# Good starting contemporary works to listen to



## Sofronitsky (Jun 12, 2011)

So, I recentely acquired some nice iTunes gift cards, and have decided to use them on contemporary music. I feel that it's very important to support these works, and I also think they will make a better impression if I am more serious about listening to them than just trying out 30 seconds of a youtube performance.

Of slightly modern composers, I have only liked Copland (Piano Sonata, Passacaglia), Janacek (String Quartets, Piano Sonata, Piano Concertino, In The Mists, On The Overgown Path), and I am beginning to like Prokofiev a great deal.

Could you recommend some nice works to sort of pop my modern cherry?

(Sorry if this is hard to understand, I haven't had sleep in a long time)


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## Webernite (Sep 4, 2010)

Just to be clear, do you want works by living composers, or just 20th/21st-century music in general?


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Yes... it seems you are speaking more of Modernists as opposed to Contemporaries, who would be composers still living and creating music right now.


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## Sofronitsky (Jun 12, 2011)

Those were just references of how modern I have come so far.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Beyond the composers you listed, which Modernists have you also heard? It might do well to also know if there are genre that you haven't gotten into (ie. opera, choral, art songs, etc...)


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## Sofronitsky (Jun 12, 2011)

I have heard Ligeti, Ives, Schoenberg (Briefly, I hated it), Bartok, and Leon Kirchner. There are probably some others, in fact I listened to some piano works by George Crumb once but didn't really have an impression.

I am o.k. with opera and other song forms, but I would rather be raped by a giant scorpion than listen to an atonal opera or large choral work right now. Orchestra and ensemble are good, piano solo or piano and orchestra is better. Thanks for the help


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## Webernite (Sep 4, 2010)

OK, and who are your favorite non-modern composers?


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## Sofronitsky (Jun 12, 2011)

Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, Debussy, Ravel, and Janacek. In that order.


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## Webernite (Sep 4, 2010)

Hm, maybe try Messiean and Shostakovich.


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## Guest (Jul 10, 2011)

What might be interesting for you is to get a mix of things, to have a sense of at least some of the possibilities.

I'd say if you hated Schoenberg, it might be good to start with Schoenberg, then. And the album to get would be the two CD set with _Pelleas et Melisande_ and _Variations_ on one disc and the violin and piano concertos on the other. That's not something you can use your iTunes gift cards on, it seems, but there's a used copy for only $5.68 on Amazon.

Otherwise, how about some more Prokofiev? That's always good fun. _Semyon Kotko_ is in many ways quintessential Prokofiev. It's got just about everything in it that he ever did in his whole career, anyway.

And some Cage. _Cartridge Music_ and _Atlas Eclipticalis_ are good for early indeterminacy; something later would be _Freeman Etudes,_ maybe, or _Four4._

Partch is a good thing to have. _Delusion of the Fury_ is outrageously addictive, I've found.

Some fixed media stuff might be nice, too. Even though it's early (1960) _Cartridge Music_ is still a good example of live electronics. But there has been a lot of very fine fixed media work, too. Dhomont's _Foret Profonde_ is a classic, as is the very different _Hymnen_ by Stockhausen.

There was a lot of interesting stuff going on between the two wars. Both Kurt Schwitters' _Ursonate_ and Varese's _Hyperprism_ are from the early twenties. For a sense of the range of that time, Poulenc's _Les Biches_ is also 1922. And who would want to be without Copland's _Grohg_?

Bartok and Stravinsky, of course.

There's so much, it's hard to know where to stop. These things will give you a tiny taste of a very few of the possibilities. In fact, I would suspect that just following this thread as it develops will give you so many possibilities that your head will simply explode.

So BE CAREFUL!!


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

There is a thread called Exploring Modern Contemporary Music which includes several contemporary composers' works along with modern but dead composers' works. You might explore there.

One problem with contemporary (living) composers is that there is a clear lack of readily available music. There are relatively few youtube videos for their works, and even paid streaming sites like Naxos have much less of their music. Unfortunately, that makes it a bit harder to get to know them.

I'll mention two contemporary composers I really like and suggest a couple of works. Eric Ewazen's violin concerto is lovely. There is a youtube clip on the thread I mentioned (unfortunately by a high school orchestra). The following CD has another work, Sinfonia for String Orchestra, that I especially like as well.










The other composer is Carl Vine. I've heard his Piano Concerto and the first 4 symphonies and like them quite a bit. Here's the first movement of his Piano Concerto.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Go and listen to Szymanowski's second piano sonata, it's Chopin taken into XXth century - if any composer ever took him there, it's Szymanowski with this beautiful work. Composers like Scriabin were influenced by Chopin before they found their own language but it can't be said that their mature works are continuation of his style. It can be said about this sonata though which sounded to me like heavy, dissonant monster when I heard it for the first time but then I've found great lots of chopinical lyricism and pure beauty in it.

