In the broadest sense, contemporary music is any music being written in the present day. Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to a period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism.^[1] This article is about Western art music from 1000 AD to the 2000s . ... Early music is commonly defined as European classical music from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Baroque. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 to 1600. ... In music the common practice period is a long period in western musical history spanning from before the classical era proper to today, dated, on the outside, as 1600-1900. ... Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750. ... The Classical period in Western music occurred from about 1750 to 1820, despite considerable overlap at both ends with preceding and following periods, as is true for all musical eras. ... The era of Romantic music is defined as the period of European classical music that runs roughly from the early 1800s to the first decade of the 20th century, as well as music written according to the norms and styles of that period. ... 20th century classical music, the classical music of the 20th century, was extremely diverse, beginning with the late Romantic style of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Impressionism of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and continuing through the Neoclassicism of middle-period Igor Stravinsky, and ranging to such distant sound-worlds as the complete... In the broadest sense, contemporary music is any music being written in the present day. ... Modernism in musicis characterized by a desire for or belief in progressand science, surrealism, anti-romanticism, politicaladvocacy, general intellectualism, and/or a breaking with tradition or common practice. ...

History

Background

Main article: 20th century classical music 20th century classical music, the classical music of the 20th century, was extremely diverse, beginning with the late Romantic style of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Impressionism of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and continuing through the Neoclassicism of middle-period Igor Stravinsky, and ranging to such distant sound-worlds as the complete...

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 excesses of Romanticism, composers adopted a neoclassic style, which sought to recapture the elegance and emotional distance of the classical era^[2]; 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.^[3] Technological advances led to the birth of electronic music.^[4] Experimentation with tape loops and repetitive textures contributed to the advent of minimalism.^[5] Still other composers started exploring the theatrical potential of the musical performance (performance art, mixed media, fluxus).^[6] In music, a consonance (Latin consonare, sounding together) is a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance, which is considered unstable. ... Atonality describes music not conforming to the system of tonal hierarchies, which characterizes the sound of classical European music between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. ... For the subgenre of darkwave, see Neoclassical (Dark Wave). ... The New Objectivity, or neue Sachlichkeit (new matter-of-factness), was an art movement which arose in Germany during the 1920s as an outgrowth of, and in opposition to, expressionism. ... A Diego Rivera mural depicting factory workers in Detroit Social Realism is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts working class activities as heroic. ... Twelve-tone technique is a system of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. ... The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ... Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features. ... This article is about Performance art. ... Mixed media, in visual art, refers to an artwork in the making of which more than one medium has been employed. ... Fluxus – a name taken from a Latin word meaning to flow – is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. ...

Developments since the 1970s

Since the 1970s there has been increasing stylistic variety, with far too many schools to count, name or label. However, in general, there are four broad trends.

• The first is the continuation of modern avant-garde musical traditions, including experimental music.

• 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.^{[citation needed]}

• Influence of the computer. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Experimental music is any music that challenges the commonly accepted notions of what music is. ... For experimental rock music, see experimental rock. ... This article is about a musical style. ... In the broadest sense, contemporary music is any music being written in the present day. ...

Movements in contemporary music

Modernism

Main article: Modernism (music) Modernism in musicis characterized by a desire for or belief in progressand science, surrealism, anti-romanticism, politicaladvocacy, general intellectualism, and/or a breaking with tradition or common practice. ...

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 (e.g., Elliott Carter and Lukas Foss), performers, and listeners who continue to advance the ideas and forms of Modernism. Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. ... Lukas Foss (born Lukas Fuchs, August 15, 1922 in Berlin, Germany) is an American composer and conductor. ...

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(until the 1960's), Bruno Maderna, Luigi Nono, and Karlheinz Stockhausen in Europe, and by Milton Babbitt, Donald Martino, and Charles Wuorinen in America. 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 for the same purpose. The term is also often used for dodecaphony, or twelve-tone technique, which is alternatively regarded as the model for integral serialism. The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ... Pierre Boulez Pierre Boulez (IPA: /pjɛʁ.buˈlɛz/) (born March 26, 1925) is a conductor and composer of classical music. ... Bruno Maderna (April 21, 1920 - November 13, 1973) was an Italian-German conductor and composer. ... Grave of Nono in the San Michele Cemetery, Venice. ... Karlheinz Stockhausen (born August 22, 1928) is a German composer, and one of the most important and controversial composers of the 20th century. ... Milton Byron Babbitt (born May 10, 1916) is an American composer. ... Donald Martino (May 16, 1931–December 8, 2005) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer. ... Charles Wuorinen (born June 9, 1938 in New York City) is an American composer. ... Twelve-tone technique is a system of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. ... Twelve-tone technique (also dodecaphony) is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. ...

While serialism may no longer be rhetorically central, the contemporary period is beginning the process of sorting through the modern corpus, looking for works which will have repertory value.^{[citation needed]}

Modernism is also present as surface or trope^{[citation needed]} 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. In music, a trope is one of three things. ...

