
Classical music works of the 21st century - tintinnabula
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/12/best-classical-music-works-of-the-21st-century
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dwd
What is their criteria for selection?

Are they working from the idea of a published piece of music that could be
performed by any symphony, quartet, choral group, etc? Or is about what
instruments it is for?

I'm just not clear on what their definition of "classical" music is.

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sammorrowdrums
Your confusion is completely right. The genre classical has an almost insanely
wide meaning.

It originally only meant music from the Classical Period of 1720 to 1820, then
Romantic music after that, and thus everything you describe above ought to be
termed contemporary music (and is usually called something like that as a sub-
genre).

There is a marketing explanation which is often the easiest definition to use,
which is that labels have to box music into genres to sell and so they do, and
get to decide if music should be pitched as classical.

Beyond using vaguely reminiscent ensembles, forms and orchestration then I
guess the focus on the composer is probably the next main thing.

It is not a consistent definition though, where film composer John Williams
gets called classical because of the aesthetic and influences and
orchestration but then show music is not counted because for some reason its
use of song forms and aesthetic is just not right, despite using mostly
classical music orchestration...

Although there are classical pieces that are quite like show music. Like "The
Trout" by Schubert (which comes under Programme Music which is also frowned
upon as low tier by many music snobs).

So I can only really conclude that it's essentially the domain of marketers,
critics and snobs to determine which artfully composed music deserves to be
acknowledged as "classical" in the modern day and I think essentially the
definition is "something that somebody collating new classical music for the
Guardian / anyone bold enough to claim they define it thinks deserves the
title".

Classical music is in the eye of the beholder.

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coldtea
> _Your confusion is completely right. The genre classical has an almost
> insanely wide meaning._

To pundits, not to the common man, for which it means "mostly artsy stuff done
with acoustic instruments by conservatory trained composers and performed and
their like".

Heck, for the common man even the distinction "classical", "romantic" etc
doesn't mean anything, Bach and Mahler is all classical, and even for my
brother and their folks (classically trained professional orchestra
musicians), the term "classical" is thrown around for all this repertoire.

It's just anything with "serious" trained composers, and (mostly) real
instruments by conservatory players. Jazz and experimental works, like Xenakis
or Stockhausen are excluded from called "classical" though, where e.g. a
Phillip Glass piece would be included (but in that case, there's the
"minimalist" branding which prevails).

In any, case since the article talks about modern works (21st century or so),
it has probably this meaning:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_classical_music](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_classical_music)

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
Xenakis and Stockhausen definitely count as contemporary classical.

It's actually about lineage. Contemporary classical sells itself on the basis
that there's a direct academic - sometimes historical - link to Beethoven, who
was the prototypical Genius Composer.

Which is why you usually get all the stock tropes - concert halls, serious
audiences in seats listening very intently, serious clothes for the players, a
serious conductor at the front, clapping at the end only, definitely no
cheering or dancing - that also apply to traditional classical music concerts.

It's also about intellectual content. Pop doesn't usually try to justify
itself intellectually. Contemporary classical does nothing but. Which is why
it's a long series of "isms" of various kinds, all making more or less
convincing claims about their own immense cultural importance.

You don't get points for writing interesting music, you get points for
creating a new "ism" \- preferably an "important" one - and then writing music
around it.

The committed audience is actually tiny - five figures globally, if that - so
"important" is debatable.

Even so - the idea that contemporary classical is "important", with the
implication that other music isn't, is probably the key to the genre.

~~~
raptorraver
Former classical music composer here. Your analysis is quite spot on. Some
people in classical music scene even call it ”serious music”.

