Dope contemporary music

[mjames]

OK. I know a made a thread about pissing on contemporary/post-modern piano music but I'd like to clarify that I'm actually glad I'm taking this piano course. It introduced me to SOOO many things outside of the "brahms mozart chopin etc" classical box that so many of us confine ourselves to. So I'd like to take a moment to post an awesome "classical" contemporary piece that I recently fell in love with. Its a theme and variations in so MANY styles such as: "weird avante garde" style, baroque style, romanticism, impressionism, jazz etc etc, and the variations are detailed as ***!!!

its also really badass. hope some of you will enjoy this as much as I did:

[medtnaculus]

Never made much of an impact on me. There was one section which I liked (var 13) but the rest wasn't my cup o' tea. Not a fan of hitting the piano either in music. Always comes off to me as really cheesy or unnecessary.

Kapustin is really my fav contemporary. If you can count Patrick Piggott too I'd say him but he's dead.

[visitor]

Selections from this dope set
Ryabov op 81 wall calendar, 12 characteristic pieces. These as a set are actually another side to a coin, the flip side being tchaikovsky seasons.

She does some and velow is the full list

Full Song List
MERRY CHRISTMAS
FEBRUARY OF BORIS PASTERNAK
MARCH OF ISAAK LEVITAN
THE MOUNT SINAI CEMETARY
LILY OF THE VALLEY
HOUSE IN BERGEN
JULY RAIN
ON THE DAY OF ASSUMPTION
LULLABY TO THE COMPOSER
PLACE VENDOME IN PARIS
UNDER THE CONSTELLATION OF SCORPIO
TO THE FAIR LADIES

n Rus. and Eng. Twelve characteristic pieces associated with The Seasons of Peter Tchaikovsky, Op. 27. In the opinion of the composer, The Wall Calendar could be performed together with The Seasons and therefore comprise a recital. Score, 26 p.
Copyright: Moscow, Russia: Edition Jurgenson ©2008

[medtnaculus]

Always thought it was cool that Boris Pasternak was originally a composer before turning to writing. He has a fine sonata from when he was only 19. Who knows what else he could have done. It's very Scriabinesque.

[huaidongxi]

good to know that the anthem for popular resistance movements continues to inspire.  my favorite arrangement is by Carla Bley for the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I have a soft spot for Carl Vine

[visitor]

Vilma CIRULE plays FOUR MINIATURES by  LICITE (1889 - 1966)
*pretty sure these are >1900
1. Intermezzo
2. In Autumn (4:29)
3. Quasi Valse in A Major (7:25)
4. Allegretto capriccioso (11:14)
Recorded in Riga, Latvia

*btw fabulous under appreciated pianist, love just about everything i have ever heard her played

[outin]

Vilma CIRULE plays FOUR MINIATURES by  LICITE (1889 - 1966)
*pretty sure these are >1900
1. Intermezzo
2. In Autumn (4:29)
3. Quasi Valse in A Major (7:25)
4. Allegretto capriccioso (11:14)
Recorded in Riga, Latvia

Very nice! Another composer I've never heard of...

[worov]

Richard Rodney Bennett : Taking a line for a walk :

[distantfieldrelative]

I do not think that the kind of music that we would generally enjoy is any longer belonging to the instrumental animal.

I think that digitally created music can be at times just as appealing to us. However it is hard to find good digital music.

Here are a few that I enjoy from time to time.

Die Antwoord:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ArQae1pbCw4

N'To:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lPVBrRd9wCo

They may be more minimalist but they are enjoyable none the less.

[mjames]

THIS IS SO FREAKIN RAD

Stuff like this legit make me want to study music seriously.

[theholygideons]

THIS IS SO FREAKIN RAD

Stuff like this legit make me want to study music seriously.

You're bad, dude.

[mjames]

I'm a faggot.

I know.

[lalo57]

I really love Lera Auerbach and have always enjoyed Gubaidulina s chaconne. Also give Kaija Saariaho s Ballade a listen. I also like Kasputin very much but I tend to like contemporary music better if I can play it and I think his music tends to be just way too hard.

[medtnaculus]

Ferroud really stretches the piano to its limits, harmonically and technically, with some of his works.

[visitor]

let do some dope non piano music.

Hearshen's symphony on themes of john phillip sousa for wind band is super dope (love wind ensemble music, i used to play principle chair in for a low brass back in the day)

IRA HEARSHEN  
(b 1948 )

Hearshen moved to Los Angeles in 1972 and started playing trumpet on casuals and the Latino club scene. He started studying commercial and film music at the Grove School with teachers such as Kim Richmond, Allyn Ferguson, Dick Grove, and Albert Harris. It was through studying orchestration privately with Harris that Hearshen got his first opportunity for TV/film work. In 1983 Harris recommended Ira to composer Joe Harnell who needed orchestration help on two concurrent series he had going; Cliffhangers and The Incredible Hulk. It was this experience that began Hearshen’s career as a film music arranger/orchestrator.