Active modernist composers include Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Thomas Adès, Magnus Lindberg and Gunther Schuller. Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle, CH (born July 15, 1934) is a British composer, widely seen as one of the most significant modern composers from that country. ... Alexander Goehr (born 10 August 1932 in Berlin) is an English composer and academic. ... Thomas Adès (born in London, 1 March 1971) is a British composer. ... Magnus Lindberg (born June 27, 1958) is a Finnish composer. ... Gunther Schuller Gunther Schuller (born November 22, 1925) studied at the St. ...

Post-modernism

Main article: Postmodern music Postmodern music is both a musical style and a musical condition. ...

Explanations of what post-modernism is, and why it is influential, vary widely, as do opinions regarding whether post-modernism is "good" for music (or even good per se). There is wide agreement that composers of instrumental concert music and "art music" have absorbed ideas from the wider culture and that these influences can be detected in their music. Examples include polystylism (juxtaposition of fragments of music of different genres and styles, collage, bricolage), the use of found sounds, recorded voices, the shift from increasingly chromatic surfaces to more triadic ones or the reverse, the use of new instrumental combinations, the use of instruments extraneous to the Western concert tradition or altogether non-Western instruments, and the combining of composition with video and other visual media. Key composers include the Scottish composer James MacMillan (who draws on sources as diverse as plainchant, South American Liberation Theology and Polish avant-garde techniques of the 1960s), the American Michael Torke (drawing on classical tradition, minimalism and popular music) and Mark-Anthony Turnage from the UK (drawing from jazz, English pastoralism and the avant-garde). Of more recent years, the emergence of Osvaldo Golijov has shown how diverse many post-modern composers are: his own style uses sources as wide-ranging as avant-garde music, electronica, Yiddish folk music, Argentinian tangos, Arabic folk music and the traditional classical repertoire. ^{[citation needed]} Polystylism is the use of multiple styles or techniques of music, and is seen as a postmodern characteristic. ... There are a few people with the name James M(a)cMillan: James MacMillan, a Canadian fur trader James MacMillan, a musician James McMillan, a U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... American composer Michael Torke (born September 21, 1961 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin), studied at the Eastman School of Music and at Yale University, and writes accessible music influenced by jazz and minimalism. ... Mark-Anthony Turnage (born June 10, 1960) is an English composer of classical music. ... Osvaldo Golijov (born in La Plata, Argentina, December 5, 1960) is a composer of classical music . ...

Minimalism and post-minimalism

Main articles: Minimalist music, Post-minimalism This article is about a musical style. ... Postminimalism is a term utilised in various artistic fields for work which is influenced by, or attempts to develop upon the work of 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. This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... For the Alaska-based postminimalist composer, see John Luther Adams. ... A sequential look at United Flight 175 crashing into the south tower of the World Trade Center The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11—pronounced nine eleven or nine one one) consisted of a series of coordinated terrorist[1] suicide attacks upon the United States, predominantly... The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition. ... Stephen Michael Reich (born October 3, 1936) is an American composer. ... Terry Riley – (Portrait by Betty Freeman) Terry Riley (born 24 June 1935) is an American composer associated with the minimalist school. ...

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. In Europe, many composers such as Joe Cutler and Steve Martland have used the minimalist music of Louis Andriessen as a starting point for their personal developments, with post-minimalism in both cases verging on atonality in its use of Stravinkian harmony. ^{[citation needed]} Another notable characteristic is storytelling and emotional expression taking precedence over technique. Post-minimalism is also [1] a movement in painting and sculpture which began in the late 1960s. (See lumpers/splitters) Kyle Gann (born November 21 1955) is a composer and music critic born in Dallas, Texas. ... William Duckworth (born in 1943) is credited as composer of the first postminimal piece of music, The Time Curve Preludes. ... loud mouth said that sponge bob is propa fit but he cant bum him cos he is a spunge that is gay with ben rouse ben 4 josie ben 4 josie ben 4 josie http://www. ... Glenn Branca (born October 6, 1948 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) is an avant-garde composer and guitarist. ... Joe Cutler (b. ... Steve Martland (b. ... Louis Andriessen (born June 6, 1939) is a Dutch composer, son of the composer Hendrik Andriessen (1892-1981) and brother of composer Jurriaan Andriessen (1925-1996). ... Lumping and splitting refers to a well known problem in any discipline which has to place individual examples into rigorously defined catagories. ...

