# Sources for Contemporary Classical Music



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I'm interested in learning how others access contemporary classical music. So far my methods have been essentially random. I find lists of contemporary (often including modern) composers and then go to Spotify, Pandora, youtube, or Naxos and see if I can listen to some of their music. When I find music I like, I will eventually purchase a CD or mp3 (assuming one exists for that music). There's nothing wrong with that approach, but I wonder if there are "better" sources that I could utilize. Sometimes I feel as though I must be missing large numbers of composers simply because I don't have a "good" way of finding out about them. Obviously, I can't listen to everyone, but if others here would share their approaches, we could all have more avenues to explore.

Some of the lists I use are:
http://contemporary-classical.com/composers
Large list of contemporary and modern composers. This is also a radio in that one can hear music from these composers and even request specific music.

http://www.newconsonantmusic.com/composers/index.php
Website for a specific group of composers that view their music as falling under the genre "new consonance".

http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Departments/Music/moderncomposers.html#1
Another list of contemporary and modern composers.

Web music:
http://www.earbits.com/play#station/classical-20th-century
This site has stations where one can hear contemporary music from various genres (20th century, avant-garde, electroacoustic, contemporary composition...). I have just recently begun to explore this site.

So what sources do others use?


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

http://www.ubu.com/ is a very comprehensive and interesting source for 20th century avantgarde culture in the broadest sense (check out the "sound" link also);

http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/mirror/copyright.htm contains quite a lot of legally accessible, out-of-print recordings of music by contemporary composers.


----------



## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

This Youtube channel has a wide selection, although it leans a little bit heavily towards Stockhausen-esque electronic/musique concrete pieces that I don't care for. I'm interested in whatever is posted, though.
http://www.youtube.com/user/newmusicxx

I started out exploring the big names of the current generations, and then started to branch out via recommendations.


----------



## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

Some of the "contemporary" composer's are so old and established that their names appear in history books already and were taught to me in school; Boulez, Penderecki, Carter (who very recently died), Gorecki (ditto), Philip Glass, John Adams, etc... etc...
Im sure you know most of these already.

The rest have been mostly discovered through:
Concerts, the Concertgebouw orchestra premieres a lot of new works each season and I was lucky enough to see many when I lived there.
Recommendations from teachers... my composition teacher was an excellent composer in her own right, but introduced me to the music she found interesting. My conducting teacher in NL conducted almost exclusively contemporary music so I discovered a lot through him.
This forum!

Unfortunately, I dont think any of these are a "better approach". Contemporary music is exciting because it is new, but it also means it hasnt been catalogued and organised into neat little boxes of quality!


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

No. I do exactly the same thing -- go through lists and just sample. Actually I think that's a pretty exciting way. What could be better or more relaxing than an exploration that way, with no one pushing the music at you, saying you must like it?

Come to think of it I do this for non-contemporary music too.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Society For New Music w/ link to Fresh Ink radio program
http://www.societyfornewmusic.org/


----------



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I thank those of you who posted links (and all who responded). I have looked at them (briefly) and expect that I will utilize them more in my quest to find new music.


----------



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

The opening post makes me feel as if I'm really lagging behind; but the truth is, my experience with contemporary music has a long history. I don't see this genre as being like a newspaper, I see it as very permanent, like a book. My experiences go back to the days of vinyl, digging through sale bins in K-Mart, where most of this stuff was "cut-outs" and ended up in the sale bins for $1.99-$3.99.

Some of it, I waited 40 years to show up on CD. 
Here are my most treasured CDs:

John Cage "Fontana Mix" B003UN58TW
Stockhausen "Zeitmass" B005NUVVZ0
Varése, "The Varése Album" B000RMJ5BG (Wounded Bird, already inflated price and going out of print)
Adventures in Sound B001NE81BW
New Directions in Music B003UN58TM
Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music B003O2A41G (six 2-CD volumes so far)

History, history! Go for history first, then "newness."
The Boulez Domain Musical box: B000E0W3FQ (This is a 4-CD set; the listing as "1 disc" is in error)
The Stockhausen site: http://www.stockhausen.org/
Stockhausen records (they now take PayPal): http://www.stockhausencds.com/

I am drawn to composers by reading music theory & history books more than I am by "browsing" files. I found George Perle this way.

Also, I am an old-timey CD collector. I like to concentrate on specific labels, like New World and Albany for fresh, new American composers. I go to their sites & look.


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Wow! These links are great. I clicked on one at random and right off the bat I discover *Mark-Anthony Turnage* whom I had not heard of. So I'll be up late adding tracks to sample in my streaming service library. I am reminded again after sampling some of these how much I wish contemporary composers would stay away from the woodblock and the orchestral whip as ubiquitous percussion instruments. I have a feeling they will be very dated someday, just as overuse of the triangle may make me think of 19th century overblown orchestral works. But that's for another thread.


----------



## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

http://www.last.fm/music/Alfred+Schnittke/+similar I think this list is pretty good. The Steve Reich similar artists page would be good for those interested in the minimalism Contemporary music.


----------



## Guest (Jan 27, 2013)

mmsbls, if money's no object, and why should it be?, then labels are a good idea, too.

There are fewer of them than there are of composers, anyway. So easier to keep track of.

