Modern classical music called waves
From the concert hall to the games consolethe last century has seen the number of platforms for brilliant music increase exponentially. Now, some way into the 21st century, we take a look at the composers whose works could have the greatest impact on the next 80 years of classical music-making. Across film scoresjazz clubs, concert halls and video game soundtracks, the classical music of the 21st century incorporates styles and influences from all that came before it, including minimalismRomantic musicchoral and religious masses, electronics, and much more.
Here are 10 of the most stand-out composers of the last 22 years, and hopefully more to come Composer, pianist, and producer, Max Richter is one of the best-known classical composers at work this century, with over one billion streams of his music online, and a further one million album sales. Having trained at the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Academy of Music, Richter then studied in Florence under the great 20th century pioneer, Luciano Berio, one of the main proponents of experimental electronic music.
A decade on, inRichter released a new version with Chineke! Orchestra and Elena Urioste, which was featured in series 4 of hit Netflix period drama Bridgerton. His simple, yet hauntingly beautiful melodies have become a hallmark for his work, which has also included scores and soundtracks for ballet, stage and screen. His music has featured in notable film and television productions in the 21st century, including Doctor Zhivago and Nomadlandas well as commercials for leading household brand names.
JSTOR Straus, Joseph. Autumn The Musical Quarterly. Toop, Richard March Contact: A Journal for Contemporary Music 32 : 4— 8. Watkins, Glenn Whittall, Arnold Subscription access. Further reading [ edit ]. Cardoso-Firmo, Ana. In Dramaturgies de l'Absurde en France et au Portugal[ full citation needed ]pp. Chute, James. Cross, Jonathan. Danuser, Hermann.
Die Musik des Jahrhunderts: mit Notenbeispielen, Abbildungen und 2 Farbtafeln. Neues Handbuch der Musikwissenschaft 7. Laaber: Laaber-Verlag. Moderne Musik Nach Munich: Piper Verlag. ISBN pbk. Du Noyer, Paul ed. Trackings: Composers Speak with Richard Dufallo. New York: Oxford University Press. New York: de Falco Books. Soundpieces 2: Interviews with American Composers.
Soundpieces: Interviews with American Composers. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press. American Music in the Twentieth Century. Griffiths, Paul. Eight Lectures on Experimental Music. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. New York: Norton. Vienna: Universal Edition. Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond. Second edition.
Music in the 20th century. Cambridge University Press.
Modern classical music called waves
Rockwell, John. All American Music. New York: Vintage Books. Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music. Expanded edition. New York: Da Capo Press. Whittall, Arnold. Artificial intelligence is also being used to create music. During the 20th century, composers started drawing on an ever wider range of sources for inspiration and developed a wide variety of techniques.
Debussy became fascinated by the music of a Vietnamese theatre troupe and a Javanese gamelan ensemble, and composers were increasingly influenced by the musics of other cultures. Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School developed the dodecaphonic system and serialism. Jazz and the popular music of the West became increasingly important—both as influences on art music and as genres of their own.
Music generally became more and more diverse in style as the century progressed. The works of each of these composers represent different aspects of the music of this century, but these composers all came to the same basic conclusion: music is too diverse to categorise or limit. In his interview with the magazine, Dutilleux argued that "there is only good or bad music, whether serious or popular".
The music of the 21st century is mostly post-modernistdrawing on many different styles and open to a great many influences. Post-modernism continues to exert an influence on composers in the 21st century. Polystylism and musical eclecticism are growing trends in the 21st century. Composers have often started their musical career in one discipline and have later migrated to or embraced others, while retaining important elements from the former discipline.
In some cases, a composer now labelled "classical" may have started out in another discipline. For example, a specific label for John Zorn 's music is modern classical music called waves to choose: he started out as a performance artist and moved through various genres including jazz, hardcore punkfilm musicand classical, and often embraces Jewish musical elements.
All of these diverse styles appear in his works. Elements of modernismspectral musicand electronic music are combined with elements of the folk music of Eastern Europe and the resulting works are often influenced by the modality of Indian ragas. Tansy Davies 's music also fuses elements of pop and classical music. Prince and Iannis Xenakis are both major influences.
