Contemporary classical composers?
So we all know of Tchaikovsky, Bach, Beethoven, etc. I need some composers who are still living! I want to explore what modern classical composers are doing right now, and I don't know where to start. Suggestions? I'm talking a la Ennio Morricone and Michael Nyman, for reference (I realize they've both scored films. I'd prefer people who compose without being hired to do so!).
Thanks!
Ooh and please include a reference/artist website!
Comments
I could rattle off the names of a thousand contemporary classical composers, and nine times out of ten you can get to their website by adding ".com" to their name. But without some clue as to what to expect in their music, finding one you like will be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
So, given my bias for American composers, I will try to give a short, but opinionated, description of what their music is like for some American composers:
John Adams - self-described as a "maximalist minimalist," easier to listen for extended periods of time than either Glass or Reich. I recommend "Short Ride in a Fast Machine"
Philip Glass - an important minimalist, best in small doses.
James Hartway - an eclectic who steals the worst bits from everyone else. When Schickele talked about university comp professors "whose music, if it weren't for universities, would be heard about as often as is that of the Roman Emperor Nero," he could very well have been talking about this guy.
Jennifer Higdon - orchestral musicians love her music, apparently it's very fun to play. It's a different story if you're sitting in the audience.
Steve Reich - a minimalist concerned with rhythm above all, best known for "Drumming," a piece for drums with some very subtle changes of rhythmic emphasis across its duration
Peter Schickele - best known as the alter ego of P. D. Q. Bach, some of the music he's written under his own name is quite decent.
Michael Torke - perhaps one of the first Americans to take modern pop influences into his music. I recommend the bright and cheerful "Color Music."
Harold Shapero - today quite obscure, in his day he was championed by Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Igor Stravinsky. His music is neo-Classical with Stravinskian rhythms.
Robert Ward - an American from the greatest generation. Like many of his contemporaries, he was influenced by Gershwin and Hindemith. His Symphony No. 2 was very popular at one time, I think it's worth hearing anew.
You can hear clips from all the composers listed above at Amazon.com.
Off the top of my head, I would recommend Elisabetta Brusa, Jennifer Higdon and Michael Torke. You can listen to clips from their albums by following the links I've provided below.
But any really good composer who writes "without being hired to do so" probably won't be recognized until after they're dead. Maybe they're writing piece after piece to file away in desk drawers and wondering why recognition is so far off in the future. Though perhaps you could help speed up the process by seeking out local composers in your area. Maybe hire one of them to put on a concert of some music they've already written.
And lastly, I would like to recommend some composers who've died recently or might die soon: Tikhon Khrennikov, Robert Simpson and Robert Ward.
To start from your ending. All composers, it could be argued, are 'hired' to compose for, like us ungifted mortals, they also need to eat, keep a roof over their head, etc., etc. Going back into the past, many composers were hired, not by the film industry, but by the church or noble patrons. Nowdays, composers tend to be commissioned by large organisations (eg. the BBC for its Proms season) to write works, or by instrumental virtuosos to provide a concerto or simialr fro their instrument.
Now, as to contemporary 'classical' composers
Philip Glass
Steve Reich
John Adams
Michael Torke (all USA)
Micahel Berkeley
Thomas Ades
Harrison Birtwhistle
Michael Ferneyhough
John McCabe
Oliver Knussen
Roxanne Panufnik
John Taverner (all UK)
Petris (?) Vasks (Estonia)
Einio Rautavarra (Finland)
Henryk Gorecki (Poland)
No, I'm not going to give you references or websites - you are as capable as I am at searching for those!
I would add James MacMillan (Scotland), Brett Dean (Australia) and Jon Lord (England).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_MacMillan_%28co...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brett_Dean
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lord
Many film composers also wrote "standard" classical works. Composers will take whatever work they can, and many highly-rated "classical" composers also wrote for films (Shostakovich, Prokofiev for example) and before there were films they wrote incidental music for plays (Beethoven, Schubert).