Other composers sometimes referred to as "post-minimalist" include Erkki-Sven Tüür, Peteris Vasks, Giya Kancheli, Arvo Pärt, Gavin Bryars, Lepo Sumera, Valentin Silvestrov, Veljo Tormis, Ingram Marshall, Robert Davidson,Kevin Volans, Daniel Lentz, Frederic Rzewski, and many composers associated with the Bang on a Can festival.^{[citation needed]} Erkki-Sven Tüür (born October 16, 1959) is an Estonian composer. ... Pēteris Vasks (born April 16, 1946) is a Latvian composer. ... Giya Kancheli (Georgian: გია ყანჩელი), born August 10, 1935 in Tbilisi, is a Georgian composer resident in Belgium. ... Arvo Pärt (born September 11, 1935 in Paide), (IPA: ˈɑr̺vÉ” ˈpær̺t) is an Estonian composer, often identified with the school of minimalism and more specifically, that of mystic minimalism or sacred minimalism. He is considered a pioneer of this style, along with contemporaries Henryk Górecki... Richard Gavin Bryars (born 1943) is an English composer and double bassist. ... Lepo Sumera (May 8, 1950 - June 2, 2000) was an Estonian and Soviet composer who studied with Veljo Tormis in his teens and, from 1968, with the renowned Professor Heino Eller at the Estonian Academy of Music (then Tallinn Conservatoire). ... Photo of Valentin Silvestrov Valentin Silvestrov (born September 30, 1937 in Kiev) is a contemporary composer of classical music. ... Veljo Tormis c. ... Ingram Marshall in his Hamden, CT studio. ... Robert Davidson is an Australian composer. ... Kevin Volans is a composer. ... Daniel Lentz (born 1942, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, USA) is a composer. ... Frederic Anthony Rzewski (born April 13, 1938) is an American composer and virtuoso pianist. ... Bang on a Can is a musical organization based in New York City which was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. ...

Polystylism (Eclecticism)

Main Article: Polystylism Polystylism is the use of multiple styles or techniques of music, and is seen as a postmodern characteristic. ...

Polystylism is the use of multiple styles or techniques of music, and is seen as a postmodern characteristic. Polystylist composers include George Rochberg, William Bolcom, Alfred Schnittke, Frederic Rzewski, Sofia Gubaidulina, and John Zorn. Ezequiel Viñao and Lera Auerbach are among the younger composers whose music belongs to the category.^{[citation needed]} Polystylism is the use of multiple styles or techniques of music, and is seen as a postmodern characteristic. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used by philosophers, social scientists, art critics and social critics to refer to aspects of contemporary art, culture, economics and social conditions that are the result of the unique features of late 20th century and early 21st century... George Rochberg, (July 5, 1918, Paterson, New Jersey – May 29, 2005, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania) was an American composer. ... William Elden Bolcom (born May 26, 1938) is an American composer of chamber, operatic, and symphonic music. ... Alfred Schnittke April 6, 1989, Moscow Alfred Garyevich Schnittke (Russian: Альфре́д Га́рриевич Шни́тке, November 24, 1934 Engels - August 3, 1998 Hamburg) was a Russian and Soviet composer. ... Frederic Anthony Rzewski (born April 13, 1938) is an American composer and virtuoso pianist. ... Sofia Gubaidulina in Sortavala 1981 Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina, (Russian София Асгатовна Губайдулина) (born October 24, 1931) is a Russian-Tatar composer of deeply religious music. ... John Zorn (born September 2, 1953 in Queens, USA) is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. ... Ezequiel Viñao (born July 21, 1960) is an Argentine-American composer. ... Lera Auerbach (Russian: ; b. ...

Post-classic tonality

Other aspects of post-modernity can be seen in a "post-classic" tonality that has advocates such as Michael Daugherty, Daron Hagen, Elena Kats-Chernin and Tan Dun.^{[citation needed]} Michael Daugherty (born April 28, 1954 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) is an American composer. ... Daron Aric Hagen Daron Aric Hagen (born November 4, 1961, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American composer of contemporary classical music and opera. ... Elena Kats-Chernin (born 1957) is an Australian composer. ... Tan Dunn (pinyin: Tán Dùn, 譚盾; born August 18, 1957) is a Chinese composer, most widely known as the Grammy and Oscar award winning composer for the soundtracks of the movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. ...

New Simplicity

Main article: New Simplicity New Simplicity (in German, die neue Einfachheit) was a stylistic tendency amongst some of the younger generation of German composers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, reacting against not only the European avant garde of the 1950s and 1960s, but also against the broader tendency toward objectivity found from...

A movement in Germany in the late seventies and early eighties, reacting with a variety of strategies to restore the subjective to composing. New Simplicity's best-known composer is Wolfgang Rihm, who strives for the emotional volatility of late 19th-century Romanticism and early 20th-century Expressionism. Called Die neue Einfachheit in German, it has also been termed "New Romanticism," "New Subjectivity," "New Inwardness," "New Sensuality," "New Expressivity," and "New Tonality." Wolfgang Rihm (b. ... Romantics redirects here. ... The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893) which inspired 20th century Expressionists Portrait of Eduard Kosmack by Egon Schiele Rehe im Walde by Franz Marc Elbe Bridge I by Rolf Nesch On White II by Wassily Kandinsky, 1923. ...