Wergo
Pogus
Col legno
Stradivarius _Times Future_
Metamkine
Asphodel
sub rosa
Neos
Etcetera
Aurora
Dacapo
Kairos
empreintes DIGITALes
Dame
Tzadik

Just those will keep you busy for a long time, I'd think.

And there are some nice streaming sites like Bandcamp, too. Though that one has more hip-hop and electronica and such than it does "avant garde" classical.

And what about festivals? Do you go to concerts and festivals? I go to lots of those and meet lots of new people and get lots of ideas about what to buy next. Oh, it's fun. Again, though, that's in the money no object category, I suppose.


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

In terms of new music, what I've tended to be more interested in is Australian music. The Australian Music Centre is a good resource on this (& also on older Australian music, but of course we're only just over 200 years old in terms of white settlement).

http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/

Scroll to the bottom of that home page and you'll find links to many topics to do with Australian music, incl. lists of recommended works. Eg. this one deals with Asian influences on Aussie music/composers:

http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/subject/asian-culture

& of course you can also do a search for any specific Australian composer you're interested in, and their page will have links to many resources to do with them - eg. recordings, books, scores, and so on. Its a great website but I've only scatched the surface there, I have used it on and off over the years to get more info if I need it.


----------



## Guest (Jan 27, 2013)

Discogs, too, has clips.

And I find Discogs slightly easier to use than Bandcamp, probably just because I've used Discogs for years.


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

some guy said:


> mmsbls, if money's no object, and why should it be?, then labels are a good idea, too.


Yes. I used to browse Nonesuch Records for interesting new music of whatever genre. Back in the days of vinyl I could always count on them to have a few electronic music discs available.


----------



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

neoshredder said:


> http://www.last.fm/music/Alfred+Schnittke/+similar I think this list is pretty good. The Steve Reich similar artists page would be good for those interested in the minimalism Contemporary music.


The "similar" feature is quite useful. I had not used last.fm, but I just created an account and started playing around. The ability to quickly sample composers that are similar (at least in last.fm's view) is really fun.



some guy said:


> mmsbls, if money's no object, and why should it be?, then labels are a good idea, too.
> 
> And what about festivals? Do you go to concerts and festivals? I go to lots of those and meet lots of new people and get lots of ideas about what to buy next. Oh, it's fun. Again, though, that's in the money no object category, I suppose.


I've hardly ever purchased music that I haven't heard before. I have a list of many hundreds of works that I want to purchase after hearing them so it's "hard" for me to justify buying a CD with music I have not heard. Maybe I'm just not adventurous enough (or rich enough). millionrainbows talked about searching in the bargain bins. I do that as well, but even then I rarely buy something on a whim.

I do go to concerts and some (very few) festivals. The vast majority of music near me is not contemporary, but one of my favorite concerts last year was entirely contemporary composers.



Sid James said:


> In terms of new music, what I've tended to be more interested in is Australian music. The Australian Music Centre is a good resource on this (& also on older Australian music, but of course we're only just over 200 years old in terms of white settlement).
> 
> http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/


One of my favorite contemporary composers is Carl Vine. As I've mentioned elsewhere, one of the frustrating things about contemporary music is that it is often simply not available. I have wanted to hear his violin concerto ever since I heard of the premiere in 2011. As far as I know, there is no recording on CD or online.


----------



## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

The "Wellesz" channels are generally my go to source if anyone mentions a 20th century composer that I don't know. I also use them for further exploring composers I'm already familiar with. They have something approaching 4000 videos between them, and I think they're a great resource for both experienced listeners and newcomers. Theatre (incorporating the old "thewelleszcompany" channel playlists) deals with recorded music, and Opus has a small but growing collection of documentary and concert footage, including whole operas (subtitle language varies, though a good chunk of it is in English IIRC).


----------



## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Good to support Contemporary Composer to help our future of Classical Music.


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

This thread has inspired me to sample more 20th and 21st century music, but I gotta say, if I hear one more woodblock I'm going back to Beethoven and Bach! What is the fascination with woodblock in 20th century? It's worse than cowbell in 1970s rock. 

More woodblock! More woodblock!


----------



## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

I have learned an immense amount from YouTube. Three channels that I can remember offhand that provide lots of recordings of avante-garde composition are those from NewMusicXX, flammesombres (mostly Xenakis ), and pelodelperro.


----------



## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Weston said:


> This thread has inspired me to sample more 20th and 21st century music, but I gotta say, if I hear one more woodblock I'm going back to Beethoven and Bach! What is the fascination with woodblock in 20th century? It's worse than cowbell in 1970s rock.
> 
> More woodblock! More woodblock!


You leave the woodblocks out of this, they can't help it!


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

mmsbls said:


> ....
> 
> One of my favorite contemporary composers is Carl Vine. As I've mentioned elsewhere, one of the frustrating things about contemporary music is that it is often simply not available. I have wanted to hear his violin concerto ever since I heard of the premiere in 2011. As far as I know, there is no recording on CD or online.


I also like Vine, I haven't heard that piece, but I like his chamber music and some other things of his.

The Tall Poppies label has a fair amount of Vine's stuff on cd. I'm not sure if they've got that work, you'll have to check their website: http://www.tallpoppies.net/ which has a wealth of info (incl. extensive notes) about cd's they put out.

The other label is better known I think, ABC Classics. They just put out the Goldner Quartet's recording of Vine's string quartets:










http://shop.abc.net.au/products/vine-c-string-quartet-cd


----------