Composers are influenced from around the world. For example, inLa Monte Youngalong with Marian Zazeela and senior disciple Jung Hee Choifounded the Just Alap Raga Ensemble which performs Indian classical music of the Kirana Gharana and merges the traditions of Western and Hindustani classical music, Young applying his own compositional approach to traditional raga performance, form, and technique.
Other composers have modern classical music called waves drawn upon diverse cultural and religious influences. For example, John Tavener died drew his inspiration from eastern mysticism and the music of the Eastern Orthodox Church[ 11 ] and James MacMillan is influenced by both traditional Scottish music and his own Roman Catholic faith. The influence of electronic music, numerology, unusual instrumentation, and improvisational techniques are also apparent.
He composes for the luteorpharionand torbanand is an advocate of musical historicism and has collaborated with Hans Kockelmans and the New York Bandura Ensemble led by Julian Kytasty. His works often incorporate audiovisual elements [ 16 ]. Composers find inspiration from other sources, too. The music of John Luther Adams an Alaskan environmentalist and no relation to the other John Adams discussed in this article is informed by nature, especially that of his native Alaska.
His Pulitzer Prize-winning symphony Become Ocean was inspired by climate change. Extended techniques such as over-pressure bowings coexist with lyrical folk songs and synthesized sounds. Composers have even created mashupsmore commonly found in pop music. Jeremy Sams ' The Enchanted Island is one example: he draws from HandelVivaldiRameauand other Baroque composers to create a combination of pasticcio and musical collage, which also combines the baroque and the modern in its staging and costume.
According to A History of Western Music"it calls into question ideas of authorship and originality, making it a thoroughly postmodern work". The music of Osvaldo Golijov often combines the classical, modern, and popular traditions within a single work juxtaposing contrasting styles—an important trend in the music of the s onward. Chamber opera is an important type of opera developed in the mid-twentieth century.
They use smaller scale forces than regular operas. Embrace is a ballet written in by the American composer Sarah Kirkland Snider and choreographed by the British choreographer George Williamson. Debra Craine of The Times wrote, " Embrace is an earnest and heartfelt gay coming-out tale, with dramatic music from Sarah Kirkland Snider, played live and a clearly defined choreographic journey from confusion and confrontation to acceptance and reconciliation.
The ballet is performed to a combination of original music by Joby Talbot and arrangements of music by Jack White of the White Stripeswith orchestrations by Christopher Austin. Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls is a choral piece commemorating the victims of the 11 September attacks [ 20 ] for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in Golijov, being a Jew and Latin American, offered a different perspective on the Passion: he drew on African-influenced traditions from Cuba and Brazil, flamenco and Baroque music to create a work that enacts the story as a ritual through voices, dance and movement.
Henri Dutilleux 's last works died include Correspondances and Le temps l'horlogeboth of which are song cycles. It was written in memory of her brother and features flute her instrument and clarinet his instrument in dialogue in their upper registers. The work evokes Debussy 's more accessible form of modernism : parallel triads in strings and brass; changes in pitch set demarcating musical units, such as phrasesand providing a sense of harmonic progression; and Debussy's distinctive orchestral colour.
Composers have also written concertos in the 21st century. Oliver Knussen 's Violin Concerto, Op. The composer included a moment of blocking during which the solo performer rises, walks behind the orchestra, and exits through the stage door, all the while being followed by a spotlight while a string trio, offstage, plays. Christopher Rouse 's Concerto for Orchestra was premiered in Other composers during this time began to experiment with this indeterminacy of composition.
Another American composer, Lamonte Young, was inspired heavily by John Cage and produced a set of pieces with various performance instructions entitled Compositions The piece gives the composer the power to decide the duration of the piece, but it also gives the audience the ability to decide what to do in the meantime:. Announce to the audience when the piece will begin and end if there is a limit on duration.
It may be of any duration. Then announce that everyone may do whatever he wishes for the duration of the composition. With technological advances in computing systems, there was a larger variety of sounds to experiment with. Karl Stockhausen and Milton Babbitt were two artists who are famous for developing work in electronic music. Both men were advocates of the idea of total control, in which a composer could have complete control over producing the musical expression they intended.
Unlike thinkers of the aleatoric style, Stockhausen and Babbitt sought to control all aspects of music production, including tone, tempo, articulation, and rhythm during a performance. Electronic and computer-generated music provided the potential for this. Other composers experimented with new sounds for old instruments.