He has steadily worked since as an arranger/orchestrator in motion pictures, TV, and recordings, for such composers as Randy Newman, Lalo Schifrin, John Debney, Stanley Clarke, Lee Holdridge and others. His most recent credits include all of the rhythm section arrangements of orchestral film cues in the upcoming release Undercover Brother, many cues including the final action sequence in The Scorpion King, and the complete orchestral scores for both Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2, as well as orchestrations on A Bug’s Life and Toy Story 2, which included the Sinatra-style arrangement of the movie’s theme You’ve Got a Friend in Me by Randy Newman, sung by Robert Goulet. He was also coorchestrator on Monsters Inc. and was the arranger for both the rhythm section and the orchestra on If I Didn’t Have You, which won Randy Newman the Oscar for best song at the 2001 Motion Picture Academy Awards. Most recently, he has arranged the strings for composer/bassist Stanley Clarke’s forthcoming album.

Hearshen’s works for the concert stage include the original compositions Symphony on Themes of John Philip Sousa, a 45-minute four-movement Symphony nominated for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in music, Divertimento for Band, a Patriotic Overture and Fantasia on the Army Blue commissioned by the US Army Field Band to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the founding of the West Point Military Academy.

It is Hearshen’s sincere belief that not only is the art of music arranging not ‘dead’ as some would have us believe, but is more alive than ever, as it is changing with the times in the new world of electronics, world music, computers, the internet and multimedia entertainment.

© 2013 Naxos Rights US, Inc. — Lowell E. Graham (HEARSHEN Symphony on Themes by John Philip Sousa, Divertimento for Band, Naxos 8.573041)

[visitor]

Henry Martin's inventions and the preludes and fugues are dope (as is his other character pieces)

the sonata is fabulous

[pianoworthy]

Never made much of an impact on me. There was one section which I liked (var 13) but the rest wasn't my cup o' tea. Not a fan of hitting the piano either in music. Always comes off to me as really cheesy or unnecessary.

Kapustin is really my fav contemporary. If you can count Patrick Piggott too I'd say him but he's dead.

Damn, I felt the same at first, but it grew on me a LOT. Like I honestly think it's the greatest theme and variations piece since Brahms (or sliced bread). There's a sense of cohesion, even throughout the most serial parts of the piece.

[isaacmalitz]

Info that is hopefully useful to some Forum members:
A short list of a few highly-regarded contemporary composers and performers.

This isn't intended to be any kind of definitive list of "the best".

Rather, it is a list of musicians where there seems to be a consensus that they are excellent, and where there are many listeners who enjoy their work.

I have compiled this list based on my work with www.MondayEveningConcerts.org , a long-established music series in Los Angeles that deals mainly with "new" music. These are names that pop up frequently.

All that I will guaranty is that the following names are a good "starting point" for anyone who wants to begin exploring the world of contemporary music. And it is a wonderful, fast-evolving world!

[forgive my occasionally hyperbolic prose   ]

COMPOSERS

[1] Arvo Part.  It seems that everyone loves Arvo Part. Fur Alina is a miraculous but also a shockingly simple piece of piano music.

[2] Galina Ustvolskaya: She has a reputation among some as the most fearsome and demanding composer of our time. She started out as a student of Shostakovich, who declared her to be the better composer. She devoted her careeer to writing a small number of masterpieces. https://www.google.com/#q=ustvolskaya    

U's 6 piano sonatas are beautifully composed and all-encompasing; fairly accessible technically, but endlessly challenging and fascinating from an artistic POV.

[3] Gyorgy Kurtag: He has written many exquisite short pieces for piano. Also some fabulous arrangements of Bach for piano 4 hands. Here is a recital of his work, played by Gyorgy and his wife Marta .

 
Listen to the Bach arrangement at 21:55 and you will fall in love ...

PERFORMERS
If you listen to what these performers have recorded, you be be introduced to a wide range of outstanding contemporary music.

[4] Marino Formenti. piano

Renowned for his musicality, technical skill, passion/concentration, and always-beautiful sound. A vast repertoire.
No compromises, no limits for Marino.

[5] Gloria Cheng, piano

Exquisite in her tastes, her imagination, her technical skill and craftsmanship, her piano sound.
She won a Grammy a few years back.

[6] Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin

Passionate, charismatic, an ultra-virtuoso, with a vast range of interests and accomplishments. Including but certainly not limited to contemporary music.

[7] Severine Ballon, cello

Young and highly renowned, she is almost entirely focused on music of living composers - many of whom she collaborates with in preparation of performances. Charismatic and uncompromising !

INSPIRATION FROM BOULEZ

"Just listen with the vastness of the world in mind. You can't fail to get the message."
-- Pierre Boulez

[visitor]

this is so cool! 

[visitor]

this too!!!!
composer born 1959, has some cool modern neoimpressionist sounds!

[visitor]

here's is III frm Guillaume Connesson's awesome little piano concertino that Ragna commissioned for her Handel album, where she premiered it. I'm looking to get this so i can listen to it but this is super dope.
sort of like  a  sprinkle of ravel, prokofiev, barber, and a dash of kapustin all in a fun little package

[visitor]

thread is worth updating with more honorable mentions and entries.
Stephen Hartke is well respected, awarded and recognized and as someone to pay attention to in the contemporary/modern classical space.
https://music.usc.edu/stephen-hartke/
Just listen to his 2nd movement from the piano sonata sub-titled
. Scherzo: Epicycles, Tap-dancing, and a Soft Shoe - Deft and lively -

https://www.stephenhartke.com/

[kalospiano]

sorry, gotta reopen this thread after casually discovering and falling in love with the piece "Piano Folio... To A Disappeared Pleiad" from 1997, by Takashi Yoshimatsu. It has been a long time since a piece has impressed me this much.