Contemporary Classical Composers - new discoveries

Joan Tower (USA) born 1938.

Concerto for Orchestra (1991)

This kills me every time I listen to it.

@mahler123

My tastes are more along the lines of @mahgister , but I concur with @simonmoon ,, that ultimately taste is subjective and we shouldn’t impose ours on others.

I think one of turn offs for me of the Second Viennese School (SVS) was the dogmatic approach of its adherents. They loudly argued that tonality dead, that music must inevitably evolve towards serialism, in the same manner that Communism argued that Capitalism was dead and that world economies would inevitably be Red. It isn’t the music that I necessarily dislike. Unmoored from these ideological underpinnings, I find a lot of it worth exploring

I discovered the music of the 2nd Viennese School long before I heard of any of their supposed dogma. So, I really couldn’t care less about any of their claims. 

I listen to the music based purely on whether I like it or not.

Also, the music of the 2nd Vienese School is just a small part of the classical music I listen to.

Elliott Carter is one of my favorite composers, and he never used serial techniques. Which is true of most of the music I listen to.

This topic is right up my alley!

The vast majority of classical music I listen to is from post 1950's, up through the present era. Although I love the 2nd Viennese School: Schoenberg, Berg, Webern.

I tend to like the 'thorny' sounding stuff, so, YMMV with my recommendations.

One of my favorite composers is Elliott Carter.

But: Charles Wuorinen, Bruno Maderna, Joan Tower, Stefan Wolpe, George Perle, Unsuk Chin, Olga Neuwirth, Roger Sessions, and others are also high on my list.

I'll start with a great Carter piece.

Augusta Read Thomas (USA) born 1964.

She tends to be more tonal than I usually like, but this piece is an exception for me.

EOS (Goddess of the Dawn) part 1

Currently living composers:

Beat Furrer (Swiss Austrian) born 1954.

A relativity recent discovery of mine. So far, I like everything I’ve heard.

Wolfram Schurig (Austria) born 1967

I concur with Arvo Part suggestion ...

All these composers go out of the dead end road created by Schoenberg...

😊

Music must speak to the human heart or to the body metabolism or to the soul...When it spoke out of tonality or out of cultural grounded modes or out of articulated rythms as speech is , music begin to be a mind space only where we have nothing to eat and give to the heart, the soul or to the body...

You can heal someone with Bach or Beethoven i doubt you can do it so successfully and easily with the second Viennese school... The OM sound or the CHrist sound or Yoruba speaking drums will do it better ...😊

Finally in music there is tastes, we are each one of us different with our own history and biases, but ultimately music as acoustic is not about tastes..

Tastes there is, but tastes it is not ....

@mahgister

Just because Schoenberg and the 12 tone method is no longer used, does not mean it was a dead end.

The history of classical music is littered with "dead ends" long before the 2nd Viennese school.

The 2nd Viennese school, has remained influential to this day. Just in ways not specifically 12 tone.

Just because you are unable to detect music that speaks to the heart from many contemporary composers, does not mean others are not able to.

You seem to have the feeling that your way of listening to music is the only way. And the only way to convey deep emotion and beauty, is to for the composer tp make it obvious.

Please don’t assume your personal prejudices are an objective fact.

Has anyone mentioned Tōru Takemitsu?

Seriously great composer. His compositions tend to have an air of mystery and serenity.