Contemporary classical music

In the broadest sense, contemporary music is any music being written in the present day. In the context of classical music the term has been applied to music written in the last quarter century or so, particularly works post-1975. There is debate over whether the term should be used to apply to music in any style, or only to composers writing avant-garde music, or only to "modernist" music. There is some use of "Contemporary" as a synonym for "Modern", particularly in academic settings. A more restrictive use applies the term only to living composers and their works (perhaps only their recent works). Since "contemporary" is a word that describes a time frame, rather than a style or a unifying idea, there are no universally agreed criteria for making these distinctions.

History

In the early part of the 20th century contemporary music included modernism, the twelve tone technique, atonality, unresolved and greater amounts of dissonance, rhythmic complexity and neoclassicism. In the '50s contemporary music generally meant serialism, in the '60s serialism, indeterminacy, electronic music including computer music, mixed media, performance art, and fluxus, and since then minimal music, post-minimalism, and all of the above.

Since the 1970s there has been increasing stylistic variety, with far too many schools to name or label. However, in general, there are three broad trends. The first is the continuation of modern avant-garde traditions, including musical experimentalism. The second are schools which sought to revitalize a tonal style based on previous common practice. The third focuses on non-functional triadic harmony, exemplified by composers working in the minimalist and related traditions.

Contemporary music composition has been altered with growing force by computers in composition, which allow for composers to listen to renderings of their scores before performance, compose by layering performed parts over each other and to disseminate scores over the internet. It is far too soon to tell what the final result of this wave of computerization will have as an effect on music.

All history is provisional, and contemporary history even more so, because of the well known problems of dissemination and social power. Who is "in" and who is "out" is often more important to who is known than the music itself. In an era with perhaps as many as 40,000 composers of concert music in the United States alone, first performances are difficult, and second performances even more so. The lesson of obscure composers in the past becoming important later applies doubly so to contemporary music, where it is likely that there are "firsts" before the officially listed first, and works which will be later admired as exemplars of style, which are as yet, unheralded in their own time.

Movements in contemporary music

Modernism

Main article: Modernism (music)

Many of the key figures of the high modern movement are alive, or only recently deceased and there is also still an extremely active core of composers, performers and listeners who continue to advance the ideas and forms of Modernism. Elliot Carter is still active, for example, as is Lukas Foss. While high modernist schools of composing, such as serialism are no longer as rhetorically central, the contemporary period is beginning the process of sorting through the modern corpus, looking for works which will have repertory value.

Modernism is also present as surface or trope in works of a large range of composers, as atonality has lost much of its ability to terrorize listeners, and even film scores use sections of music clearly rooted in modernist musical language. Active modernist composers include Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Judith Weir, Thomas Adès, Magnus Lindberg and Gunther Schuller.

Serialism

One of the most important post war movement led by Pierre Boulez and composers such as Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Compositions use patterns, these may be retrograded, inverted or both. These patterns are the basis for the whole composition. There may be several short patterns used as templates.

Post-modernism

Main article: Postmodern music

Post-modernism is, naturally, a strong influence in contemporary classical music. One critic remarked that the easiest way to find "post-modernism" is to find the word "new" or the prefix "post-" attached to the name of a movement. However, in an era where media, systematic presentation, and power relationships remain the dominant reality for most people born in to the core industrialized nations, post-modernism is likely to remain the most common mode for artistic expression.

Polystylism

Polystylism is the use of multiple styles or techniques of music, and is seen as a postmodern characteristic. Polystylist composers include Lera Auerbach, George Rochberg, Dmitri Silnitsky, Alfred Schnittke, and John Zorn. See: postmodern music.

Conceptualism

When Duchamp displayed a urinal in an art museum, he struck the most visible blow for artistic conceptualism. Music conceptualism found a champion in John Cage. A conceptualist work is an act whose musical importance draws from the frame, rather than the content of the work. An example would be Alvin Singleton's 56 Blows, a work that has the distinction of being mentioned in debate on the floor of the Senate.

