Contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music is Western art music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included serial music, electronic music, experimental music, and minimalist music. Newer forms of music include spectral music and post-minimalism.

Background

At the beginning of the 20th century, composers of classical music were experimenting with an increasingly dissonant pitch language, which sometimes yielded atonal pieces. Following World War I, as a backlash against what they saw as the increasingly exaggerated gestures and formlessness of late Romanticism, certain composers adopted a neoclassic style, which sought to recapture the balanced forms and clearly perceptible thematic processes of earlier styles^[1] (see also New Objectivity and social realism). After World War II, modernist composers sought to achieve greater levels of control in their composition process (e.g., through the use of the twelve-tone technique and later total serialism). At the same time, conversely, composers also experimented with means of abdicating control, exploring indeterminacy or aleatoric processes in smaller or larger degrees.^[2] Technological advances led to the birth of electronic music.^[3] Experimentation with tape loops and repetitive textures contributed to the advent of minimalism.^[4] Still other composers started exploring the theatrical potential of the musical performance (performance art, mixed media, fluxus).^[5] New works of contemporary classical music continue to be created. Each year, the Boston Conservatory at Berklee presents 700 performances. New works from contemporary classical music program students comprise roughly 150 of these performances.^[6]

1945–75

To some extent, European and the US traditions diverged after World War II. Among the most influential composers in Europe were Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. The first and last were both pupils of Olivier Messiaen. An important aesthetic philosophy as well as a group of compositional techniques at this time was serialism (also called "through-ordered music", "'total' music" or "total tone ordering"), which took as its starting point the compositions of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern (and thus was opposed to traditional twelve-tone music), and was also closely related to Le Corbusier's idea of the modulor.^[7] However, some more traditionally based composers such as Dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten maintained a tonal style of composition despite the prominent serialist movement.

In America, composers like Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Henry Cowell, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, George Rochberg, and Roger Sessions formed their own ideas. Some of these composers (Cage, Cowell, Glass, Reich) represented a new methodology of experimental music, which began to question fundamental notions of music such as notation, performance, duration, and repetition, while others (Babbitt, Rochberg, Sessions) fashioned their own extensions of the twelve-tone serialism of Schoenberg.

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Neoromanticism

The vocabulary of extended tonality, which flourished in the late 19th and very early 20th centuries, continues to be used by contemporary composers. It has never been considered shocking or controversial in the larger musical world—as has been demonstrated statistically for the United States, at least, where "most composers continued working in what has remained throughout this century the mainstream of tonal-oriented composition".^[8]

High modernism

Serialism is one of the most important post-war movements among the high modernist schools. Serialism, more specifically named "integral" or "compound" serialism, was led by composers such as Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna, Luigi Nono, and Karlheinz Stockhausen in Europe, and by Milton Babbitt, Donald Martino, Mario Davidovsky, and Charles Wuorinen in the United States. Some of their compositions use an ordered set or several such sets, which may be the basis for the whole composition, while others use "unordered" sets. The term is also often used for dodecaphony, or twelve-tone technique, which is alternatively regarded as the model for integral serialism.

Despite its decline in the last third of the 20th century, there remained at the end of the century an active core of composers who continued to advance the ideas and forms of high modernism. Those no longer living include Pierre Boulez, Pauline Oliveros, Toru Takemitsu, Jacob Druckman, George Perle, Ralph Shapey,^[9] Franco Donatoni, Wolfgang Rihm, Jonathan Harvey,^[10] Erkki Salmenhaara, and Henrik Otto Donner.^[11] Those still living in December 2024 include Helmut Lachenmann, Salvatore Sciarrino, Magnus Lindberg,^[10] George Benjamin, Brian Ferneyhough, Richard Wernick, Richard Wilson, and James MacMillan.^[12]

Electronic music

Computer music

Between 1975 and 1990, a shift in the paradigm of computer technology had taken place, making electronic music systems affordable and widely accessible. The personal computer had become an essential component of the electronic musician's equipment, superseding analog synthesizers and fulfilling the traditional functions of composition and scoring, synthesis and sound processing, sampling of audio input, and control over external equipment.^[13]^{[needs update]}

Music theatre

Spectral music

Polystylism (eclecticism)

Some authors equate polystylism with eclecticism, while others make a sharp distinction.^[14]

Post-modernism

Minimalism and post-minimalism

Historicism

Musical historicism—the use of historical materials, structures, styles, techniques, media, conceptual content, etc., whether by a single composer or those associated with a particular school, movement, or period—is evident to varying degrees in minimalism, post-minimalism, world-music, and other genres in which tonal traditions have been sustained or have undergone a significant revival in recent decades.^[15] Some post-minimalist works employ medieval and other genres associated with early music, such as the "Oi me lasso" and other laude of Gavin Bryars.

