# 21st century "lieder"?



## buckminster_fullerene (Mar 10, 2009)

Any contemporary composers who work in this field -- outside the pop and jazz idiom? (Not necessarily in German, of course.)


----------



## tenor02 (Jan 4, 2008)

i dont know of much 21st century stuff, but there's some really good stuff from Ned Rorem, Roger Quilter, Vaughan Williams, Barber, and Bernstein (all 20th century).


----------



## Bach (Jun 2, 2008)

Many modernists have written song cycles.. not necessarily with piano accompaniment. Ferneyhough's Etudes Transcendantales (although written in the late 20th century) are a good example of such a cycle.


----------



## handlebar (Mar 19, 2009)

I echo the Rorem thought. he is always working on something.

Jim


----------



## Herzeleide (Feb 25, 2008)

Pierrot Lunaire is the first thing that springs to mind. Then there's Le Marteau sans Maitre (possibly).


----------



## Bach (Jun 2, 2008)

Definitely. It's equally legitimate as Pierrot Lunaire.


----------



## Herzeleide (Feb 25, 2008)

Bach said:


> Definitely. It's equally legitimate as Pierrot Lunaire.


Indeed. It's amazing. My only reservation was that it also includes strictly instrumental movements.


----------



## Bach (Jun 2, 2008)

Well, yes - I suppose it does - but what a piece! *sings opening flute phrase*


----------



## Herzeleide (Feb 25, 2008)

Quite! Plus the third movement - proof of the singability of serially-derived melody! (Admittedly it's of a very sophisticated kind - multiplication etc. If only Schoenberg had such a device when writing the rather awkward lines of Von Heute auf Morgen...)


----------



## YsayeOp.27#6 (Dec 7, 2007)

Kaija Saariaho resorts to female voices in many of her works. Quatre instants counts as 21th century lieder.


----------



## Herzeleide (Feb 25, 2008)

YsayeOp.27#6 said:


> Kaija Saariaho resorts to female voices in many of her works. Quatre instants counts as 21th century lieder.


I have Château de l'âme.

The Tempest Songbook also appears to be worth checking out, though I don't have it.

Webern's Lieder are also definitely worth checking out (though the title is at times misleading, for example his op. 19 Lieder are for chorus).


----------



## Edward Elgar (Mar 22, 2006)

Berio's Sequenza for voice is a very interesting piece I find and can easily exploit the various emotions, sometimes of great hillarity, in fact I was doubled up laughing at a rendition of some Cage arias. There must be a point contemporary singers must cross whereby they don't find what they perform totally hillarious!


----------

