Counterpoint in 20th & 21st Century music

[abj]

I'm looking for composers that used, or pieces that incorporate, counterpoint, in 20th and 21st century music. I'm unfamiliar with more than half of the music written within the last 150 years, and, to be quite honest, I'm not interested in buying every CD by someone like Herbert Henck, trying to find music I like.

I tend to like any music with formal counterpoint, so I'm narrowing it down.

What I'm looking for, in short, are composers that have used counterpoint extensively in their music, or pieces, not fugues per se, that contain elements of counterpoint.

[lontano]

I'm looking for composers that used (or pieces that incorporate) counterpoint, in 20th and 21st century music. I know there are many, don't correct me, just list the pieces.

I'm unfamiliar with more than half of the music written within the last 150 years, and, to be quite honest, I'm not interested in buying every CD by Herbert Henck, in a desperate attempt to find music that I like.

I tend to like any music with what might be called formal counterpoint, so I'm narrowing it down.

What I'm looking for, in short, are composers that have used counterpoint extensively in their music, or pieces (not fugues per se) that contain elements of counterpoint.

I was recently on a similar quest (I realized I was mostly alone). I expect you may either be ignored or deluged with offers!

KS Sorabji wrote a few fugues, and other contrapuntal works that are a far pace from the norm. Just ask nearly anyone here for an opinion!

L.

[retrouvailles]

Paul Hindemith is someone who would be good to look at. He is sort of the "new Bach", who created many works that parallel those of Bach, such as his Ludus Tonalis (sort of a new WTC) or his Kammermusik series (sort of a new set of Brandenburg Concertos). He has 3 great piano sonatas and lots of other piano works.

Hindemith is just one of many, many composers to write in a predominately contrapuntal style. Just do some self-research on the subject and you will find something you really like. Hindemith has a reputation among some musicians as sounding too mechanical (I don't agree with this), so he may not be to your liking. I really like him, though.

[weissenberg2]

I really like Hindemith as well. Schoenberg and his pupils (E.G. Berg) have polyphonic/contrapunctal piano music that you should try out. And if I am not mistaking, Lyatoshynsky is contrapunctal.

[abj]

I'm familiar with Hindemith's works already, but not Lyatoshynsky's.

In regards to Sorabji: I am disinterested in his music,—but I've only heard Opus Clavicembalisticum and the Transcendental Studies that have been recorded by Fredrik Ullen.

Are there any more composers like Hindemith?

[retrouvailles]

Hindemith had a few students who really sounded like him and composed in a similar contrapuntal style. Two of the most notable examples are Normal Dello Joio and Halsey Stevens. Their piano music, as far as I've seen, is not as difficult as Hindemith's music. Dello Joio has three piano sonatas also, and they are not so difficult. Stevens has some small piano pieces which are rather nice, for example, a set of three preludes.

I wouldn't say that Lyatoshinsky is particularly contrapuntal. He is contrapuntal in the way that Rachmaninoff is contrapuntal (with a more modern harmonic language), and that isn't really that notable.

[richard black]

Ronald Stevenson has written lots of fugues. His fugue in 'Prelude, Fugue and Fantasy on themes from Busoni's Doktor Faust' is a particularly fine (and very strict) example.

Alan Bush also wrote a lot of contrapuntal music.

[lontano]

One major (and obvious) composer comes to mind: Shostakovich. His Preludes and Fugues, Op.87 are a landmark of 20th century counterpoint. He wrote some other smaller sets of contrapuntal piano music as well. Of course this music from Stalinist USSR which kept Shosty under its thumb, and it isn't "contemporary/modernist" is any real way, but there's a lot of fine counterpoint there. I hear that Jenny Lin has just released a new recording of the work.

L.

[retrouvailles]

Alan Bush also wrote a lot of contrapuntal music.

His music has been rather hard to track down for me, but I am definitely curious. Any good place to start?

[mikey6]

I wold have thought most composers would use counterpoint even in 20/21st century.
Bartok (string quartets), some of the Ligeti etudes, Shosta p/f, Berg chamber concerto...

[retrouvailles]

I wold have thought most composers would use counterpoint even in 20/21st century.
Bartok (string quartets), some of the Ligeti etudes, Shosta p/f, Berg chamber concerto...

Yeah, that's very true, which is why this was a difficult (and easy at the same time) question to answer. I think the original poster just needs to do some self-research to find something that he/she likes without the biases of anyone else so such open questions can be avoided. There are just too many works, and many of these suggestions are so general, but it is fitting, I suppose, for such a general question.