The historicist movement is closely related to the emergence of musicology and the early music revival. A number of historicist composers have been influenced by their intimate familiarity with the instrumental practices of earlier periods (Hendrik Bouman, Grant Colburn, Michael Talbot, Paulo Galvão, Roman Turovsky-Savchuk). The musical historicism movement has also been stimulated by the formation of such international organizations as the Delian Society and Vox Saeculorum.^[16]

Art rock influence

Some composers have emerged since the 1980s who are influenced by art rock, for example, Rhys Chatham.^[17]

New Simplicity

New Complexity

New Complexity is a current within today's^[when?] European contemporary avant-garde music scene, named in reaction to the New Simplicity. Amongst the candidates suggested for having coined the term are the composer Nigel Osborne, the Belgian musicologist Harry Halbreich, and the British/Australian musicologist Richard Toop, who gave currency to the concept of a movement with his article "Four Facets of the New Complexity".^[18]

Though often atonal, highly abstract, and dissonant in sound, the "New Complexity" is most readily characterized by the use of techniques which require complex musical notation. This includes extended techniques, microtonality, odd tunings, highly disjunct melodic contour, innovative timbres, complex polyrhythms, unconventional instrumentations, abrupt changes in loudness and intensity, and so on.^[19] The diverse group of composers writing in this style includes Richard Barrett, Brian Ferneyhough, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, James Dillon, Michael Finnissy, James Erber, and Roger Redgate.

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Opera

Notable composers of operas since 1975 include:

Cinema and television

Notable composers of post-1945 classical film and television scores include:^[22]^[23]

Contemporary classical music originally written for the concert hall can also be heard on the music track of some films, such as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999), both of which used concert music by György Ligeti, and also in Kubrick's The Shining (1980) which used music by both Ligeti and Krzysztof Penderecki.^[25] Jean-Luc Godard, in La Chinoise (1967), Nicolas Roeg in Walkabout (1971), and the Brothers Quay in In Absentia (2000) used music by Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Chamber

Some notable works for chamber orchestra:

Composition for Twelve Instruments (1948, rev. 1954) – Milton Babbitt
Concerto for seven wind instruments, timpani, percussion, and string orchestra (1949) – Frank Martin
Drei Lieder (1950) – Karlheinz Stockhausen
Nummer 2 (1951) – Karel Goeyvaerts
Oiseaux exotiques (1956) – Olivier Messiaen
Requiem for strings (1957) – Tōru Takemitsu
Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960) – Krzysztof Penderecki
Double Concerto for harpsichord and piano with two chamber orchestras (1961) – Elliott Carter
Stop (1965) – Karlheinz Stockhausen
Fantasia for Strings (1966) – Hans Werner Henze
Ojikawa (1968) – Claude Vivier
Concerto for clarinet and vibraphone with six instrumental formations (1968) – Jean Barraqué
Ramifications (1968–69) – György Ligeti
Compases para preguntas ensimismadas (1970) – Hans Werner Henze
Recital I (for Cathy) (1972) – Luciano Berio
Trois airs pour un opéra imaginaire (1982) – Claude Vivier
Guitar Concerto No. 2 for guitar and strings (1985) – Alan Hovhaness
Invocation for Oboe and Guitar (1993) – Apostolos Paraskevas
Kol-Od (1996) – Luciano Berio
Asko Concerto (2000) – Elliott Carter
Dialogues for piano and chamber orchestra (2003) – Elliott Carter
Fünf Sternzeichen (2004) – Karlheinz Stockhausen
Fünf weitere Sternzeichen (2007) – Karlheinz Stockhausen
Diário das Narrativas Fantásticas (2019) – Caio Facó

Concert bands (wind ensembles)

In recent years, many composers have composed for concert bands (also called wind ensembles). Notable composers include:

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The following is an incomplete list of contemporary-music festivals:

