# Piano Avant-garde Music



## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

Being a newcomer when it comes to modern and contemporary music, after a little bit of exploration, I've come to the realization that, so far, the only instrument I've been able to enjoy for the avant-garde is the piano. Whether it's my ears being too sensitive, or whether I simply don't like other instruments playing modern music, I'm not sure. But, what I do know is that I've pretty much loved all avant-garde pieces that are written for the piano.

So, I'd appreciate some recommendations. And please remember, the pieces:
1) Have to belong to the avant-garde contemporary music genre
2) Have to be written for the piano (or transcribed)

Thanks!

P.S. having noticed a bunch of avant-garde haters around here, I ask them all to not derail this thread with any arguments.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

by avant-garde did you mean serialism, XXI century music or could be other things?. in the second case, i always suggest Ginastera (circa the 1950's he was very "avant-garde", haha):






(the noisy part starts at 4:56 )


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

What I mean is avant-garde contemporary modern music stuff. For some reason, that piece doesn't really qualify as avant-garde in my book, I guess.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I think Dodecaplex is looking for pieces like say, the Concord Sonata? Sciarrinno is another name that comes to mind. 

I know very little of this genre though. I think a lot of the avante garde people have gotten tired of this place.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Dodecaplex said:


> What I mean is avant-garde contemporary modern music stuff. For some reason, that piece doesn't really qualify as avant-garde in my book, I guess.


and this one?


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> I think a lot of the avante garde people have gotten tired of this place.


Can someone please ask them to recommend me piano avant-garde music and _then_ get tired of this place?


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

aleazk said:


> and this one?


That one's perfect. However, I already have two recordings of that work and I'm becoming more and more familiar with it. But yes, that's the kind of music I'm looking for.


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## Trout (Apr 11, 2011)

There's this guy named Sorabji. Dunno if you're familiar with him or not...


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

Trout said:


> There's this guy named Sorabji. Dunno if you're familiar with him or not...


But I don't really see Sorabji as part of the avant-garde.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

this is not for piano, but it is avant-garde:


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

Where's Sid James, violadude, and someguy? I really hope they show up.


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

By contemporary do you mean today's music (last decade or so) or do you mean post 1950's/60's?


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

Air said:


> By contemporary do you mean today's music (last decade or so) or do you mean post 1950's/60's?


The latter.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

I too, can enjoy solo piano music written within the last five or six decades. The soundscape can be extremely varied. I don't really know what type of sounds you might be looking for, but these pieces I have on recording that I bought not long ago, are enjoyable. I don't have much of the extreme bizzare sounding types, but more along these sensible soundscapes. Let me know what you might think.

Benjamin Britten





I just finished listening to some solo piano music of Egon Wellesz (1885-1974).





Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe, _Nocturnal_. 





Gorecki, piano sonata. This one is quite an "angry" sounding piece.


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## Guest (Dec 3, 2011)

I just made a nice list for you, complete with youtube and vimeo videos which TC just blitzed.

Doesn't want you to hear any avant garde piano music, I guess.

Sigh.

Here's the list. It's too late to put all the links back in. (23:11 here in Oregon.)

Stockhausen, _Klavierstueck IX_
Boulez, _Sonatas 1-3_
Hans Tutschku, _Zellen-linien_
Ludger Bruemmer, _Le temp s'ouvre_ (short audio clip here)
Walter Marchetti, _De Musicorum Infelicitate_ and _J'aimerai Jouer Avec Un Piano Qui Aurait Un Grosse Queue_
Ross Bolleter, _Nallan Void_ and _Secret Sandhills and satellites_ (no videos of these)
Tom Johnson, _An Hour for Piano_

I think that's it. For now, anyway. TC needs to stop signing us out while we're making posts and then blitzing the post. Or I need to remember to sign in again without using the back button. I think that's what blitzes the posts. Poopies!


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Some more, in a rather approachable if unmistakebly modern style:

*Luc Ferrari*:
Antisonata (a really great and captivating piece): 




*Giacinto Scelsi*, very original - there´a a lot of piano music on youtube including these:
Action Music: 



Ttai, Suite no.9: 




*Per Nørgård*:
even if in the concerto genre, do check out the "Concerto in Due Tempi:" 




another masterful contemporary (but not in any way provocative) piano concerto is that of* Tristan Keuris*; it won the Rostrum price:





Supposedly you also know *George Crumb *?
Makrokosmos is an example: 




*Wilhelm Killmayer *is among the interesting post-war composers; his "Nocturnes" are interesting "discussions" of Romanticism. The "Klavierstück II", a very dreamy piece, has been posted on you-tube:





*Iannis Xenakis*: some of his piano works are quite approachable: 
Mists 



 , or, more weird,
Herma 




*Edison Denisov*´s "Variations" was one of the first Webern-influenced works composed in the USSR:





*Tristan Murail *is one of the more interesting contemporary composers. Works include the beautiful
Cloches d´Adieu 



and the more experimental Territoires de l´Oubli





The Czechoslovak composer *Lubos Fiser * wrote some effective sonatas in a very characteristic, somewhat grotesque clockwork-like style, such as


















His 4th sonata is inspired by the Scriabin 10th and one of his best works, but it is not on you-tube.

