# Piano Music: 1953-present



## Aramis

1953 is more symbolic than literal borderline, it's year in which Prokofiev began smelling flowers from the bottom and last well-known and glorious era of piano music has ended, though couple of works in his style were written after 1953.

Who do you consider to be worthy representation of piano music since then? Are there contemporary composer that come from Beethovens-Chopins-Scriabins-Ravels-Prokofievs tradition and write new piano masterpieces?

I can't see such composers. I think minimalism (leading movement in last decades) is one, huge black card in this genre. Piano music is field in which no cheap tricks that minimalists use in their symphonic/chamber music could work. My last attempt to it was Górecki's piano sonata which is total disaster. It doesn't even bring anything innovative.

Modern great composers are rarely instrested in writing for piano. Penderecki wrote only piano concerto which is post-romantic pastiche and is not ment to bring composer's innovations into piano music. Same with other composers that wrote revolutionary orchestral music, when they attempt to write for piano (especially solo) it doesn't work.

One could say that modern music is something that doesn't fit solo piano music, but what about Webern and his famous Variations for Solo Piano? It's unlike all piano music that we are used to and yet it's great and equal to his other works.

Still, I should write something positive. Schittke wrote really nice piano sonatas and concertos (with symphonic and string orchestras). Lutosławski also wrote good piano concerto in 80's. But it's not much.

Btw, check this out, it's awesome: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rut_(mammalian_reproduction)


----------



## Argus

La Monte Young - Well-Tuned Piano

Terry Riley - The Harp of New Albion

Philip Glass - Metamorphosis

Steve Reich - Piano Phase

John Adams - Phrygian Gates

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Klavierstucke (the first premiered in 1954)

Conlon Nancarrow - Player Piano Studies (most composed after 1953)

James Tenney - Spectral Canon and Chromatic Canon

Gyorgi Ligeti - Piano Etudes

John Cage - Etudes Australes

Just some that I can think of off the top of my head.

I disagree with the premise of this thread. I struggle to think of any modern composer that hasn't utilised the piano in some way. It does pretty well for itself considering the vast amount of instruments available to composers nowadays. Whether you like them or not is inconsequential, the mere fact they are being produced is enough to show the piano remains more than relevant.


----------



## Nix

I really like John Adams "China Gates"


----------



## Huilunsoittaja

Aramis said:


> 1953 is more symbolic than literal borderline, it's year in which Prokofiev began smelling flowers from the bottom and last well-known and glorious era of piano music has ended, though couple of works in his style were written after 1953.


Except for the fact that they were paper flowers at his funeral... :angry:

If I ever visit his grave in Moscow (I'm surprised it isn't in St. Petersburg with the rest of the composers), I'm gonna put *real *flowers on it.


----------



## Air

Argus said:


> I disagree with the premise of this thread. I struggle to think of any modern composer that hasn't utilised the piano in some way. It does pretty well for itself considering the vast amount of instruments available to composers nowadays. Whether you like them or not is inconsequential, the mere fact they are being produced is enough to show the piano remains more than relevant.


Exactly my thoughts.

Aramis, if I were you, I wouldn't hesitate to buy Pierre-Laurent Aimard's disc of Ligeti's piano works as soon as the next paycheck comes in (the 3 books of etudes & the _Musica Ricercata_). Aimard, is IMHO, one of the greatest pianists in the world today - even among the likes of Argerich, Pollini, Brendel, Perahia, etc. And _Ligeti_ won't be too hard on the ears either, I promise. Most of the etudes vary greatly in style: in fact it would be hard to strictly categorize them into _any_ style. But that's the beauty of these works. (The _Musica Ricercata_ may be more difficult to grasp, but hey... at least their kinda fun )

Gubaidulina's piano works are relatively accessible as well - like Ligeti, she draws from many different places, looking back into the past, but making something that is unquestionably _hers_. The same can be said about a composer like Nikolai Kapustin (probably the most underrated composer today) or even Boulez and Carter... who cannot be missed when it comes to contemporary piano music.

After awhile, it won't be too hard to inch towards Stockhausen, Cage, and the minimalists!

*One more thing to be aware of, just so I warn you. Try to avoid some of the lighter, "new age" contemporary composers, even if they categorize themselves as classical. Lowell Liebermann is one of these - don't fall into the trap I did, marveling in the so-called "beauty" and "sounds" of his music. It's all on the surface (now, I'm not putting Liebermann down as a bad composer, but there's so much more in contemporary classical music than what he does!) Rautavaara too, and though he's in general a better composer than Liebermann, it's his piano compositions that tend to suffer from this "trying too hard". For example, in his _Narcissus_, the Claude Debussy imitations... you get the point.


