contemporary composers

[sjwenger]

An interesting question came up on another list I subscribe to: are there any contemporary composers whose works you think will live on, who will still be played two hundred years from now?


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[JA Gardiner]

John Taverner and Arvo Part would be my best bets because of the timeless, spiritual and engaging quality of their work as well as its intrinsic merits. John Rutter for sheer ubiquity. Philip Glass possibly and I'd have an outside long shot on Mark-Anthony Turnage whose work just gets better and better - his The Wreckage was a highlight of this year's proms. Of course I'm only looking at composers in what might be called the Western Classical tradition - but in the field of world, Jazz and popular in all its forms I'm sure there'll be others...

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Beethoven the Man!

[gprengel]

The only professional contemporary composition which I love is the the deep and expressive 3rd symphony from 1976 from the Polish composer H. Gorecki. It expresses the suffering of a person in a concentration camp in World War II in a most touching and unique way.

But in the internet there are a few non professional composers who write in a fantastic
neo classical style: For example Shawn Beard or Thomas Decroil. If someone is interested I can send some great Mp3 files...

Gerd

[Nightklavier]

I'm going to boldly venture to say "none"... Sorry, I just don't think any contemporary composers will survive. The composers before the 1940s will always survive, but I doubt if any afterwards can. And I only say this taking in the scope of "200 years". That's a long time. 200 years ago there were all kinds of classical composers that worked just as hard as Beethoven, Haydn or Handel. Where are they today? Because of mediocrity or loss of manuscripts, we'll never hear their works.

Of course the three greats (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven) and many other classical/romantic composers will always be played in the classical music realm, but in 200 years... forget anyone today being played; I just don't see it happening.

[HaydnFan]

Originally posted by Nightklavier:
[B]Of course the three greats (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven)[B]

Yes, this was the point I was trying to make...these three names go together (at the top)...I don't see Handel's name...but not getting into THAT discussion I again...forget I brought it up.

[Peter]

Originally posted by sjwenger:
An interesting question came up on another list I subscribe to: are there any contemporary composers whose works you think will live on, who will still be played two hundred years from now?

More alarming, with the current state of 'music' education in schools, will there be anyone around capable of performing the works of the old masters?

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'Man know thyself'

[waldstein]

Originally posted by gprengel:
The only professional contemporary composition which I love is the the deep and expressive 3rd symphony from 1976 from the Polish composer H. Gorecki. It expresses the suffering of a person in a concentration camp in World War II in a most touching and unique way.

But in the internet there are a few non professional composers who write in a fantastic
neo classical style: For example Shawn Beard or Thomas Decroil. If someone is interested I can send some great Mp3 files...

Gerd

great!can you send me some? my e-mail is aatiq_hamza@yahoo.fr

[untamed_personality]

What about film composers? Cinema as a medium is in no danger of dying out, even if it is dumbing down by the year. I always enjoy the scores of John Williams in particular - isn't he quite respected in classical circles? He wrote the score for 'Schindler's List', which was so beautifully played by Itzhak Perlman and used on the recent BBC documentary 'The Last Tommy'. I think this will endure.

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Seizing fate by the throat...

[MontrealPianist]

Originally posted by Peter:
More alarming, with the current state of 'music' education in schools, will there be anyone around capable of performing the works of the old masters?

It depends. The pianists since the start of the 20th century have been the best in history. As surprising as it is, there is an actual growth in musicians thanks to the availability of instruments. You can easily find a pianist in every major city who has as much piano skill as Liszt had. I will begin classes soon with a Russian with no reputation. Yet he can read any piece(wether it is chopin studies, Liszt's sonata or even contemporary pieces) in sight seeing, at full speed, without any errors of notes or rythm. The talent is there but as you said, there is much improvement needed in the education.

About contemporary composers. There are many greats. Arvo Part, Jacques Hetu, Yanni Xenakis, Kochkin are among those with highly regarded works. The biggest reason why we have a negative view of contemporary music is that since the start/middle of the 20th century, we have started to listen to old music, which wasnt the case in Beethovens time. Not only that, but since that time, art has seen its philosphy go from what is beautifull to what is original and creative. Atonal music has its pleasures and I'm sure future generations will appreciate our legacy.

