# Short modern(ish) works - your suggestions please



## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Your suggestions, please, for music that meets the following criteria:

*1. It must have been written no earlier than 1950.

2. It must be less than 10 minutes long, and preferably less than 5-6 minutes.

3. If it's a multi-movement work, you must pick one of the movements only.*

Why these criteria? Imagine that we're putting together a series of compilation CDs designed to draw the novice into the world of modern classical music, like "The Classic Experience", or we're devising the daytime playlist for a strictly-modern version of a radio station like the UK's Classic FM.

This leads us to two guidelines:

A. This is a really important one: *assume your audience has no preconceived ideas about what (modern) classical music "should" sound like*. Or, if you like, imagine that all the music ever written before 1950 has been erased from history. So you don't need to take into account whether the piece is "conservative" or "avant-garde".

B. It's good to go with an "obvious" choice, regardless of the kind of music you're suggesting. There are certain pieces that get performed or recorded more often, or are culturally significant, or are generally regarded as a fine example of a particular composer's work.

As examples, we could have John Adams's "A short ride in a fast machine", which is the sort of modern music already played on daytime radio, and Iannis Xenakis's "Metastasis", which isn't but is a key work in 20th-century music generally.

If there are a lot of suggestions then we could turn this into some sort of voting game too.

(some thoughts that led to this post can be read on this earlier thread)


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Gorecki - Harpsichord concerto (1980, 9+ min).


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Jonathan Harvey - Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco (1980, 9+ mins)


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## Andolink (Oct 29, 2012)

Why must we assume the radio audience all have ADD?


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

*Alvin Curran: Canti illuminati (1982)*

Alvin Curran (*1938): Canti illuminati (1982).


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## Andolink (Oct 29, 2012)

Ulrich Alexander Kreppein: Spiel der Schatten (9:27)


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

*Robert Ashley: Automatic writing (1979)*

Robert Ashley (*1930): Automatic writing (1979).


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Hovhaness - Spirit Lake (from Symphony No.50 Mount St. Helens, 1982) - 7+min.


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## Guest (Mar 21, 2014)

Most if not all of the *Berio* *sequenza* series.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Andolink said:


> Why must we assume the radio audience all have ADD?


Because that's the rule.


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## Guest (Mar 21, 2014)

I proposed the Berio above because they are of course quite short, quite 'theatrical' when played in front of a live audience and jolly good fun all round. Challenging but not alienating for newcomers, your fave old aunt might even enjoy them.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Finnissy's Red Earth (I must be fixated on this, I keep mentioning it).


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Takemitsu - Rain spell (1982) - 8+ min.


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## Whistler Fred (Feb 6, 2014)

Some that come to mind, with a eye for variety:

John Cage: String Quartet in four parts: IV. Quodlibet
George Crumb: The Sleeper
György Ligeti: Lux Aeterna
William Albright: Brass Knuckles, A Novelty Rag
Arvo Pärt: Fratres
Terry Riley: Half Wolf Dances Mad in Moonlight (from Salome Dances for Peace)
MIlton Babbitt: Phonemena
Ingram Marshall: Fog Tropes
Iannis Xenakis: Pithoprakta
Jennifer Higdon: Amazing Grace


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Nereffid said:


> Because that's the rule.


*Oh no you didn't!* :lol:


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

*Earle Brown: "December 1952"*

December 1952 consists purely of horizontal and vertical lines varying in width, spread out over the page; it is a landmark piece in the history of graphic notation of music. The role of the performer is to interpret the score visually and translate the graphical information to music. In Brown's notes on the work he even suggests that one consider this 2D space as 3D and imagine moving through it. The other pieces in the collection are not as abstract. According to dates on the scores, Brown wrote December 1952 and then moved back towards forms of notation that contain more specific musical information. - Wikipedia


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Here's a few I think could contend:

*György Ligeti* - Atmosphères for full orchestra (1961) _9.05_

*Friedrich Cerha* - Verzeichnis (1969) _9.30_ (Choral)