Ars Musica, Brussels, Belgium
Bang on a Can Marathon
Big Ears Festival
Darmstädter Ferienkurse
Donaueschingen Festival
Festival Atempo [es] in Caracas, Venezuela
Gaudeamus Foundation Music Week in Amsterdam
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
Lucerne Festival in Switzerland
MATA Festival in New York
Music Biennale Zagreb
Musica (French music festival)
New Music Gathering
November Music in 's Hertogenbosch (the Netherlands)
Other Minds in San Francisco
Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival, Plymouth
Warsaw Autumn in Poland
George Enescu Festival in Romania
Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, California

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List of contemporary classical ensembles

[1]
Whittall 2001.
[2]
Schwartz & Godfrey 1993, ch. 7: "Order and Chaos", pp. 78ff.
[3]
Manning 2004, pp. 19ff.
[4]
Schwartz & Godfrey 1993, p. 325.
[5]
Schwartz & Godfrey 1993, pp. 289ff.
[6]
"Master of Music in Contemporary Classical Music Performance". Archived from the original on October 27, 2019. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
[7]
Bandur 2001, pp. 5, 10–11.
[8]
Straus 1999, pp. 303, 307–308, 310–11, 314–329.
[9]
Botstein 2001, §9.
[10]
Schwartz 1994, p. 199
[11]
Anderson 1992, 18.
[12]
Johnson 2001.
[13]
Holmes 2008, p. 272.
[14]
OED, entry "Polystylistic", quoting Christian & Cornwall's Guide to Russian Literature (1998): "Zhdanov is eclectic; he mixes high poetic, archaic, scientific and everyday realities without imposing any hierarchy. His manner may be called ‘polystylistic’", and entry "Polystylist", quoting Musical America, November 1983: "An eclectic only passively collects material from different sources, but a polystylist puts together what he collects, consciously, in a new way."
[15]
Watkins 1994, pp. 440–442, 446–448.
[16]
Colburn 2007, pp. 36–45, 54–55.
[17]
Chatham 1994.
[18]
Toop 1988.
[19]
Fox, Christopher (January 20, 2001). "New Complexity". Grove Music Online.
[20]
Huss, Christopher (1 June 2023). ""L'homme qui rit": la poignante sincérité d'Airat Ichmouratov". www.ledevoir.com. Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
[21]
장석용 (3 January 2024). "엄대호의 '영혼의 울림' 통한 예수의 수난과 죽음…탐욕에 빠진 인간에 대한 '구원의 음률'". g-enews.com. p. 14. Archived from the original on 3 January 2024. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
[22]
Goldmark, Daniel. 2019. The Grove Music Guide to American Film Music. Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-063626-2
[23]
Craggs, Stewart R. 2020 Soundtracks. International Dictionary of Composers of Music for Film ISBN 978-1-138-36271-0
[24]
Tangcay, Jazz (May 25, 2021). "Oscar Winner Hans Zimmer Signs With CAA". Variety.com. Variety. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved October 26, 2021. Proves notability.
[25]
Platt, Russell (August 12, 2008). "Clarke, Kubrick, and Ligeti: A Tale". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on March 18, 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023.

Sources

Anderson, Martin (June 1992). "A Conversation with Kalevi Aho". Tempo. new series (181 (Scandinavian Issue)): 16–18. doi:10.1017/S0040298200015138.
Bandur, Markus (2001). Aesthetics of Total Serialism: Contemporary Research from Music to Architecture. Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser. ISBN 3-7643-6449-1.
Botstein, Leon (2001). "Modernism". In Stanley Sadie; John Tyrrell (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (second ed.). London: Macmillan.
Chatham, Rhys. 1994. "Composer's Notebook 1990: Toward a Musical Agenda for the Nineties", with "Postscript, Summer 1994". Rhys Chatham website. (Accessed 20 January 2010)
Colburn, Grant (Summer 2007). "A New Baroque Revival". Early Music America. 13 (2): 36–45, 54–55.
Holmes, Thomas B. (2008). Electronic and Experimental Music: Pioneers in Technology and Composition (3rd ed.). London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-95781-6.
Johnson, Stephen (2001). "MacMillan, James (Loy)". In Stanley Sadie; John Tyrrell (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (second ed.). London: Macmillan.
Manning, Peter (2004). Electronic and Computer Music (revised and expanded ed.). Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514484-8.
Schwartz, Elliott; Godfrey, Daniel (1993). Music Since 1945: Issues, Materials, and Literature. New York; Toronto: Schirmer; Maxwell Macmillan Canada. ISBN 0-02-873040-2.
Schwartz, Elliott (Summer 1994). "European Journal, 1993". Perspectives of New Music. 32 (2): 292–299. doi:10.2307/833614. JSTOR 833614.
Straus, Joseph. N. (Autumn 1999). "The Myth of Serial 'Tyranny' in the 1950s and 1960s". The Musical Quarterly. 83 (3): 301–343. doi:10.1093/mq/83.3.301.
Toop, Richard (March 1988). "Four Facets of the 'New Complexity'". Contact: A Journal for Contemporary Music (32): 4–8. doi:10.25602/GOLD.cj.v0i32.1284.
Watkins, Glenn (1994). Pyramids at the Louvre: Music, Culture, and Collage from Stravinsky to the Postmodernists. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-74083-1.
Whittall, Arnold (2001). "Neo-Classicism". Grove Music Online. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.19723. (Subscription access)

