# I listened to a 21st Century Composition .... and Liked it!



## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

I just came back from a concert by our local regional orchestra, the Springfield Symphony, and to my surprise I enjoyed the newest composition in the all American program! So new in fact, that it's premier was last week. Our Orchestra was only the second orchestra to play the piece, and was one of the orchestras that collectively co-commissioned the piece. A cello conerto by Lowell Liebermann. A vaguely neo romantic piece, it proved quite successful. It's slow second movement was particularly stunning. The cellist was Julian Schwarz.

I am usually the first to run screaming from any 20th century, let alone 21st century, composition. Even mainstream composers like Prokofiev, or Shostakovich, make me cringe, so finding myself enjoying a piece of modern classical music was a pleasant surprise!


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

The Libermann I've heard is fairly accessible. I like his music -- not because it's accessible, but because it's good. His flute concerto is fabulous!


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Here's another by Liebermann, which I very much like as a contemporary work... It's lyrical but has a sense of edge... and no, Chewbacca is not the cellist!


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

haziz said:


> I am usually the first to run screaming from any 20th century, let alone 21st century, composition. Even mainstream composers like Prokofiev, or Shostakovich, make me cringe, so finding myself enjoying a piece of modern classical music was a pleasant surprise!


Maybe this experience will give you the courage to face your fears!


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

I regularly listen to Performance Today on the radio. They have a daily offering of 21st century classical along with everything else. I've heard some I like (much to my surprise) and some I don't.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Oldhoosierdude said:


> I regularly listen to Performance Today on the radio. They have a daily offering of 21st century classical along with everything else. I've heard some I like (much to my surprise) and some I don't.


Don't take this the wrong way, but are you still surprised when you like it?
This interest me because my own haphazard introduction to classical music involved a lot of random listening. I knew of the reputation of composers like Schoenberg for producing music that was supposed to be unpleasant, but I never really heard much of those composers' work. When it came to actual _new_ (as in, late 20th century) music, I wasn't really aware of it having any particular reputation, and as it happened the first composers I heard were the likes of Glass, Nyman and Tavener, all of whom really impressed me. Subsequently my first exposures to CDs of Ligeti and Schnittke contained some misses but also some big hits. I never did warm to Schoenberg, but my general point is that I never quite possessed the belief that people weren't supposed to like modern music. So I don't think there was ever a point when I was surprised that I liked a new work.


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## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

Nereffid said:


> Don't take this the wrong way, but are you still surprised when you like it?


I am often surprised when I like a contemporary piece. I would not call it an out and out prejudice, but perhaps an informed prejudice. I have heard a lot of stuff that I cannot connect with musically, emotionally, or even intellectually. So when I bump into something I can connect to, it is a delight.

Believe it or not, I even found a Varese I liked.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

JeffD said:


> Believe it or not, I even found a Varese I liked.


Well, that's kind of my point: I do believe it, because the idea that a randomly chosen person would like a randomly chosen piece of modern classical is very believable to me. I'm not saying I think it's statistically likely, but still.
So the question is, if you've heard a lot of contemporary music you don't like, and you're surprised when you like a piece, at what point will the surprise go away? When, for you (or any other listener in a similar situation) will unbelievable become believable?

Once is accident, twice is coincidence, three times is a pattern. Is there anything that connects the pieces you do like, and if so, any way of predicting whether any given unheard piece will connect to those?


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

Not surprised any longer.
There's some good stuff out there not compsed by someone dead a hundred years!


Nereffid said:


> Don't take this the wrong way, but are you still surprised when you like it?
> This interest me because my own haphazard introduction to classical music involved a lot of random listening. I knew of the reputation of composers like Schoenberg for producing music that was supposed to be unpleasant, but I never really heard much of those composers' work. When it came to actual _new_ (as in, late 20th century) music, I wasn't really aware of it having any particular reputation, and as it happened the first composers I heard were the likes of Glass, Nyman and Tavener, all of whom really impressed me. Subsequently my first exposures to CDs of Ligeti and Schnittke contained some misses but also some big hits. I never did warm to Schoenberg, but my general point is that I never quite possessed the belief that people weren't supposed to like modern music. So I don't think there was ever a point when I was surprised that I liked a new work.


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