Styles found in other countries sometimes associated with the German New Simplicity movement include the so-called "Holy Minimalism" of the Pole Henryk Górecki and the Estonian Arvo Pärt (in their works after 1970), as well as Englishman John Tavener, who unlike the New Simplicity composers have turned back to Medieval and Renaissance models, however, rather than to 19th-century romanticism for inspiration. Important representative works include Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" (1976) by Górecki, Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten (1977) by Pärt, and The Veil of the Temple (2002) by Tavener, "Silent Songs" (1977) by Valentin Silvestrov. Henryk Górecki. ... Arvo Pärt (born September 11, 1935 in Paide), (IPA: ˈɑr̺vÉ” ˈpær̺t) is an Estonian composer, often identified with the school of minimalism and more specifically, that of mystic minimalism or sacred minimalism. He is considered a pioneer of this style, along with contemporaries Henryk Górecki... John Tavener should not be confused with the sixteenth-century composer John Taverner. ... Cover of the 1992 release of , conducted by David Zinman Symphony No. ... Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten (1977) is a composition by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, written to mourn the death of English composer Benjamin Britten on the 4th of December 1976. ... Photo of Valentin Silvestrov Valentin Silvestrov (born September 30, 1937 in Kiev) is a contemporary composer of classical music. ...

"World music" influence

Main article: World music World music is, most generally, all the music in the world. ...

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 eastern-European and non-Western tonalities, even in relatively traditionally structured works. This trend was present already in the 1920s and 1930s, for example in the music of Béla Bartók, Henry Cowell, Colin McPhee, and Lou Harrison, and slightly later in the work of Olivier Messiaen and Chou Wen-chung, but can be found also in the context of post-minimalist works, such as Janice Giteck's and Evan Ziporyn's Balinese-influenced works and bandura works by Julian Kytasty, or in the context of post-classic tonality, such as in the music of Bright Sheng, or in the context of thoroughly modernist works by composers such as Claude Vivier. Gamelan - Indonesian Embassy in Canberra A gamelan is a kind of musical ensemble of Indonesian origin typically featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums, and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings, and vocalists may also be included. ... Raga (rāg /राग (Hindi), raga (anglicised from rāgaḥ/रागः (Sanskrit)) or rāgam /ராகம் (Tamil)) are the melodic modes used in Indian classical music. ... Béla Bartók in 1927 Béla Viktor János Bartók (March 25, 1881 – September 26, 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and collector of Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk music. ... Henry Cowell (March 11, 1897 - December 10, 1965) was an American composer, musical theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. ... Colin McPhee photo taken by Carl Van Vechten, 1935 Colin McPhee (February 15, 1900 in Montreal or Toronto, Canada - January 7, 1964 in Los Angeles, CA) was a Canadian composer and musicologist. ... Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 - February 2, 2003) was an American composer. ... Olivier Messiaen It has been suggested that List of students of Olivier Messiaen be merged into this article or section. ... Chou Wen-chung (surname Chou, b. ... Evan Ziporyn Evan Ziporyn is an American composer of post-minimalist music and music for Balinese gamelans. ... A Bandura and a Torban, at the Royal College of Music Julian Kytasty, plays a prima Chernihiv bandura The Experimental Bandura Тrio: Jurij Fedynsky, Julian Kytasty,and Michael Andrec Ken Bloom, plays a Kharkiv bandura Yuri Singalevych(Lviv) playing a diatonic bandura c. ... Julian Kytasty is an Ukrainian-American composer, singer, kobzar, bandurist and flute player. ... Bright Sheng (surname Sheng, born Sheng Liang, Shanghai, China, December 6, 1955) is a Chinese composer of contemporary classical music. ... Claude Vivier (b. ...

Art rock influence

Similarly, many composers have emerged since the 1980s who are heavily influenced by art rock. Many, such as Scott Johnson, Steven Mackey, and Frank Zappa started out as rock musicians and only later moved into the realm of scored music. Other notable composers who draw on rock include Steve Vai, Annie Gosfield, Evan Ziporyn, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, David Lang, John Zorn, Steve Martland, Ben Johnston, Anne LeBaron, Paul Dresher, Kitty Brazelton, Glenn Branca, Erkki-Sven Tüür, and Nick Didkovsky. Many of these composers (Gordon, Lang, Dresher, Wolfe, Ziporyn, Martland, Branca) are post-minimalist in orientation, but some (Didkovsky, Brazelton) are very much not. Art rock is a term used by some to describe rock music that is characterized by ambitious or avant-garde lyrical themes and/or melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic experimentation, often extending beyond standard modern popular music forms and genres, toward influences in jazz, classical, world music or the experimental avant... Scott Johnson (born 1952) is an American composer known for his pioneering use of recorded speech as musical melody. ... Steven Mackey (b. ... Frank Vincent Zappa[1] (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, musician, and film director. ... Steven Steve Siro Vai (born June 6, 1960 in Carle Place, New York) is a Grammy Award winning guitarist, composer, vocalist, and record producer. ... Annie Gosfield (born 1960) is a New York composer who specializes in using detuned or out of tune samples and industrial noises. ... Evan Ziporyn Evan Ziporyn is an American composer of post-minimalist music and music for Balinese gamelans. ... Julia Wolfe (born December 18, 1958) is an American composer. ... Michael Gordon was born in Florida in 1956 and grew up in Nicaragua and an Eastern European community in a jungle on the outskirts of Managua. ... David Lang (b. ... John Zorn (born September 2, 1953 in Queens, USA) is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. ... Steve Martland (b. ... Ben Johnston Benjamin Burwell Johnston, Junior (born March 15, 1926 in Macon, Georgia) is a composer of contemporary music in the just intonation system. ... Anne LeBaron (b. ... Paul Dresher (b. ... Kitty Brazelton (b. ... Glenn Branca (born October 6, 1948 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) is an avant-garde composer and guitarist. ... Erkki-Sven Tüür (born October 16, 1959) is an Estonian composer. ... Nick Didkovsky is a composer, guitarist, computer music programmer, and leader of the band Doctor Nerve. ...