Try recording by Jerzy Godziszewski (from his complete set of Szymanowski's piano works) or eventually by Martin Roscoe (Naxos cycle, vol. 1). It was also recorded by Richter but it's rare and in bad quality.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

OK... you are coming out of Debussy, Janacek, Rachmaninoff, and Ravel among the more "modern" composers that you are listening to. Bartok would seem an obvious composer to explore: Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, the piano concertos, the string quartets, The Miraculous Mandarin, etc... Stravinsky's early ballets: Petrouchka, The Firebird, and of course The Rite of Spring. Check into Richard Strauss... especially the operas Elektra and Salome and the Four Last Songs. Look into Sibelius and Nielsen. Coming out of Ravel and Debussy you might think of exploring Messiaen (The Quartet for the End of Time) and even go as far forward as Toru Takemitsu (A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden) or even Tristan Murail (Gondwana; Désintégrations; Winter Fragments). Shostakovitch (the quartets, Symphony no. 10). Then... perhaps not contrary to someguy's recommendations... take a shot every now and then and try something out in left field... and give it more than one chance. John Cage's Works for Prepared Piano, Elliott Carter's 100th Anniversary disc on Naxos (for a few bucks what can you lose on these Naxos releases?) Other composers on Naxos you might explore: Rautavaara, Hovhaness, Walter Piston, Daniel Catan, Lorenzo Palomo, Villa-Lobos, George Crumb... and so many more.


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## SuperTonic (Jun 3, 2010)

You may like Stravinsky too. The thing to remember about Stravinsky is that his music is very diverse, so if you don't like one piece try another one. Some of my favorites are The Rite of Spring, A Soldier's Tale, Agon, Symphony in 3 Movements, Symphony in C. 
I'd recommend Shostakovich as well. It was his Symphony 5 that really got me into classical music when I was a teenager. Many of his symphonies are good, as are his string quartets.
Also, if you liked Janacek's string quartets, you may want to check out the Bartok string quartets as well.

If you are looking for something more contemporary, I'd recommend Penderecki's recent output. His early output is more avant garde, but starting around the 1970's he started composing in a more Neo-Romantic idiom. I'd recommend the 3rd Symphony or the Concerto Grosso for 3 Cellos and Orchestra.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

_Aramis_ mentions(!) Szymanowski. Some evening after sunset listen to his *Mythes*. It may not even be essential to hear the Wilkomirska/Barbosa interpretation (though I highly recommend it).

Locate one or two of Benjamin Lees' piano sonatas, and if they achieve penetration try a string quartet.

Quincy Porter made a viola concerto that I enjoy. It's much 'quieter', maybe more subtle than what I mentioned above; you need to pay attention.

Lutoslawski's cello concerto is capable of grabbing one by the short hairs. The Dutilieux(sp) cello concerto has approximately the same effect. There is a CD out there with both of them.

And there is Finnessy's "Red Earth", which for me produces evocations, though apparently not what Finnessy had in mind.

:cheers:


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Schoenberg was mentioned above but I think his student Alban Berg did way, way better.

Try Berg's, _Wozzek_ (premiered 1925), opera. A striking masterpiece of atonal opera. And I might add one of a few genres where atonal seem to do very well in the right hands - in opera. Berg appeared to have great dramatic insight.


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## Nix (Feb 20, 2010)

Bartok is a gateway drug. Try is 2nd Violin Concerto, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, and his 1st Piano Concerto. After that his String Quartets (start with 1 and 5). Bartok is a hybrid of everything you've ever loved in music.


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## Stasou (Apr 23, 2011)

Last night I saw Peter Serkin playing Bartok Piano Concerto No. 3. It was very nearly the most amazing thing in the world.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Stasou said:


> Last night I saw Peter Serkin playing Bartok Piano Concerto No. 3. It was very nearly the most amazing thing in the world.


Did Serkin and the orchestra do the on-top layer, or the underlying one? (the latter choice is pretty rare.)

I have no idea how you would describe the difference technically. I don't know 'cause', only 'effect'.


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

How about this piece for* modern, *just in case you haven't listened to it yet:


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## rahmalec (Jul 18, 2011)

samurai said:


> How about this piece for* modern, *just in case you haven't listened to it yet:


That's great, I love it.

Anyway, I think that a lot of modern music really needs to be experienced live, rather than on CD.


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)

try:


























top to bottom in order of awesomness.


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## Sofronitsky (Jun 12, 2011)

I'm sure the Final Fantasy music is really pretty, but all of the pieces I've listened to have never inspired me. I was really looking for more serious music. I ended up buying a Copland album, Ives piano works, and Carl Vine piano sonata.


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

I'm constantly amazed by the interpretation of the word 'contemporary' here.

Anyway, seeing as no one has mentioned Arvo Part, I'll do just that. It's all good stuff but try his Lamentate or Tabula Rasa.



some guy said:


> And some Cage. _Cartridge Music_ and _Atlas Eclipticalis_ are good for early indeterminacy; something later would be _Freeman Etudes,_ maybe, or _Four4._


Yeah, those are catchy as **** with loads of hooks. Perfect for the OP.


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