~~~
tunesmith
There are other distinctions, though. For instance, classical music, aside
from some forms of minimalism, is very definitely not about loops and layers.
Classical music is more about long form narrative and has a lot more in common
with long form fiction, with development, surprises, and entirely new
contexts. The way a classical work is cohesive within itself is very different
than how a pop song or jazz or electronica is.

~~~
dwd
Funny enough a lot of film scores and more recently TV and video game
soundtracks also follow that formula with specific motifs for different
characters with variations depending on the scene.

It's particularly noticable where you have a long running series that allow
for the motifs to mature over time.

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chewz
[https://open.spotify.com/playlist/23NEgb3NCEA7OtY7nZUHwR](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/23NEgb3NCEA7OtY7nZUHwR)

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antognini
This is a great list! For anyone who's interested in a few more
recommendations:

* For my money, John Adams's best composition this century is El Niño ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2IUdBLVkOQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2IUdBLVkOQ)), though Doctor Atomic is also amazing ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlUHKHLk_VU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlUHKHLk_VU)). The former is a nativity oratorio and the latter is an opera about Oppenheimer and the Manhatten Project. On the Transmigration of Souls (a 9/11 memorial piece) is also especially moving. ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwoasXzLdVY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwoasXzLdVY))

* Revelation, by Michael Harrison. This piece uses just intonation rather than the more common equal temperament. In just intonation, the notes are tuned so that the fifth is "pure" \--- i.e., the frequencies are in an exact 2:1 ratio. This causes the other intervals to sound slightly out of tune and gives the music a really otherworldly feel. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4oKzSRs3sA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4oKzSRs3sA) (Michael Harrison, incidentally was a student of La Monte Young who revived just intonation and composed a 5-hour piano piece called The Well Tuned Piano. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfWV4rNB6KE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfWV4rNB6KE))

* Sleep, by Eric Whitacre. Now a classic choral composition. (Cloudburst is also great, but was composed in 1995 at the age of 21!) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw5gupbe9E0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw5gupbe9E0)

* Orient & Occident by Arvo Pärt. Pärt has a lot of great works like Für Alina (which marked his departure from serialism), but most of them were composed in the 20th century, although he's still active! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGMaIfNdqH8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGMaIfNdqH8)

* "...similarities between diverse things", by Joby Talbot (2002). For piano trio and vibraphone. The title comes from a mathematician friend of Talbot's who died at the age of 20 and used that phrase to describe why he found mathematics beautiful. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tawlg0RN4I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tawlg0RN4I)

* The Veil of the Temple, by John Taverner. A magisterial work lasting 7 hours. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62pRsgwSYjs&list=PLga2eRXhIy...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62pRsgwSYjs&list=PLga2eRXhIyUgJmsqGzAaE19EPGz_C1kSn)

* Chanson Eloignee, by Morten Lauridsen. A lot of Lauridsen's more famous works were composed in the late 20th century, but he is still active. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ajmn9m-C9Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ajmn9m-C9Y)

And there's a lot more that I'm missing. A couple of other favorites of mine
that missed the 21st century by a few years:

* Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings by Michael Nyman (1994) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svf9yuouXww](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svf9yuouXww)

* Danzón No. 2 by Arturo Marquez (1994). This piece is great fun and helped to bring Gustav Dudamel to fame after he conducted it with the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra on their world tour in 2007. (Dudamel is now the conductor of the LA Philharmonic.) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXeWiixwEz4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXeWiixwEz4)

* 24 Preludes for Piano by Lera Auerbach [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9u5wc2CkL8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9u5wc2CkL8)

Lots of great music out there!

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dri_ft
I'm enjoying Michael Harrison's Revelation very much so far; thanks for the
tip-off. By the way, the fifths in just intonation are a 3:2 ratio, not 2:1.

~~~
antognini
Oh shoot, good catch! Yeah, 2:1 is just an octave, of course.

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daviddaviddavid
Very surprised not to see Nico Muhly on this list. There are many of his short
pieces on youtube. I highly recommend "It Goes Without Saying", "Motion" and
"Drones In Large Cycles".

Another interesting musician is the Ukranian pianist Lubomyr Melnyk. The live
video of him in Hamburg is wonderfully shot.

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tannhaeuser
Also from near Hamburg (now Berlin) is pianist/organist Nils Frahm, who
featured in Hamburg several times, and also at the proms.

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thanatropism
Without having read the article, as so often is the custom in comment
sections, I am UNABLE to prevent myself from recommending the series of
documentaries "Leaving home". Specially the first one. They're all on youtube.

"Home" here stands for the familiarity of classical/romantic music ("19th
century" but including post-1900 stuff like Rachmaninoff and so on) but also
more literally the tonic root of the harmonic system. Episode 1 is very
closely about the road to serialism throughout Wagner, Debussy, etc. up until
Schönberg's pre-serial and serial works. Then there are episodes about rhythm
and folk influences and so on that widen the scope from just serialism.

If you have a piano or keyboard at home I also recommend trying some of these
tone rows, verifying when they're "true" tone rows, etc. I sometimes try to
improvise with common chord progressions with my left hand and tone rows that
start (or end) related to the tonal progression to feel how they forcefully
disconnect from attempts to think tonally.

Of course serialism isn't the definition of modern art music, but it's a mind
expander.

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claudiawerner
I'm pleased to see Heiner Goebbels listed, I know him from his excellent
collaboration with Alfred Harth on _Frankfurt-Peking_ (1984), which is a jazzy
sound collage album. I didn't know he also made classical music.

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suchoudh
seems like noise to me. How can it be classical if it's not even pleasing to
ears?

~~~
Jeff_Brown
I thought it was pretty but gratuitously sad. Got fed up and didn't finish the
list.

Artists and philosophers both, I think, sometimes mistake sadness for import.