Historicism

Main article: Musical historicism Musical historicism signifies the use of historical materials, structures, styles, techniques, media, conceptual content, etc. ...

Musical historicism 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. Some post-minimalist works, such as the "Oi me lasso" cycle of Gavin Bryars, employ direct medievalism. Other composers have assimilated elements of renaissance, baroque, classical, or romantic styles in varying degrees, including Benjamin Bagby, Thomas Binkley, Easley Blackwood, René Clemencic, Joseph Dillon Ford, Vladimir Godar, Ladislav Kupkovič, Winfried Michel, and Jordi Savall. Musical historicism signifies the use of historical materials, structures, styles, techniques, media, conceptual content, etc. ... Richard Gavin Bryars (born 1943) is an English composer and double bassist. ... Benjamin Bagby is a singer, harper, and groundbreaking performer of medieval music. ... The name Easley Blackwood is known in two areas: music and the game of contract bridge. ... Joseph Dillon Ford at his home, Gainesville, Florida, 20 November 2003 Joseph Dillon Ford (b. ... Vladimír Godár (b. ... Ladislav Karol Kupkovič (born March 17, 1936) is a Slovak composer and conductor. ... Winfried Michel (born 1948 in Fulda) is a German recorder player, composer, and editor of music. ... Jordi Savall i Bernadet (born 1941, in Igualada, Catalonia) is a Spanish viol player and composer. ...

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 (Alexandre Danilevsky, 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. This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Roman Turovsky-Savchuk Roman Turovsky-Savchuk is a painter and lutenist-composer. ... Musical historicism signifies the use of historical materials, structures, styles, techniques, media, conceptual content, etc. ... The Delian Society The Delian Society, conceived by American composer Joseph Dillon Ford, was founded on 23 January 2004 as an international community of composers, performers, scholars, recording technicians, music publishers, and amateurs dedicated to the revitalization of the great tonal traditions in art music. ... Vox Saeculorum is an international society of contemporary composers writing in the Baroque style. ...

Neo-Romanticism

Main article: Neoromanticism Neoromanticism in music was a trend in European classical music started in second half of 19th century in Germany. ...

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 (in some of his works after 1971), David Del Tredici, Ladislav Kupkovič, and Krzysztof Penderecki (after about 1975). John Corigliano (b. ... George Rochberg, (July 5, 1918, Paterson, New Jersey – May 29, 2005, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania) was an American composer. ... David Del Tredici, born March 16, 1937 in Cloverdale, California, is a contemporary composer. ... Ladislav Karol Kupkovič (born March 17, 1936) is a Slovak composer and conductor. ... Krzysztof Penderecki. ...

Electronic music

Main article: Electronic art music Electronic music has existed, in various forms, for more than a century. ...

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 (musique concrète, electroacoustics, acousmatic art...) - 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. See, for example, the work of Michel Chion, Francis Dhomont, Earl Howard, Curtis Roads and Denis Dufour. Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is a system designed to transmit information between electronic musical instruments. ... A Boss DR-202 Drum Machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums and/or other percussion instruments. ... Musique concrète (French; literally, concrete music), is a style of avant-garde music that relies on natural environmental sounds and other non-musical noises to create music. ... Musique concrète is the name given to a class of electronic music produced from editing together fragments of natural and industrial sounds. ... // The acousmatic is an art of sound [2]. Acousmatic music (or musique acousmatique) is music which is fixed definitively on a medium and the resulting works can only be heard through that medium. ... Michel Chion born in 1947 in Creil, France, is a composer of experimental music. ... Francis Dhomont is a composer of Electroacoustic / Acousmatic music. ... Not to be confused with Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. ... Curtis Roads is a composer of electronic and electroacoustic music specializing in granular and pulsar synthesis, author, and computer programmer. ...

Spectral Music

Main article: Spectral music Spectral music (or spectralism) is a musical genre or movement originating in France in the 1970s and characterized by the use of computer analysis of sound wave components as the basis for composition. ...

