Top 10 compositions of the 21st Century

[James]

We're only 12 years in .. if we look back to the first 12 yrs of the last century we have a small handful of major masterpieces .. from the pre-eminent leading composers at that time. Just recently, I had a 21st century classical music thread going that was listing some the most distinguished & polarizing composers of our time and what they have composed in this century.

So we'll leave the field open to staged works, .. orchestral, chamber music / ensemble .. choral, instrumental , vocal, electronics ..

Rack your brains and provide your top 10 if you can! Who knows .. maybe by the end of this, we'll have a very nice selection of stuff that will tell us something about the world we live in.

[some guy]

I listen to way too much contemporary music to make a top ten list. (Some wording stolen from Greg http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,20573.20.html.)

But I did come up with ten things I find I return to more frequently than other things.

Are these major masterpieces? Well, I think that idea of "masterpieces" took a big hit in the twentieth century, and not a moment too soon, either, I say. And major? Well, who's to say?

Anyway, by the end of this, we will have a selection of stuff, that's true. But tell us something about the world we live in? Not bloody likely. It will say something about the people who post to GMG threads, but it won't be anything we don't all already know.

Ahem:

Bronius Kutavičius, Lokys
Sachiko M, 1:2
Otomo Yoshihide, Turntable Solo
Michèle Bokanowski, L'étoile absinthe
Ludger Brümmer, Lizard Point
Zbigniew Karkowski, World as Will
Francisco López, Untitled #180
Jérôme Noetinger and eRikm, What a Wonderful World
Beatriz Ferreyra, Un fil invisible
Miguel Azguime, Itinerário do Sal

Well, it's perhaps a silly exercise, but I can be sure at least that this list will contain no items that anyone else would put on their list, so there is that. And the person who made it does spend his life listening to contemporary music, live and on recordings. And in talking to the people who make contemporary music. And very little time in reading magazines like Grammophone or BBC Music Magazine or American Record Guide. And even less time following the careers of those who get big recording contracts. Though I certainly do know about Birtwistle and Muhly and Neuwirth and Andriessen and Ferneyhough and Adams and the like, and have heard a good bit of their music as well.

[springrite]

I listen to way too much contemporary music to make a top ten list.

There should be a top ten contemporary composition of the year (month? Week?) just for you then!

I'd expect Henning to get in regularly if only for easier access and exposure here on the site!

[starrynight]

Maybe there should be a lists forum like there is a polls forum. 

[not edward]

Unfortunately, recent years have left me keeping up somewhat less well with the new music world than I would wish; there are so many works and composers that I want to catch up on.

However, some works that have impressed me deeply, in no particular order or stylistic bent:

Abrahamsen Schnee (sort of New Simplicity, sort of minimalist, but also definitely not ... oh, just listen to it).

Carter Boston concerto (music with infinite grace and levity of spirit).

Gubaidulina In tempus praesens (perhaps more of a summing up of her career than anything new, but very well executed).

Lindberg clarinet concerto (pretty much the only work of his since Aura that I've actually liked).

Romitelli Dead City Radio (this can stand in for his last works in general--perhaps the Claude Vivier of his generation; outrageously talented but died far too young).

Sallinen symphony #8 (to me, a great example of a conservative style that remains relevant).


Pretty sure that there's a couple of pieces that blew me away and which I'm not remembering right now....

[bhodges]

Bronius Kutavičius, Lokys
Sachiko M, 1:2
Otomo Yoshihide, Turntable Solo
Michèle Bokanowski, L'étoile absinthe
Ludger Brümmer, Lizard Point
Zbigniew Karkowski, World as Will
Francisco López, Untitled #180
Jérôme Noetinger and eRikm, What a Wonderful World
Beatriz Ferreyra, Un fil invisible
Miguel Azguime, Itinerário do Sal

Wow, very impressive. Even as a big fan of new works, I don't know a single composer here. 

Abrahamsen Schnee (sort of New Simplicity, sort of minimalist, but also definitely not ... oh, just listen to it).

Carter Boston concerto (music with infinite grace and levity of spirit).

Gubaidulina In tempus praesens (perhaps more of a summing up of her career than anything new, but very well executed).

Lindberg clarinet concerto (pretty much the only work of his since Aura that I've actually liked).

Romitelli Dead City Radio (this can stand in for his last works in general--perhaps the Claude Vivier of his generation; outrageously talented but died far too young).

Sallinen symphony #8 (to me, a great example of a conservative style that remains relevant).

On the other hand, I do know most of these--excellent choices.

--Bruce

[some guy]

Romitelli's Index of Metals, which I was lucky enough to see live in Poland, with the outrageously gorgeous Agata Zubel, was either eleven or twelve on my list of ten. (James said ten, so I just obeyed. )

[bhodges]

Romitelli's Index of Metals, which I was lucky enough to see live in Poland, with the outrageously gorgeous Agata Zubel, was either eleven or twelve on my list of ten. (James said ten, so I just obeyed. )

OK, now I am officially jealous.  I've heard it live as well, with the excellent Talea Ensemble at last year's Bang on a Can Festival, but the venue was the World Financial Center Winter Garden (downtown NYC), which is huge and boomy--not ideal for sound at all. Despite that, the power of the piece came through. An amazing composer.

--Bruce

[petrarch]

Sachiko M
Otomo Yoshihide
Zbigniew Karkowski

Good stuff.

Miguel Azguime

Not so good stuff . Azguime always feels superficial to me.