----------



## HarpsichordConcerto

In my opinion (not that you would care), any great composer worthy the attention of posterity to remember must have written at least a decent piano concerto (amongst a decent symphony and or opera). Piano orchestral music really sums up whether he is up to it or not (along with the symphony and or opera). From the earliest virtuosic keyboard concertos (Bach's harpsichord concertos circa 1738 and Handel's organ concertos circa 1735) and beyond, you almost always consistently find this observation.

Well, I guess Stockhausen's _Klavierstücke X_ is a great example of being atypical of this observation, which is why many of us humble listeners don't think much of his music.


----------



## Aramis

Was mich misunderstood?



> in fact it would be hard to strictly categorize them into any style. But that's the beauty of these works


But that's what it's all about.

I do realize that there is still piano music that belong to our times and that some people enjoy. But compared to all piano schools of past it's nothing.

Every new artistic movement brought revaluation of aesthetic quality. What kind of revaluation minimalistic piano music did? What aspects of it are groundbreaking like Liszt's or late Scriabin's piano music in their times? Except simplicity and repetativeness, this is nothing new to music, all what minimalists did was turning characteristics of poorly written works into ideology. How far did minimalism from second half of XXth century progress since Satie, taking only piano music for consideration?

Like I said, I can't see any really innovative, stylistically uniform piano school in our times that would be as transparent and separated from everything else as those before.


----------



## Argus

Aramis, give these a chance.

Ben Johnston - Suite for Microtonal Piano





Morton Feldman - Piano Three Hands





Louis Andriessen - Nuit d'ete







Air said:


> (The Musica Ricercata may be more difficult to grasp, but hey... at least their kinda fun )


I think I actually prefer the Musica Ricercata to his Etudes, but there is more variety in the Etudes. I like the first few movements of the Ricercata best, where he limits himself to fewer notes.


----------



## Aramis

> Aramis, give these a chance.


I shall check these link out, thanks for... eeee... them (it)?


----------



## JMJ

Some personal favorites ... solo piano

Stockhausen, _Klavierstücke_
Messiaen, _Catalogue d'oiseaux_
Ligeti, _Piano Etudes_
Donatoni, _Françoise Variationen_


----------



## SonataSonataSonata

I believe Maurince Hinson even said that the Ligeti Etudes (1985-2001) are among the most important compositions for piano of our time.


----------



## Sid James

I'd like to add some of composer *Leo Ornstein's *works (he was active from the 1910's to the '90's as a composer, mainly for solo piano). He was born in Russia but moved to the USA early in his life with his parents, where he became a concert pianist and composer, retiring at the age of 40 to mainly teach and compose. He lived to well over 100, passing away in 2002. His last two sonatas (7 & 8) were composed in the 1980's & '90's. His style was consistently inconsistent, even within the same piece, one can detect many strands of C20th music, but there is definitely a homogeneity - it's not just clumsy pastiche. I've only got the 4th & 7th sonatas, plus some other single movement piano works on the Naxos disc played by Janice Weber. The 4th sonata was composed in the '20's (so not directly relevant to this thread), but the 7th sonata from the '80's is in an atonal language and consistently develops a single theme. I think that it is a minor scandal that this guy's music is not better known - it leaves for dead what I have heard by Glass and others of the "minimalist" persuasion (although their stuff is not too bad as well)...


----------



## SonataSonataSonata

Andre said:


> I'd like to add some of composer *Leo Ornstein's *works (he was active from the 1910's to the '90's as a composer, mainly for solo piano). He was born in Russia but moved to the USA early in his life with his parents, where he became a concert pianist and composer, retiring at the age of 40 to mainly teach and compose. He lived to well over 100, passing away in 2002. His last two sonatas (7 & 8) were composed in the 1980's & '90's. His style was consistently inconsistent, even within the same piece, one can detect many strands of C20th music, but there is definitely a homogeneity - it's not just clumsy pastiche. I've only got the 4th & 7th sonatas, plus some other single movement piano works on the Naxos disc played by Janice Weber.


Check out some of Ornstein's stuff on YouTube for study purposes. My favorites are the Arabesques, which I am learning to play myself. They are short and concise enough to be understood by anyone.

His very early stuff is interesting...very romantic and Tchaikovsky-esque.


----------



## danae

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> In my opinion (not that you would care), any great composer worthy the attention of posterity to remember must have written at least a decent piano concerto (amongst a decent symphony and or opera).


Why? Did Chopin for example write anything other than piano works (except his very few chamber works and songs)?


----------



## Rasa

Besides, Chopin didn't write a real concerto....


----------



## Rangstrom

Rzewski, without hesitation.


----------