*Galina Ustvolskaya* - Composition No. 3 "Benedictus, Qui Venit2, for four flutes, four bassoons and piano (1975) _8.22_

*Brian Ferneyhough* - Second String Quartet (1980) _9.50_

*Michel van der Aa* - Oog for violoncello and soundtrack (1995) _9.17_

*Rebecca Saunders* - Blue and Gray (2005), for two double basses _9.54_

But the 10 min limit is quite back-binding! Had to ditch several favourites composers as the just don't do short stuff and I dislike to include movements from longer works as it do not do these any service!

/ptr


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

The John Adams siblings Tromba Lontana and Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Both are a little over 4 minutes long and both were composed in 1986.


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## Guest (Mar 21, 2014)

Whistler Fred said:


> Some that come to mind, with a eye for variety:
> 
> John Cage: String Quartet in four parts: IV. Quodlibet
> George Crumb: The Sleeper
> ...


Hey Whistler! Nice choices (even though I don't know all of them). May I give you a solid "thumbs up" therefore for the *Cage* 'Quodlibet', the *Ligeti* 'Lux', *Arvo's* 'Fratres' and the *Xenakis* 'Pithoprakta'. "Modern music" at its most popular !!! Yes! Art Music eat your heart out!


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Attack of the Band Junkie*

I thought of the following off the top of my head:

Peter Mennin: _Canzona_






Vincent Persichetti: _Divertimento for Band_

Six movements. Each individual movement under five minutes.

Interesting You Tube of a performance of an Italian Army Band.






Donald Grantham: _Southern Harmony_

Four Movements. Each five minutes or less






When I come up with more I will strike again.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Andolink said:


> Why must we assume the radio audience all have ADD?


That is not an assumption. What is rightly assumed is that the willingness to listen to a more extended work in an unfamiliar musical syntax might be stretching an invitational introduction, and that introduction is more likely best received and well-communicated by including first the shorter pieces or movements of pieces. You don't start running by doing a marathon, but build up to it.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

early 1900's -- to the uninitiated, these are, by musical syntax and vocabulary, not a bad place to start 
Charles Ives: 
The Unanswered Question




The Pond





post 1950:

Nico Muhly ~ Mothertongue I





David Lang:
Wed





Fulvio Caldini:
Bestiale




Toccata No. 1





Morton Feldman ~ Madame Press died last week at ninety





Luciano Berio:
Concertino (09'29'')




Sequenza VI, for viola solo (12'14'')





Igor Stravinsky:
In memoriam Dylan Thomas




Septet; movement iii, Gigue





Terry Riley ~ Land's End





John Adams:
Hoodoo Zephy (10'07)




Dharma at Big Sur, part ii, Sri Moonshine [concerto for six-string electric violin & orchestra (12'20'')





Arthur Berger ~ Duo for piano and 'cello (11'05'')





Lucas Foss ~ Baroque Variations; I, on a Handel Larghetto (7'24'')





Bernd Alois Zimmermann ~ Un petit Rien





Takashi Yoshimatsu ~ Symphony No. 5, 3rd movement





Frederic Rzewski ~ Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues





Steve Reich ~ Different Trains, Part 1 of 3





Michael Torke: 
Green




December


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## User in F minor (Feb 5, 2014)

Olivier Messiaen - Appel interstellaire (5') (from _Des canyons aux étoiles_ but often played independently) 



 (this clip is nastily lo-fi though)

Any of Ligeti's _Nonsense Madrigals_ 




Morton Feldman - Durations II for cello and piano (6') (the first thing I think of when I need to think of a short Feldman tune) 




Krzysztof Penderecki - Sicut locutus est (2') 



, Lacrimosa (5') (very much "traditionally attractive" yet not utterly whitebread) 




Giacinto Scelsi - Pranam II (7')


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

---------------------------- dupe, drat -----------------------


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