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Cardoso-Firmo, Ana. 2011. "La Cantatrice Chauve de Jean-Philippe Calvin". In Dramaturgies de l'Absurde en France et au Portugal, ^{[full citation needed]}, pp. 199–203. Paris: Université de Paris 8.
Chute, James. 2001. "Torke, Michael." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
Cross, Jonathan. 2001. "Turnage, Mark-Anthony". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
Danuser, Hermann. 1984. Die Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts: mit 108 Notenbeispielen, 130 Abbildungen und 2 Farbtafeln. Neues Handbuch der Musikwissenschaft 7. Laaber: Laaber-Verlag. ISBN 3-89007-037-X
Dibelius, Ulrich [de]. 1998. Moderne Musik Nach 1945. Munich: Piper Verlag. ISBN 3-492-04037-3 (pbk.)
Du Noyer, Paul (ed.) (2003), "Contemporary" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music. London: Flame Tree, ISBN 1-904041-70-1
Duckworth, William. 1995. Talking Music: Conversations with John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Five Generations of American Experimental Composers. New York: Schirmer Books; London: Prentice-Hall International. ISBN 0-02-870823-7 Reprinted 1999, New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80893-5
Dufallo, Richard. 1989. Trackings: Composers Speak with Richard Dufallo. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505816-X
Gagne, Cole. 1990. Sonic Transports: New Frontiers in Our Music. New York: de Falco Books. ISBN 0-9625145-0-0
Gagne, Cole. 1993. Soundpieces 2: Interviews with American Composers. Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-2710-7
Gagne, Cole and Tracy Caras. 1982. Soundpieces: Interviews with American Composers. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-1474-9
Gagne, Nicole V. 2019. Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music, second edition. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781538122976
Gann, Kyle. 1997. American Music in the Twentieth Century. New York: Schirmer Books; London: Prentice Hall International. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning ISBN 0-02-864655-X.
Griffiths, Paul. 1995. Modern Music And After: Directions Since 1945. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816578-1 (cloth) ISBN 0-19-816511-0 (pbk.) Rev. ed. of: Modern Music: The Avant Garde Since 1945 (1981)
Lucier, Alvin, ed. 2018. Eight Lectures on Experimental Music. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 9780819577634
Morgan, Robert P. 1991. Twentieth-century Music: A History of Musical Style in Modern Europe and America. New York: Norton. ISBN 0-393-95272-X
New Music: Music since 1950. 1978. Vienna: Universal Edition. N.B.: Biography-bibliography dictionary. Without ISBN
Nyman, Michael. 1999. Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond. Second edition. Music in the 20th century. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-65297-9 ISBN 0-521-65383-5 (pbk.)
Rockwell, John. 1984. All American Music. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-394-72246-9 (pbk)
Schwartz, Elliott, and Barney Childs (eds.), with Jim Fox. 1998. Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music. Expanded edition. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80819-6
Smith Brindle, Reginald. 1987. The New Music: The Avant-Garde since 1945. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-315471-4 (cloth) ISBN 0-19-315468-4 (pbk.)
Whittall, Arnold. 1999. Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816684-2 (cloth) ISBN 0-19-816683-4 (pbk.)
Whittall, Arnold. 2003. Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81642-4 (cloth) ISBN 0-521-01668-1 (pbk)

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https://www.classical-music.gr/ – Contemporary Classical Music Radio
Sussurro – Contemporary Brazilian music
Gateway to contemporary music resources in France Archived 2021-06-12 at the Wayback Machine
highSCORE Festival
"Guide to contemporary music", Bachtrack

[FOOTNOTEWhittall2001-1] [1]
Whittall 2001.