Epitomized by the works of such composers as Hugues Dufourt, Gérard Grisey, Tristan Murail, and Horatiu Radulescu, "spectral music" implies the use of the spectrum of a sound as a basis of composition. Spectralism can thus be seen as a logical continuation of the works of Debussy, Varèse, Messiaen as well as any other composer concerned with the timbre of music. Spectral composition often concerns sound synthesis, the theoretical reconstruction of a physical sound; Fast Fourier Transform is frequently used to analyze the overtone series of a sound, and the material used for a musical piece derived from the data hence attained. Much of Kaija Saariaho's and the last few pieces of Claude Vivier's music are influenced by the spectralists. In Romania an important Spectralist trend developed since late '60. Romanian Spectral music asserts from traditional Romanian folk music roots. Among spectral Romanian composers we should emphasize the contribution of Iancu Dumitrescu, Octav Nemescu, Ana-Maria Avram, Costin, Calin Ioachimescu, Corneliu Cezar. Hugues Dufourt is a French composer and philosopher associated with the Spectral school of composition. ... Gérard Grisey (born 1946; died November 11, 1998) was a French composer of contemporary music. ... Tristan Murail (born March 11, 1947 in Le Havre, France) is a French composer associated with the spectral technique of composition (along with Jonathan Harvey and the late Gérard Grisey), which involves the use of the fundamental properties of sound as a basis for harmony, as well as the... Horatiu Radulescu (born HoraÅ£iu Rădulescu in Bucharest, 1942), is a noted composer, having developed his spectral technique of composition in the late 1960s. ... Pitched musical instruments are usually based on a harmonic oscillator such as a string or a column of air. ... Claude Debussy Claude Achille Debussy (August 22, 1862 – March 25, 1918), composer of impressionistic classical music. ... Edgar (or Edgard) Varèse (December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French-born composer, who moved to the United States in 1915, and took American citizenship in 1926. ... Olivier Messiaen (December 10, 1908–April 27, 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist. ... In music, timbre, or sometimes timber, (from Fr. ... The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is an efficient algorithm to compute the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and its inverse. ... Kaija Saariaho (born October 14, 1952) is a Finnish composer. ... Claude Vivier (b. ... Spectral music (or spectralism) is a musical genre or movement originating in France in the 1970s and characterized by the use of computer analysis of sound wave components as the basis for composition. ... Iancu Dumitrescu (born 1944) is a Romanian composer and the father of the Acousmatic movement in contemporary music. ...

Philippe Hurel is an important French composer of Spectral music.

New Complexity

Main article: New Complexity The New Complexity is a primarily British movement of avant garde classical music dating from the 1970s. ...

"New Complexity" is a current within today's European contemporary avant-garde music scene, named in reaction to the New Simplicity. Among this diverse group are Richard Barrett, Brian Ferneyhough, James Dillon and Michael Finnissy. // Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (born 16 January 1943 in Coventry) is an English composer. ... James Dillon (born 1950 in Glasgow) is a British composer often regarded as belonging to the New Complexity school. ... Michael Finnissy is an English composer and pianist born in Tulse Hill, London in 1946. ...

Improvisation

Experimental Music and Conceptualism

Main article: Experimental Music For experimental rock music, see experimental rock. ...

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 and, a bit later, in the composers associated with the Fluxus movement. 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 based on a speech from the floor of the United States Senate. Conceptualism is a doctrine in philosophy intermediate between nominalism and realism, that universals exist only within the mind and have no external or substantial reality. ... For the Mortal Kombat character, see Johnny Cage. ... Fluxus – a name taken from a Latin word meaning to flow – is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. ... Alvin Singleton (born 1940) is a composer from the United States. ...

Developments by medium

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (July 2007)

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...

Orchestra

• Inclusion of new instruments (amplified instruments, rock/jazz instruments, synthesizers, computer, non-western instruments, pre-recorded parts, experimental custom-made instruments)
• Concertos for non-western instruments (Nancy Van de Vate)
• Inclusion of visuals

Pikasso guitar In 2006 luthier Yuri Landman built the Moodswinger, a 12 string overtone zither for Aaron Hemphill of the noiseband Liars A custom made instrument is a musical instrument that is considered to be of ones own design or a modification or extension of a defined guideline of...

Opera

This article is about John Adams, an American president. ... // Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (born 16 January 1943 in Coventry) is an English composer. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... York Höller (born 11 January 1944 in Leverkusen) is a German composer and Professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. ... André Laporte (born 12 July 1931 in Oplinter, near Tienen in Flemish Brabant) is a Belgian composer. ... Per NørgÃ¥rd (b. ... Karlheinz Stockhausen (born August 22, 1928) is a German composer, and one of the most important and controversial composers of the 20th century. ... Elliot Goldenthal, born on May 2, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York City, is an American composer of contemporary music and has written works for concert hall, theater, dance and film. ... Thomas Adès (born in London in 1971) is a British composer. ...

Chamber

Extended Techniques

Main article: Extended Techniques

Composers often obtain unusual sounds or instrumental timbres through the use of non-traditional (or unconventional) instrumental techniques. Examples of extended techniques include bowing under the bridge of a string instrument, using key clicks on a wind instrument, blowing into a wind instrument without a mouthpiece, or inserting object on top of the strings of a piano. Composers’ use of extended techniques is not specific to contemporary music (for instance, Berlioz’s use of col legno in his Symphonie Fantastique is an extended technique) and it transcends compositional schools and styles. Cover of Henry Cowell: Piano Music, with Henry Cowell demonstrating the longitudinal sweeping string piano technique Extended technique is a term used in music to describe unconventional, unorthodox or improper techniques of singing, or of playing musical instruments. ...

