Can anyone help me find a good guide to 21st-century classical music?
The best I can find through googling is some top 10 lists, but that's not really enough. Wikipedia has a huge list of 21st-century composers, but most of their music is IMPOSSIBLE to find, either legally or by pirating.
I just don't get it. Finding 20th-century classical music is easy, and every century before then even easier. But it seems almost impossible to learn about 21st-century classical. There's evidence it exists, but I can't find any way to really get into it.
I'm wondering if it's one of those "it takes time for the cream to rise" situations, where we won't know who the greatest composers of this generation were until decades after they were active. But you would just think with the internet it would be really easy to learn about this stuff...
Music was a fad that lasted from roughly 1000 AD to 1870. Nothing else can or will exist and nobody takes it seriously anymore.
Brandon Smith
this interests me I guess you are either looking for neo-romanticism or modern (mostly atonal) I would exclude any minimalism, personally
Colton Hughes
wtFFFFFFF i was about to recc probably the greatest classical composer still alive today, Einojuhani Rautavaara but when I checked his wikipedia page, it says he died 4 days ago. rest in peace one of the greatest composers of our time youtube.com/watch?v=EKzWefr7_C0
Adrian Hughes
postminimalism
Aiden Barnes
...
Dominic Howard
ew
Daniel Garcia
Why exclude minimalism but include neo-romanticism? Neo-romanticism and minimalism are very closely related, a lot more related than either of them are with atonality.
He'd fall under the 20th century a lot better than the 21st century, but John Adams is still very active a composer, his opera Doctor Atomic is great (if you like opera already, anyways) and it was written 11 years ago.
David Young
Forgot to mention but minimalism comes in a lot of different flavors. Personally I like the John Adams flavor (loud, bombastic, the minimalism is in the subtle and gradual changes) than the Phillip Glass variety.
Jaxon Ortiz
/classical/ is this board's [s4s]
Justin Morales
You're right. I was being too exclusive. For my tastes, I generally dont like minimalism
I've listened to some Adams but not enough to discern his brand of minimalism from others I can say that I like him more than glass
Jacob Hernandez
it's not specifically Classical, but at least it is 21st century art music Ola Gjeilo Eric Whitacre
He's not asking about where to find compositions but where to FIND compositions, as in where to download.
>Whitacre People like to rag on him but I liked Cloudburst
Kevin King
>People like to rag on him literal plebs
some of the best vocal composition since the renaissance
Jackson James
postminimalism sounds cool, I love Philip Glass and Steve Reich
Luke Flores
It's hard to find a uniquely 21st composer because of course the max age they'd be is 16, but here are a few composers who've published works this century:
Philip Glass (obvs) John Adams Haukur Tómasson Matthew Aucoin Stephen Paulus Steve Reich
Oliver Ward
J A M E S
F E R R A R O
Anthony Richardson
it really is, isn't it?
William Phillips
i t w o u l d b e a g r e a t t r a g e d y i f a r t i f i c i a l s u p e r i n t e l l i g e n c e i s n e v e r c r e a t e d
Grayson Sullivan
L A T T E
y o u h a v e r e a c h e d y o u r d e s t i n a t i o n
Noah Bennett
>taking things seriously ppfffft why? it objectively makes life worse.
Liam Peterson
bump
Ryan Jackson
Also consider that many recent composers don't necessarily have any recordings of their works out yet. That's what I find when I go looking for newer faces.
Jeremiah Nguyen
Best advice I can give is look at labels, I guess. I like a lot of stuff from Kairos and Col Legno, if you're into the kind-of-difficult avant-garde side. They sometimes put out newer composers' stuff.
Austin Price
Oh, and Edition RZ
Samuel Bennett
thanks
Jeremiah Watson
bump
Chase Adams
>I've listened to some Adams but not enough to discern his brand of minimalism from others.
Try Harmonielehre.
SlskQt
Reich and Glass are postminimalist now?
Is that the Kairos 4tet, or someone else?
Jaxon Morris
>SlskQt
even slsk doesn't have much from that list of 21st century composers on wikipedia, believe me I've tried
>Reich and Glass are postminimalist now?
no but what I mean was I like minimalism so the idea of postminimalism sounds good to me.
Joseph Carter
Some tips from a guy who has spent years trying to answer the same question:
-Composers often publish interesting things on experimental labels. Elliott Schwartz for example recently released a collaboration on Feeding Tube, which is a label that publishes a lot of art rock/pop. Following outsider music blogs (like the-out-door.tumblr.com/) can often take you to interesting places.
-People who were trained as composers don't always publish music as academic composers, but still often make interesting music (examples: Cammisa Buerhaus, Laraaji)
-If you buy music directly from the artist and you get their e-mail, ask them about their influences and if they would recommend any of their colleagues to you. You can also do this if you haven't bought their music but they work at a university (I once cold e-mailed Samuel Adler. It went okay).
-Knowing music festivals for contemporary music is helpful. Going through the works of old guest composers from events like the Bowling Green State University New Music Festival can lead you to interesting places, too.
-Relevant Tones (radio show) is a great way to discover new music.
That's pretty much all the advice I have.
Chase King
>Buy music directly from the artist Could you go a bit more into detail? Like about emailing Samuel Adler and how it went.
David Moore
The e-mail to Samuel Adler had to do with where I could find some sources listed in his orchestration book that I wanted to take a look at but couldn't locate, so really not that interesting.
Remember that .edu e-mails are the best, since those are the ones they use for their teaching gigs and actually have to check.
You typically buy music from the artist when they have a Bandcamp or similar, so it's easy to get into contact with them that way, since then they know that you've given them money and are very willing to talk to you a little bit.
You can usually e-mail any composer and say something like:
"Hi [name], I recently listened to [piece] a few times and have really been enjoying it, especially the section with [detail], since I've never heard [technique] used in that way. What music were you listening to when you wrote [piece]? Thanks for your time, user"
Just tell them that you've listened to their music, liked it, and thought about it a little and they'll often respond. They're just normal people, and most of them enjoy getting praise and opportunities to talk about things that they're interested in.
Nolan Young
I've been listening to Max Richter lately. He has an album called Recomposed where he updated Vivaldi's Four Seasons.
Ryan White
>since those are the ones they use for their teaching gigs and actually have to check well, that makes perfect sense
Christopher Johnson
lov yah
Logan Thompson
relatively young composers who are still in business today, and which are quite easy to find: Enno Poppe G.F. Haas Whoops. I forgot all other names. But listen to enough of their youtube videos and you will start getting recomended many many others