Minimalism and post-minimalism

Main articles: Minimalist music, Post-minimalism

The minimalist generation still has a prominent role in new composition. Philip Glass has been expanding his symphony cycle, while John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls, a choral work commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks won a Pulitzer Prize. Steve Reich has explored electronic opera (most notably in Three Tales) and Terry Riley has been active in composing instrumental music and music theatre. But beyond the minimalists themselves, the tropes of non-functional triadic harmony are now commonplace, even among composers who are not regarded as minimalists per se.

Many composers are expanding the resources of minimalist music to include rock and world instrumentation and rhythms, serialism, and many other techniques. Kyle Gann considers William Duckworth's Time Curve Preludes as the first "post-minimalism" piece, and labels John Adams as a "post-minimalist" composer, rather than as a minimalist. Gann defines "post-minimalism" as the search for greater harmonic and rhythmic complexity by composers such as Mikel Rouse and Glenn Branca. Another notable characteristic is storytelling and emotional expression taking precedence over technique. Post-minimalism is also ^* a movement in painting and sculpture which began in the late 1960s. (See lumpers/splitters)

Post classic tonality

Other aspects of post-modernity can be seen in a "post-classic" tonality that has advocates such as Michael Daugherty, Elena Kats-Chernin and Tan Dun.

Eclecticism

With a wide range of styles in performance, many contemporary composers work by combining styles, a technique known as polystylism, or even multiple genres of music. One influential composer in this vein is John Zorn.

World music

Main article: World music

An increasing number of composers mix western and non-western instruments, including gamelan from Indonesia, Chinese traditional instruments, ragas from Indian Classical music. There is also an exploration of non-Western tonalities, even in relatively traditionally structured works. This can be in the context of post-minimalist works, such as Janice Giteck's Balinese influenced works, or in the context of post-classic tonality, such as in the music of Bright Sheng, or in the context of thoroughly modernist styled works.

Experimentalism

Main article: Experimental music

One important movement in contemporary music involves expanding the range of gestures available to instrumentalists, for example the work of George Crumb. The Kronos Quartet has been among the most active ensembles in promoting contemporary works for string quartet, and they take delight in music which stretches the manner in which sound can be drawn out of instruments.

Electronic music

Main article: Electronic music

Electronics are now part of mainstream music creation. Performances of regular works often use midi synthesizers to back or replace regular musicians. Looping, sampling, and (rarely) drum machines may also be used. However the older idea of electronic music - as a search for pure sound and an interaction with the hardware itself - continues to find a place in composition, from commercially successful pieces to works targeted at very narrow audiences.

Neo-Romanticism

Main article: Neoromanticism

The resurgence of the vocabulary of extended tonality which flourished in the first years of the 20th century continues in the contemporary period, though it is no longer considered shocking or controversial as such. Composers working in the neoromantic vein include John Corigliano, George Rochberg, and David Del Tredici.

"New Complexity"

Main article: New Complexity

"New Complexity" is a current within today's European contemporary avant-garde music scene. Among this diverse group are Richard Barrett, Brian Ferneyhough, James Dillon and Michael Finnissy.

Spectral Music

Main article: Spectral music

Epitomized by the works of Tristan Murail, Gérard Grisey, and Claude Vivier.

Contemporary music festivals

There are a number of festivals dedicated to contemporary music, among them the Gaudeamus Foundation Music Week in Amsterdam, Salzburg Aspekte, the Donaueschingen Festival of Contemporary Music and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

Contemporary music and cinema

Contemporary classical music can be heard in film scores such as Tan Dun's original score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Philip Glass's score for The Hours and kundun, as well as his scores for Godfrey Reggio's Quatsi Trilogy of films: Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi; Michael Nyman's scores for Peter Greenaway's films and Shigeru Kan-no's score for Der Rosarote Elefant. Other directors have used contemporary music as source music as Stanley Kubrick did in A Space Odyssey (film) and The Shining with music by György Ligeti and Krzysztof Penderecki.

External links

NewMusicBox.org: The Century List: 100 Reasons to Play This Century's Music 20 Under 20-Minute Works by Living American Composers Ready to be Programmed Now compiled by Frank J. Oteri
Ircam Paris
Art of the States
Contemporary Classical, Internet radio

Publishers