 40, harpsichord/piano and orchestra (1980)
Rautavaara - Double Bass Concerto "Angel of Dusk" (1980)
Takemitsu - A Way a Lone for String Quartet (1980)

Gorecki - Miserere, Op. 44, chorus a cappella (1981)

Hovhaness - Symphony No. 50 "Mount St. Helens" (1982)
Silvestrov - Symphony No.5 (1980-1982)

Davies - An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise for orchestra with solo bagpipes (1984)
Takemitsu - Riverrun (1984)

Dutilleux - Violin Concerto "L'arbre des songes" (1985)

Adams - Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986)
Gorecki - Lerchenmusik, Op. 53, clarinet, cello and piano (1986)
Gubaidulina - Offertorium, concerto for violin and orchestra (1980, rev. 1982, 1986)
Gubaidulina - Stimmen ... Verstummen... symphony in twelve movements (1986)
Rautavaara - Symphony No. 5 (1985–1986)
Sculthorpe - Earth Cry for didgeridoo and orchestra (1986)

Davies - Strathclyde Concerto No. 1 for Oboe and Orchestra (1987)
Gorecki - Totus Tuus, Op. 60 (1987)
Gubaidulina - String Quartet No. 2 (1987)
Gubaidulina - String Quartet No. 3 (1987)
Sallinen - Symphony No. 5, Washington Mosaics, Op. 57 (1984–85, r. 1987)

Aho - Symphony No. 7 Insect Symphony (1988)
Corigliano - Symphony No. 1 (1988)
Gorecki - Already it is Dusk, Op. 62, string quartet (1988)
Reich - Different Trains for string quartet and tape (1988)
Sculthorpe - Kakadu (1988)

Sculthorpe - Nourlangie for solo guitar, strings and percussion (1989)
Vasks - Cor Anglais Concerto (1989)


----------



## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

I'm also guilty of truncating my classical listening to pre-1976 for the most part, but I will also use this thread as suggestions for more to explore. I've listened to a few pieces mentioned here but only once.


----------



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I've listened to quite a bit of music from the 80's, but little is really that memorable to me. Some more memorable is Henze's Symphony 7, Arnold's Symphony 9, Corigliano's symphony, Schnittke's quartets (even his symphonies in the decade aren't all that memorable to me until his later ones), a bit of Ligeti and Lutoslawski. Many once-great composers such as Messiaen, Rautaavara were in decline in my view, and I'm not so hot about spectralism, minimalism, nor composers such as Gubaiduilina, Lindberg, Saariaho, Davies, or Ferneyhough (I think he did become more interesting with age).


----------