As prompted by James on a different thread, here's my list. I can't possibly make a top 10, so in no particular order or degree of favourite-ness:
Mathew Adkins, Mondes inconnus (collection with works 1994-2005)
Friedrich Cerha, Momente; Instants; and quite a few chamber works composed as recently as 2009
Francis Dhomont, ...et autres utopies; Jalons (both are collections of works, some from the last decade)
James Dillon, 6th String Quartet, in the excellent triple edition with versions by the Arditti, the Diotima and JACK Quartets (on the same disc!)
Brian Ferneyhough, 6th String Quartet (happens to be in the triple CD set as Dillon's 6th SQ)
Beat Furrer, Fama
Helmut Lachenmann, Grido
Wolfgang Mitterer, Stop playing; Music for checking e-mails
Emmanuel Nunes, Das Märchen; also a number of chamber works from the last decade are worth checking
Wolfgang Rihm, quite a few works from the 2000s, especially when he's not at his most Mahlerian
Dieter Schnebel, Im Raum SQ
Salvatore Sciarrino, quite a few works from the 2000s
Karlheinz Stockhausen, Natürliche Dauern (KS back to Klavierstücke I-XI levels)

[snyprrr]

1) Halffter SQ 6 (2001/02)
2) Halffter SQ 7 'Espacio de Silencio' (2007)
3) Norgard SQ 9 'Into the Source' (2000-01)
4) Norgard SQ 10 'Harvest Timeless' (2005)
5) Rihm SQ 12 (2000-01)
6) Ferneyhough Dum T.
7) Lachenmann SQ 3 'Grido'
8.
9)
10

[Mirror Image]

In addition to things that are being listed in this thread (thanks guys) ..

A list of 21st century works I'd like to explore .. basically cherry picked from lists that I was compiling in this thread which caught my eye ..

Dillon: Book Elements I-V, pno
Anderson: Book of Hours, for ensemble & electronics
Adès: Tevot for orchestra
Benjamin: In the Little Hill (opera)
Harvey: Messages for chorus & orchesra
Finnissy: The History of Photography in Sound, pno
Rihm: Verwandlung I-IV, orchestra
Murail: Contes cruels, for 2 electric guitars & orchestra
Ruders: Paganini Variations for gtr. & orchestra
Chin: Violin Concerto
Dutilleux: Le temps l'horloge, for soprano & orchestra
Kurtág: ...concertante... op.42
Gubaidulina: The Lyre of Orpheus for violin, percussion & strings
Saariaho: L'amour de loin (opera)
Saunders: Stirrings Still for alto flute, oboe, clarinet, piano and bowed crotales
Neuwirth: Miramondo multiplo... ... for trumpet & orchestra
Salonen: Violin Concerto
Höller: Sphären for large orchestra & live electronics
Dean: The Lost Art of Letter Writing (vln cto)
Lieberson: Neruda Songs
Currier: Static for flute, clarinet, violin, cello & piano
Maxwell Davies: Naxos Quartets
Knussen: Requiem

The ones bolded are ones I've heard and really enjoyed. The ones highlighted in blue are ones I'd love to hear.

[Mirror Image]

Good stuff .. I have many of them on order. And my list of 21st century stuff I want to check out is growing rapidly as I'm on the net a lot these days digging around; with a particular emphasis/interest on composers born 1960 onward .. it's pretty much the next logical step after exploring the heck out of Stockhausen's galaxy for the last 5 years or so, which itself is like a microcosm of the 2nd half of the 20th century .. it's developments, it's trends; then & leading forward.

I can't say I'm completely onboard with the 21st Century right now, but there is some good music out there right now. It's just a matter of, as you say, digging and finding the treasures.

[some guy]

The ones highlighted in blue are ones I'd love to hear.

How do you know this? (I'm always intrigued by epistemological situations.)

I can't say I'm completely onboard with the 21st Century right now....

I'm sure many current composers have decided to fling themselves off of bridges on hearing this.

...there is some good music out there right now.

What? What is it? You could save many lives just by naming some names. (Though the ones you don't name will still do that flinging thing, I'm sure.)

[Mirror Image]

How do you know this? (I'm always intrigued by epistemological situations.)

How do I know I'd like to hear these works? I like Kurtag (what little I've heard by him), I like Dutilleux, Saariaho, and Gubaidulina as I've heard many of their works, so why wouldn't I want to hear them?

I'm sure many current composers have decided to fling themselves off of bridges on hearing this.

Like the sarcasm, but I'm just not that enthralled with what is currently happening. Lindberg, Salonen, Saariaho, Dutilleux, Kurtag, even our own K. Henning I'm interested in hearing more music from, but I just gravitate to what I think I will like. Of course, I'm not down with serialism and all of these noisy popping sounds and effects for their own sake, but I'm always surprised when I find a composer who can weave more accessible ideas into a more complicated orchestral fabric like all the composers I mentioned above.

What? What is it? You could save many lives just by naming some names. (Though the ones you don't name will still do that flinging thing, I'm sure.)

I've already named names.

[some guy]

How do I know I'd like to hear these works? I like Kurtag (what little I've heard by him), I like Dutilleux, Saariaho, and Gubaidulina as I've heard many of their works....

Mystery solved. Such an obvious answer, too. Why didn't I think of that?

[snyprrr]

I'm sure many current composers have decided to fling themselves off of bridges on hearing this.

Now, THAT'S Music to my ears!