20th century exponents of extended techniques include Henry Cowell (use of fists and arms on the keyboard, playing inside the piano), John Cage (prepared piano), and George Crumb. The Kronos Quartet, which has been among the most active ensembles in promoting contemporary American works for string quartet, takes delight in music which stretches the manner in which sound can be drawn out of instruments. Henry Cowell (March 11, 1897 - December 10, 1965) was an American composer, musical theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. ... George Crumb (born October 24, 1929) is an American composer of modern and avant garde music. ... Kronos Quartet in 2006. ...

European composers who make heavy use of extended techniques include Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio, Helmut Lachenmann, Salvatore Sciarrino and Heinz Holliger. Extended technique is a term used to describe unconventional, unorthodox or improper techniques of playing musical instruments or singing. ... Grave of Nono in the San Michele Cemetery, Venice. ... Luciano Berio (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian composer. ... Helmut (Friedrich) Lachenmann (born November 27, 1935) is an important German composer. ... Salvatore Sciarrino, born April 4, 1947, in Palermo. ... Heinz Holliger (born May 21, 1939) is a Swiss oboist and composer. ...

• See also List of contemporary classical ensembles

This page lists ensembles that specialise in contemporary classical music. ...

Choral

At the turn of the century, Eric Whitacre, whose music combines tonal music with tone clusters and similar experimental techniques has received considerable attention. Other choral composers of note include Karl Jenkins, John Rutter, Veljo Tormis, and Morten Lauridsen. Image:Ew-bw-lowres. ... Karl Jenkins (born February 17, 1944) is a Welsh musician and composer. ... John Milford Rutter CBE (born September 24, 1945)) is an English composer, choral conductor, editor, arranger and record producer. ... Veljo Tormis c. ... Morten Lauridsen (born February 27, 1943 in Colfax, Washington) is an American composer with Danish roots. ...

Concert Band

The medium of the concert band has undergone a revival in recent years, with contributions by composers such as David Del Tredici, Karel Husa, Joseph Schwantner, Michael Colgrass, David Maslanka and Frank Ticheli. David Del Tredici, born March 16, 1937 in Cloverdale, California, is a contemporary composer. ... Karel Husa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Joseph Schwantner (b. ... Michael Colgrass (b. ... David Maslanka . ... Frank Ticheli (born Jan 21, 1958 in Monroe, Louisiana) is an American composer of orchestral, choral, chamber, and concert band works. ...

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 Qatsi Trilogy of films: Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi; John Corigliano's original score/soundtrack for François Girard's film The Red Violin; Michael Nyman's scores for Peter Greenaway's films, Shigeru Kan-no's score for Der Rosarote Elefant or Zbigniew Preisner's scores for Krzysztof Kieślowski's Three Colors. Other directors have used contemporary music in soundtracks. Stanley Kubrick, for example, in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) used music by György Ligeti, and in The Shining (1980) music by Krzysztof Penderecki. Both Jean-Luc Godard, in La Chinoise (1967), and Nicolas Roeg in Walkabout (1971) used music by Karlheinz Stockhausen. A film score is the background music in a film, generally specially written for the film and often used to heighten emotions provoked by the imagery on the screen or by the dialogue. ... Tan Dunn (pinyin: Tán Dùn, 譚盾; born August 18, 1957) is a Chinese composer, most widely known as the Grammy and Oscar award winning composer for the soundtracks of the movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. ... For other uses, see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (disambiguation). ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Kundun is a 1997 film written by Melissa Mathison and directed by Martin Scorsese, both of whom (along with several other members of the production) were banned by the Chinese Government from ever entering Tibet as a result of making the film. ... Polaroid by Michael Dare Godfrey Reggio (born March 29, 1940) is an American director of experimental documentary films. ... Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by minimalist composer Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke. ... Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation is the 1988 sequel to the experimental 1983 documentary film Koyaanisqatsi, by Godfrey Reggio. ... Naqoyqatsi: ÉÀ ... John Corigliano (b. ... François Girard (1963 - ) is a Canadian director and screenwriter particularly noted for his innovative film Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. ... The Red Violin (French: Le Violon rouge, German: Die Rote Geige, Italian: Il Violino Rosso, Mandarin: 红提琴) is a Canadian film released on November 13, 1998 (in the USA on June 11, 1999). ... Michael Nyman (born March 23, 1944) is a British minimalist composer, pianist, librettist and musicologist, perhaps best known for the many scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the British filmmaker Peter Greenaway. ... Peter Greenaway, CBE (born 5 April 1942) is a Welsh-born English [1] film director. ... Zbigniew Preisner (born May 20 in Bielsko-BiaÅ‚a, 1955) is one of Polands leading film score composers, best known for his work with director Krzysztof KieÅ›lowski. ... Krzysztof KieÅ›lowski   (June 27, 1941 Warsaw, Poland – March 13, 1996 Warsaw, Poland) was an influential Oscar-nominated Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for his film cycles Three Colors and The Decalogue. ... Three Colors is the collective title of three films directed by Krzysztof KieÅ›lowski, two made in French and one primarily in Polish: Trois couleurs: Bleu (Blue) (1993), Trzy kolory: BiaÅ‚y (White) (in French: Blanc) (1994), and Trois couleurs: Rouge (Red) (1994). ... “Kubrick” redirects here. ... “Ligeti” redirects here. ... For other uses of this term, see Shining. ... Krzysztof Penderecki. ... Jean-Luc Godard (French IPA: ) (born 3 December 1930) is a French filmmaker and one of the most influential members of the Nouvelle Vague, or French New Wave. Born to Franco-Swiss parents in Paris, he was educated in Nyon, Switzerland, later studying at the Lycée Rohmer, and the... La Chinoise (1967) was a the thirteenth narrative feature film by French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. ... Nicolas Jack Roeg, born on August 15, 1928 in London, is an internationally-known cinematographer and film director. ... // Walkabout is an English language expression with several meanings: Walkabout is an Australian pidgin (or perhaps quasi-pidgin) term referring to the belief that Australian Aborigines go walkabout at the age of thirteen in the wilderness for six months as a rite of passage. ... Karlheinz Stockhausen (born August 22, 1928) is a German composer, and one of the most important and controversial composers of the 20th century. ...

