Most Important Modern Piano Literature

[soliloquy]

What pieces would people here classify as some of the most important modern piano pieces ever written?  Barraque Sonate?  Otte Das Buch der Klange?  Murail Territoires de l'Oubli?  Cage Sonatas and Interludes?  Xenakis Evryali?  Finnissy English County Tunes?  Kurtag Jatekok?  Ghelhaar Suite for Piano?


Discuss rigorously!

[cygnusdei]

[jre58591]

from which years to which years? after i get an answer, ill give some of my picks, which might coincide with yours.

[soliloquy]

from which years to which years? after i get an answer, ill give some of my picks, which might coincide with yours.

Post-Darmstadt and forward.

[jre58591]

ok, heres my list:

bolcom selected rags, 12 new etudes
boulez troisičme sonate
cage sonatas and interludes for prepared piano
kurtág játékok (maybe, have only heard selections)
messiaen catalogue d'oiseaux, des canyons aux étoiles, and many others
stockhausen klavierstucken

thats what i could think of off hand. the list goes on and on...

[sharon_f]

Ligeti Etudes

[opus10no2]

Hamelin's Fugue is just the right kind of modern.

[mephisto]

Ornstein and Sorabji's music is great imo. I do especially enjoy the 8th Sonata of Ornstein wich is a masterpiece.

And second the Hamelin Prelude & Fugue, it's a great piece.

[clavicembalisticum]

Considering the style you asked commenting upon, Ligeti, Sorabji, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Schnitke come up in my list. Just the names that pop up into mind when I first saw this post. There are without doubt others that may even get a higher preference score in this, but these are the first that came into mind.

[soliloquy]

Maybe I should clarify.


"Important".  Not "favorite".  Pieces that are/have been influential.

[clavicembalisticum]

Maybe I should clarify.


"Important".  Not "favorite".  Pieces that are/have been influential.

Yes I did understand that, but still, kind of hard. It is nearly impossible to say what is the most influential piece of literature as there is a time - political scale rearranging this continuously. Ever written? It is nearly impossible. You know that if 50.000.000 people say that something dumb is something important and go after it, it continues to stay dumb nonetheless.

Perhaps what remains a value from time to time and continues to thrive is considered influential under this point of view.

Very difficult here. Uniform consensus in art has many times proved to be a dreadful option.

[houseofblackleaves]

Kurtag's Jatekok are amazing.  So sad that they aren't known!

What about Rzewski's compositions?  Xenakis and Sorabji are probobly important....

[pies]

Ligeti's first micropolyphonic piece?