[sharmayelverton]

Bartok wrote some fugues for keyboard I belive, perhaps not as modern as you where wanting.

[lontano]

Bartok wrote some fugues for keyboard I belive, perhaps not as modern as you where wanting.

While Bartok certainly used counterpoint in many works, I'm unaware of any fugues for keyboard. His Sonata for Solo Violin has a very difficult fugue, but that's not the issue. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

L.

[thalbergmad]

Ronald Stevenson has written lots of fugues. His fugue in 'Prelude, Fugue and Fantasy on themes from Busoni's Doktor Faust' is a particularly fine (and very strict) example.

Alan Bush also wrote a lot of contrapuntal music.

Strange that you mention both of these composers as one of them wrote a book about the other. I bought it when i was in Hay on Wye.

Regretfully, i have chucked it in me loft and cannot remember who wrote it about whom and what exactly it was called.

Thal

[richard black]

His [Alan Bush's] music has been rather hard to track down for me, but I am definitely curious. Any good place to start?

The Alan Bush Trust

https://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/

is the obvious place to start, I guess. Sadly little of his music is currently available. Stainer and Bell has the rights to a fair amount and will make authorised photocopies available for anyone who asks, at quite reasonable prices in my experience. A small company recently published the (excellent) 24 Preludes. Otherwise it's down to secondhand shops and libraries.

As for the coincidence of mentioning Stevenson and Bush in one post, it's not really a coincidence at all since I tend to think of them together. They were in fact good friends and Stevenson edited a symposium on Bush, which is surely the book Thal is thinking of. It's a limited edition but not incredibly hard to find (I have one here).

Oh, and another obvious Stevenson piece I should have mentioned is the lovely 'Fugue on a Fragment of Chopin', available from the Ronald Stevenson Society.

[minor9th]

Elliott Carter's music is highly contrapuntal. His early Piano Sonata contains a fugue. His newer pieces are contrapuntal but not fugal.

[ahinton]

Strange that you mention both of these composers as one of them wrote a book about the other. I bought it when i was in Hay on Wye.

Regretfully, i have chucked it in me loft and cannot remember who wrote it about whom and what exactly it was called.

If you cannot recall who wrote the book about whom, your earlier statement that one of the two composer concerned (Ronald Stevenson and Alan Bush) wrote a book about the other seems not to hold much water.

Had you not chucked that book in what one can only assume is a somewhat inaccessible area of your loft space, you would have remembered that this book, Time Remembered (taken from the title of one of Bush's own works) is a compilation of articles and commentary on Alan Bush from numerous sources including Stevenson, for whom Bush's second piano sonata was written and who premièred said work.

That said, had I not already been in possession of a copy of said book, I would be so now, thanks to your most kind and generous offer of what has now instead found its way to said loft space.

Best,

Alistair

[avguste]

A few composers come to mind:

Carter Pann https://carterpann.com
Robert Rollin https://www.robertrollin.com/
Raina Murnak
Matthew Lewis
Till Meyn(his piano suite has a 2nd movement in Fugue)


I have performed all of those composers and most of the performances are available on my CDs.
As far as the Till Meyn piano suite, I havent released it, however I would be willing to include it in a CD for your benefit.

[retrouvailles]

Shostakovich was not the only one to write 24 Preludes and Fugues in the 20th century. There are many other examples and they include: Rodion Shchedrin, Nikolai Kapustin, Henry Martin, Sergei Slonimsky, and I am sure I am missing a few others. All of the other ones could definitely use a few more performances, for those 4 composers composers wrote some very good sets, all in different styles.

[john11inc]

Counterpoint, you say?

Lol.  Yeah, if you're looking for music that's actually contemporary, you're not going to find anything too much nicer than this, assuming you have an aversion to dissonance and atonality (I'm just assuming, seeing as how you're apparently unfamiliar with the entire past century and a half of music).  If you want something more... way more accessible, why not Reger or Busoni?  Also, any of the Neoclassical composers like Britten, Copland, Barber, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Kabalevsky etc.  Then some of the American "Futurist" composers and Polystylist composers like Cowell, Antheil, Ives, Schnittke, Gubaidulina, Rochberg, Davies, Shchedrin, Stravinsky, Ligeti etc.  There are just sooooo many.