[FOOTNOTESchwartzGodfrey1993ch._7:_"Order_and_Chaos",_pp._78ff-2] [2]
Schwartz & Godfrey 1993, ch. 7: "Order and Chaos", pp. 78ff.

[FOOTNOTEManning200419ff-3] [3]
Manning 2004, pp. 19ff.

[FOOTNOTESchwartzGodfrey1993325-4] [4]
Schwartz & Godfrey 1993, p. 325.

[FOOTNOTESchwartzGodfrey1993289ff-5] [5]
Schwartz & Godfrey 1993, pp. 289ff.

[6] [6]
"Master of Music in Contemporary Classical Music Performance". Archived from the original on October 27, 2019. Retrieved October 11, 2018.

[FOOTNOTEBandur20015,_10–11-7] [7]
Bandur 2001, pp. 5, 10–11.

[FOOTNOTEStraus1999303,_307–308,_310–11,_314–329-8] [8]
Straus 1999, pp. 303, 307–308, 310–11, 314–329.

[FOOTNOTEBotstein2001§9-9] [9]
Botstein 2001, §9.

[schwartz-10] [10]
Schwartz 1994, p. 199

[FOOTNOTEAnderson199218-11] [11]
Anderson 1992, 18.

[FOOTNOTEJohnson2001-12] [12]
Johnson 2001.

[FOOTNOTEHolmes2008272-13] [13]
Holmes 2008, p. 272.

[14] [14]
OED, entry "Polystylistic", quoting Christian & Cornwall's Guide to Russian Literature (1998): "Zhdanov is eclectic; he mixes high poetic, archaic, scientific and everyday realities without imposing any hierarchy. His manner may be called ‘polystylistic’", and entry "Polystylist", quoting Musical America, November 1983: "An eclectic only passively collects material from different sources, but a polystylist puts together what he collects, consciously, in a new way."

[FOOTNOTEWatkins1994440–442,_446–448-15] [15]
Watkins 1994, pp. 440–442, 446–448.

[FOOTNOTEColburn200736–45,_54–55-16] [16]
Colburn 2007, pp. 36–45, 54–55.

[FOOTNOTEChatham1994-17] [17]
Chatham 1994.

[FOOTNOTEToop1988-18] [18]
Toop 1988.

[19] [19]
Fox, Christopher (January 20, 2001). "New Complexity". Grove Music Online.

[20] [20]
Huss, Christopher (1 June 2023). ""L'homme qui rit": la poignante sincérité d'Airat Ichmouratov". www.ledevoir.com. Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 20 September 2023.

[21] [21]
장석용 (3 January 2024). "엄대호의 '영혼의 울림' 통한 예수의 수난과 죽음…탐욕에 빠진 인간에 대한 '구원의 음률'". g-enews.com. p. 14. Archived from the original on 3 January 2024. Retrieved 13 January 2024.

[22] [22]
Goldmark, Daniel. 2019. The Grove Music Guide to American Film Music. Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-063626-2

[23] [23]
Craggs, Stewart R. 2020 Soundtracks. International Dictionary of Composers of Music for Film ISBN 978-1-138-36271-0

[zimmer-24] [24]
Tangcay, Jazz (May 25, 2021). "Oscar Winner Hans Zimmer Signs With CAA". Variety.com. Variety. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved October 26, 2021. Proves notability.

[25] [25]
Platt, Russell (August 12, 2008). "Clarke, Kubrick, and Ligeti: A Tale". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on March 18, 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

Background

1945–75

Neoromanticism

High modernism

Electronic music

Computer music

Music theatre

Spectral music

Polystylism (eclecticism)

Post-modernism

Minimalism and post-minimalism

Historicism

Art rock influence

New Simplicity

New Complexity

Opera

Cinema and television

Chamber

Concert bands (wind ensembles)

Sources

Background

1945–75

Neoromanticism

High modernism

Electronic music

Computer music

Music theatre

Spectral music

Polystylism (eclecticism)

Post-modernism

Minimalism and post-minimalism

Historicism

Art rock influence

New Simplicity

New Complexity

Opera

Cinema and television

Chamber

Concert bands (wind ensembles)

Sources

History

Movements

Developments by medium

Festivals

See also

Notes

Further reading

External links