[Gurn Blanston]

Originally posted by MontrealPianist:

About contemporary composers. There are many greats. Arvo Part, Jacques Hetu, Yanni Xenakis, Kochkin are among those with highly regarded works. The biggest reason why we have a negative view of contemporary music is that since the start/middle of the 20th century, we have started to listen to old music, which wasnt the case in Beethovens time. Not only that, but since that time, art has seen its philosphy go from what is beautifull to what is original and creative. Atonal music has its pleasures and I'm sure future generations will appreciate our legacy.

But actually, this started long before the 20th century. By the mid-19th century the movement towards what we now call "standard repertoire" was well under way. People like Anton Bruckner, who we now consider an "old master" found it nearly impossible to get his works played. Contemporary music was considered to be in an awful slump. Beethoven's "big" works, quite a bit of Mozart, very little Haydn or Händel, were the top box office draws. Even Brahms wasn't a sure thing to get a new work performed!!!

Sounds sort of familiar, doesn't it? History has a way of repeating itself. I doubt that what we now think of as "classical" music will return to the older form (although there is a big swing to what could be thought of as Neo-Romantic in the last 25 years), but an art music will come along that has the combination of intricacy to provide intellectual stimulation, and popular appeal (like melody used to have!) and art music will resurge.

I don't think of film score music as being coherent enough to fill the bill here. It is too specifically tailored to match the action on the screen to make it as standalone music over any amount of time.



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Regards,
Gurn
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That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
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[Peter]

Originally posted by MontrealPianist:
It depends. The pianists since the start of the 20th century have been the best in history. As surprising as it is, there is an actual growth in musicians thanks to the availability of instruments. You can easily find a pianist in every major city who has as much piano skill as Liszt had. I will begin classes soon with a Russian with no reputation. Yet he can read any piece(wether it is chopin studies, Liszt's sonata or even contemporary pieces) in sight seeing, at full speed, without any errors of notes or rythm. The talent is there but as you said, there is much improvement needed in the education.

About contemporary composers. There are many greats. Arvo Part, Jacques Hetu, Yanni Xenakis, Kochkin are among those with highly regarded works. The biggest reason why we have a negative view of contemporary music is that since the start/middle of the 20th century, we have started to listen to old music, which wasnt the case in Beethovens time. Not only that, but since that time, art has seen its philosphy go from what is beautifull to what is original and creative. Atonal music has its pleasures and I'm sure future generations will appreciate our legacy.

Yes there are many pianists - too many! I know this as an agent I represent some of them and getting engagements is not easy due to enormous competition. There are shortages in other areas though such as double-bass and horn players and the general level of music education in schools is not good.

Atonal music has been around for a century now and I don't think Schoenberg is regarded by most classical lovers with the same affection as Beethoven.

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'Man know thyself'

[This message has been edited by Peter (edited 12-14-2005).]

[untamed_personality]

I don't think of film score music as being coherent enough to fill the bill here. It is too specifically tailored to match the action on the screen to make it as standalone music over any amount of time.



[/B]

Don't get me wrong, I don't regard it as 'classical music' as such, and I don't actually sit down and listen to it really. It's just that some film scores stay in the memory, like, say, Bernard Hermann's 'North by Northwest', or Jerome Moross's 'The Big Country'. Some contemporary film composers release full soundtracks on CD - especially Williams - and the music forms a cohesive whole.

I have a special 'Double Decca' that focused on a 'Space' theme, featuring Holst's 'Planet Suite' and Strauss's 'Also Sprach Zarathustra'. Also featured were a couple of Williams pieces: 'Close Encounters' and his 'Star Wars Suite', in which certain leitmotifs from the film were elaborated upon. A lot of it was quite clever, I thought.

There is also the example of Samuel Barber's 'Adagio for Strings', originally part of a Quartet, which a lot of people love...even though the majority associate it with 'Platoon'! My brother isn't a CM fan, but he bought all three 'Lord of the Rings' soundtracks - sorry, I forget the composer's name - and he thinks they're fantastic.

I think my point (which may be lost to me now!) is that many people - who don't necessarily listen to CM - buy these soundtracks and listen to them. They have to concentrate for longer than the token three-minute attention span, and they enthuse about them. That's why I think they will endure, not because of their relative worth.

Sorry for prattling on!

Daz

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Seizing fate by the throat...