# Favorite 5 Non-Vocal Works the Last 62 Years



## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

1950-Now. It can be Avant-Garde, Minimalism, Neo-Romanticism, Neo-Classical, or whatever. Just interested in those into the new music find the best of this time period. Maybe you can convert me over time. ComposerofAvantGarde feel free to join in.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Steve Vai - Blue Powder & For The Love of God
Satch - Flying In A Blue Dream
Jimi Hendrix - Third Stone From The Sun
Metallica - To Live Is To Die & Call of Ktulu


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

kv466 said:


> Steve Vai - Blue Powder & For The Love of God
> Satch - Flying In A Blue Dream
> Jimi Hendrix - Third Stone From The Sun
> Metallica - To Live Is To Die & Call of Ktulu


lol All great stufff that I already know. Unfortunately, the Classical part of modern music hasn't been as easy to like.


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## Clementine (Nov 18, 2011)

I rather like:

George Crumb: _Black Angels_
Dmitri Shostakovich: _String Quartet #8_
Sergei Prokofiev: _Symphony Concertante_
Luciano Berio: _Sinfonia_
John Adams: _Violin Concerto_

Most of pieces are best suited for nighttime, with the lights out and the speakers at full blast.

*note* Sinfonia and Black Angels both contain vocals, but not in the traditional sense.


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## MrPlayerismus (Jan 2, 2012)

My list would be:

Toru Takemitsu:From me flows what you call time
John Williams(And the Orchestrators he hired of course):Star Wars(and all other movies as well)
Igor Stravinskyetrushka revised 1947 version
György Ligeti:Atmosphères
George Antheil:Ballet Mécanique Revised 1952-3


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

'Favorite,' like 'best' are superlatives: like many others, I misuse both words, while being a bit picky but saying they are each singular.

Some of my 'favored' pieces, then.

The quiet and excellent Irving Fine
Notturno for Strings and Harp









Elliott Carter ~ Sonata for Flute, Oboe Cello & Harpsichord









Lucia Dlugoszewski ~ Fire Fragile Flight 





Beat Furrer ~ Piano Concerto





Thomas Ades ~ Piano Concerto (heard once, U.S. premiere, N.Y. Philharmonic radio broadcast)

John Adams ~ Dharma at Big Sur, six-string electric violin and orchestra









David Lang ~ Child





















'Not Vocal' excludes too many other works I love, o.a.:
Stravinsky ~ The Rake's Progress / Threni
Stockhausen ~ Gesang der Jünglinge 
Luciano Berio ~ Visage / Choro
Lukas Foss ~ Time Cycle

Nowhere near all of what I like from then till now, though - I suppose it shows as a bit 'conservative'...


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## Cygnenoir (Dec 21, 2011)

This is a tough one, but I have to go for:

Ligeti - Clocks and clouds
Penderecki - 7 Gates of Jerusalem
Reich - Music for 18 musicians
Glass - Akhnaten
Adams - Harmonielehre


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## jalex (Aug 21, 2011)

Five from the top of my head:

Stravinsky: Agon
Messiaen: Des Canyons aux etoiles...
Britten: Cello Suite #3
Shostakovich: String Quartet #15
Berio: Sequenza VIII


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Jennifer Higdon - Violin Concerto
Steve Reich - New York Counterpoint
John Adams - Short Ride in A Fast Machine
Leonard Bernstein - Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
John Cage - 4'33" (orchestral version)


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Britten: Cello Suite No. 3
Shostakovitch: 24 Preludes and Fugues
Most other Britten.


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## angelovic (Mar 11, 2012)

I love Shostakovich's Fifteenth's symphony Opus: 141


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I have not thought much about my favorite recent works so to make it easier these are some of my favorite works by contemporary composers (probably not in any order):

Lowell Liebermann: Piano Quintet
Eric Ewazen: Violin Concerto
John Adams: Harmonielehre
Sylvie Bodorova: Concerto for Violin, Viola and String Orchestra
Arvo Part: Tabula Rasa


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## pollux (Nov 11, 2011)

Not necessarily my favourite five, but these are some non-tonal (or not fully-tonal) works I would recommend to newbies:

Lutoslawski - Symphony 3
Carter- Concerto for violin
Ligeti - Double concerto for flute and oboe
Berio - _Voci _for viola and orchestra (_Sinfonia _is also a good choice)
Takemitsu - _Riverrun _for piano and orchestra


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

5 favorite: 

Shostakovich: String Quartet #8
Takemitsu: From Me Flows What You Call Time
Golijov: Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind 
Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
Rzewski: Variations on The People United will Never be Defeated!

Just missed the cut: 

Piazzolla: Five Tango Sensations
Glass: Aguas da Amazonia 
Crumb: Black Angels (maybe this counts as vocal) 
Messiaen: Catalogue of Birds
Ligeti: Etudes 

Probably better stop.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

This is impossible, but, off the top of my head:

Havergal Brian _Symphony 10_
Hans Werner Henze _ Symphony 4_
Helmut Lachenmann _Accanto_
Karlheinz Stockhausen _Hymnen_
Iannis Xenakis _Keqrops _(probably)


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

Stockhausen Kontrapunkte
John adams Harmonielhre
Xenakis Metastasis
Boulez le Marteau sans Maitre


Really quite a common list of 'greats'


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

emiellucifuge said:


> Really quite a common list of 'greats'


Probably all the better for that.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

No love for Schnittke's Concerto Grosso?


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## Cygnenoir (Dec 21, 2011)

To 5 NON-vocal this time 

1. Steve Reich: Music for 18 musicians
2. Ketil Hvoslef (Norwegian): Piano Concerto 
3. Johns Adams: Harmonielehre
4. György Ligeti: Etudes for piano
5. George Crumb: Black Angels

Top 5 vocal:

1. Krzysztof Penderecki: Utrenja
2. Krzysztof Penderecki: 7 Gates of Jerusalem
3. Philip Glass: Akhnaten
4. György Ligeti: Clocks and Clouds
5. Steve Reich: The Desert Music

I gotta say Francis Poulenc's Gloria really does it too.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

neoshredder said:


> 1950-Now


Each decade has its share of impressive/outstanding compositions.
Many of my personal favorites tend to hail from the 1960s & 1970s, though I also love music from the 1950s and also late-'80s/early-'90s CD albums offered many a premiere of a 20th-century work.

1961: "Geysir" by Jon Leifs
1961: Giacinto Scelsi's "Aion"
1975: Arne Nordheim's "Spur" for accordion and orchestra
1978: Henri Dutilleux's "Timbres, Espace, Mouvement"
1979: Maurice Ohana's "Livre des Prodiges"


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