Contemporary music festivals

• Bang on a Can Marathon.
• Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (Santa Cruz, CA)
• Donaueschingen Festival of Contemporary Music.
• Gaudeamus Foundation Music Week in Amsterdam.
• Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
• Salzburg Aspekte.
• Warsaw Autumn in Poland.
• Winnipeg New Music Festival (the largest attended new music festival in the world).

Bang on a Can is a musical organization based in New York City which was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. ... The Gaudeamus Foundation and Contemporary Music Center is a renowned center for contemporary music, the Gaudeamus Foundation organizes and promotes contemporary musical activities and concerts both in the Netherlands and abroad. ... The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival is held in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England. ... Cover for the CD of the 2001 Warsaw Autumn festival. ...

Bibliography

• Danuser, Hermann. Die Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts. Laaber. (1984)
• Dibelius, Ulrich. Moderne Musik Nach 1945. Piper Verlag. (1998)
• Duckworth, William. Talking Music: Conversations with John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Five Generations of American Experimental Composers. Da Capo. (2006)
• Gann, Kyle. American Music in the Twentieth Century. Wadsworth Publishing. (1997)
• Griffiths, Paul. Modern Music And After - Directions Since 1945. Oxford University Press. (1995)
• Morgan, Robert P. Twentieth-Century Music. Norton. (1991)
• Nyman, Michael. Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond (Music in the Twentieth Century). Cambridge University Press. (1999)
• Schwartz, Elliott and Daniel Godfrey. Music Since 1945: Issues, Materials, and Literature. Schirmer. (1993)
• Schwartz, Elliott, James Fox and Barney Childs. Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music. Westview Press. (2005)
• Smith Brindle, Reginald. The New Music: The Avant-Garde since 1945. Oxford University Press. (1987)
• Watkins, Glenn. Pyramids at the Louvre : music, culture, and collage from Stravinsky to the postmodernists. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. (1994)
• Whittall, Arnold. Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press. (1999)
• Whittall, Arnold. Exploring Twentieth-Century Music. Cambridge University Press. (2003)

External links

• spnm - promoting new music, UK – UK-based organisation promoting new music and composers.
• new notes magazine – Monthly UK magazine on new music
• [http://www.spnm.org.uk/forum – spnm's new music forum
• Art of the States
• Contemporary Classical, Internet radio
• Common Tone podcast
• Modern and contemporary classical music
• The Living Composers Project
• Sibeliusmusic.com - Newly Created Scores Using the Sibelius Program

Notes

1. ^ Leon Botstein: "Modernism" ¶9 Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 28 April 2007), <http://www.grovemusic.com>
2. ^ Arnold Whittall "Neo-Classicism" 'Grove Music Online' ed. L. Macy (Accessed 30 April 2007), <http://www.grovemusic.com>
3. ^ Elliott Schwartz and Dan Godfrey, Music since 1945, Chapter 7: "Order and Chaos" (p.78-ff), Schirmer Books, New York. 1993.
4. ^ Peter Manning, Electronic and Computer Music, Oxford University Press, 2004. (19-ff)
5. ^ Elliott Schwartz and Dan Godfrey, Music since 1945, (p.325), Schirmer Books, New York. 1993.
6. ^ Elliott Schwartz and Dan Godfrey, Music since 1945, Chapter 15: "New Views of Performance: Space, Ritual and Play" (p.289-ff), Schirmer Books, New York. 1993.