I suppose you know these charming, for their time innovative pieces by *Langgaard*, the "Insectarium"




which I say would also partly qualify in a canon of 20th century avant-garde, along with works by* Henry Cowell *and *Leo Ornstein*, for instance.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Here ya go Dodecaplex


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## Guest (Dec 3, 2011)

Cool list, Violadude.

Your video for Boulez is one of the ones I had put into my original post for Dode.

(Now if I could only get someone to find clips for all the rest of my picks!!)

((I'm not lazy, either. Who says that I'm lazy?))


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

some guy said:


> Cool list, Violadude.
> 
> *Your video for Boulez is one of the ones I had put into my original post for Dode.*
> 
> ...


Great minds think alike, eh?


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

Thank you. Thank you, everone! You're all very kind. I love discovering music.

Now, I have lots of listening to do. 

Also, more recommendations are always welcome.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Alfred Schnittke-Concerto For Piano and Strings, Piano Quartet/Quintet, Concerto Grosso no.6

Zappa-Ruth Is Sleeping


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)




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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

LordBlackudder said:


>


Definitely not avant-garde....


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Stockhausen wrote 14 _Klavierstuecke _for solo piano. _X_ is my favourite - it runs for some 25 minutes, here are the first seven. I love the fierce cluster chord glissandi.






Messiaen's _Catalogue d'oiseaux_ is 13 lengthy landscapes with birdsong. Here is _La bouscarle_ (I personally do not think this is avant garde but many will)


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

And the huge Sonata by Jean Barraque:






John Cage's _Sonatas and interludes _for prepared piano






Xenakis's _Herma _(if you're willing to accept piano and orchestra, his _Keqrops _is stunning. Unfortunately the Youtube video does not do the piano justice)






Helmut Lachenmann is one of the tiny, tiny number of truly subversive composers. Here's his _Kinderspiel _- it's definitely not child's play! (eg, the second movement starting at 1:25)


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

You could try these names:

Ligeti
Feinberg
Berg
Scriabin
Mosolov
Lyatoshynsky
Scelsi
Varese
Liadov
Takemitsu
Prokofeiv
Myaskovsky
Mikhail Gnesin
Lazare Saminsky
Henry Cowell
Boris Asafeiv
Fumio Hayasaka

Some will yield than others when it comes to the avant garde, but all of them have written some of what I understand to be avant garde music.


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## Sequentia (Nov 23, 2011)

Finnissy, Skalkottas, Roslavets, Wuorinen, Hába, Alexander Goehr, Babbitt, Elliott Carter, James Dillon, Rădulescu, Vivier, Vine, Kurtág.

Other good suggestions have appeared here, so I will not reiterate those.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

Sequentia said:


> Finnissy, Skalkottas, Roslavets, Wuorinen, Hába, Alexander Goehr, Babbitt, Elliott Carter, James Dillon, Rădulescu, Vivier, Vine, Kurtág.
> 
> Other good suggestions have appeared here, so I will not reiterate those.


I can't believe I didn't mention Skalkottas or Roslavets. You like Russian avante garde as well, I take it?


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2011)

That Piano Sonata by Gorecki on the previous page is pretty amazing. Wow!! I agree the Messiaen, Stockhausen and Cage are not A-G. That "Danzes Argentinas" posted on the first page - my piano teacher used to play this for me at the start of my lessons. I learned so much about music listening to him - a superb Conservatorium piano graduate who ran a cattle farm. (He's dead now - cigarettes and booze, aged 45). Students would turn up for their lessons after mine and he was often playing Prokofiev Sonata No. 7 or similar - their parents thought he was 'quite mad'. Imagine what they'd think if he was playing Stockhausen? (Imagine SIGHT-READING Stockhausen!!)


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## Rasa (Apr 23, 2009)




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## Benny (Feb 4, 2013)

Yeshua/Lukecash,
You're one out of 2 people in this forum who have ever mentioned Saminsky! I like his Jewish music, most of which is not avant-garde. Worths a thread of its own.
In the meantime, enjoy this one:


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Legiti Etudes*

Did anyone mention the Ligeti _Etudes_?

Found this neat link of Jeremy Denk practicing Ligeti:






Attended a recital where Mr. Denk performed all of the _Etudes_.


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