Notable Modern Classical Composers and compositions
Table of Contents:
My Preferences
Small Rant
Non-Comprehensive Disclaimer
The Actual List
My Preferences
I should note my listening preferences before proceeding; When listening to classical music, I prefer very dense, busy pieces, generally with polyphonic texture. I like both dissonant and consonant harmonies, I love irregular rhythms (compound meter, polyrhythms, metric modulation), contrasting rhythms (ostinato) and weird timbres. I am open to composers that use unusual composition systems, whether it's tonal, modal or atonal, which is one of the great things about modern music anyway: Very little to fatigue the ears, because there is so much variety!
My favorite composers are Charles Ives, Oliver Messiaen and Witold Lutosławski, (not necessarily in any particular order) although I enjoy works by hundreds of composers. My favorite genres are the String Quartet and Wind Quintet, as well as larger chamber formats. I don't generally listen to symphonies because they are often too smooth sounding, but I love atonal symphonies, such as the late symphonies of Roger Sessions. I generally avoid solo works and sonatas, not that I dislike them particularly, but rather that they generally are not busy enough for my taste.
Small Rant
Modern Classical music provokes strong love or hatred in listeners. I will note that people who despise modern classical music are usually rather unadventurous listeners, (not intended to be a pejorative, but that they strongly prefer traditional harmony, and ONLY traditional harmony) or are formally trained musicians who think that music died with Brahms. The story is always the same: they heard some off the wall Stockhausen or Cage piece, and then decided that every 20th century composer other than Shostakovich sounds like [name of undesired piece goes here], so to their ears, modern music is "uncreative crap."
Ultimately, music is subjective. If you enjoy listening to music composed with original compositional systems, favor expanded harmonies, find that classical music isn't contrapuntal enough, (polyphonic texture is used more frequently, and with greater intensity than in common practice periods) or if your ears fatigue easily, then you will probably enjoy these selections.
Non-Comprehensive Disclaimer
As a final note, this list isn't comprehensive. Most of the time, I just noted pieces off the top of my head by composers that I enjoyed. It is to a certain extent skewed towards lesser known composers, because I generally only list a couple of my favorites by that composer. So, this may give the impression that some important composers are not given proper attention. This is regrettable, but there isn't much I can do about it. If you are aware of a composer or composition that I would probably like that is not listed, then I probably haven't heard it yet, or haven't heard the piece enough times to fully appreciate it.
Key: (*) Warning: Extremely Dissonant
The Actual List
Béla Bartók
String Quartets
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Alban Berg
String Quartet
Violin Concerto
Arthur Berger
String Quartet (*)
Luciano Berio
Sinfonia, for 8 Amplified Voices & Orchestra
String Quartet
David Borden
Continuing Story of Counterpoint (all)
Music for Amplified Keyboard Instruments
Elliott Carter
Eight Etudes and a Fantasy (Wind Quartet)
String Quartets (mainly just the first though, the second is extremely dissonant) (*)
Oboe Quartet (for Oboe & String Trio)
Double Concerto for Harpsichord
ASKO Concerto
Unsuk Chin
Rocaná
Fantaisie mécanique pour 5 instrumentistes (*)
Double Concerto for Piano, Percussion & Ensemble (Doppelkonzert)
Violin Concerto
Aaron Copland
Inscape
Amos Elkana
String Quartet #2
John Harbison
String Quartets (1 and 2)
Josef Matthias Hauer
Zwölftonspiele for Flute, Bassoon (bass Clarinet) & String Quartet
Jennifer Higdon
Zaka (Eighth Blackbird)
Paul Hindemith
Konzertmusik Op. 41 (for wind and brass)
Kammermusik
String Quartets
Mathis der Maler
Arthur Honegger
String Quartets
Charles Ives
String Quartet #2
Symphony #4
Concord Sonata
Fugue in Four Keys
Holidays Symphony
Witold Lutosławski
Livre pour orchestre
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
Symphonies 3 and 4
Leon Kirchner
String Quartets 1-4
Triptych
Darius Milhaud
String Quartets
Divertissement in three parts Op. 299b
Gian Francesco Malipiero
Endecatode for 14 Instruments
All of his works for 10 Instruments
Oliver Messiaen
Quartet for the End of Time
Turangalilia Symphony
Des Canyons aux Etoiles
Sept haïkaï (*)
Moondog (Louis Hardin)
Symphonies
Conlon Nancarrow
Studies for Player Piano
Pauline Oliveros
The Wanderer (including all compositions on that album)
Harry Partch
Delusion of the Fury
Krzysztof Penderecki
Quartet for Clarinet & String Trio
George Perle
Wind Quintets
Quintet for Strings
Sergei Prokofiev
Symphony No. 2
Steve Reich
Electric Counterpoint
Different Trains
Terry Riley
Salome Dances for Peace
Arnold Schoenberg
Variations for Orchestra
String Quartets 3 and 4
Quintet for Winds Op. 26 (Only heard String Quintet version)
Roger Sessions
Symphonies 4,5,6,7,8,9
String Quartets
Bright Sheng
Concertino for Clarinet and String Quartet
Igor Stravinsky
Agon
Threni
Octet for Wind Instruments
Concertino for 12 Instruments
Rite of Spring
Joan Tower
"Turning Points" for Clarinet Quintet
Edgard Varèse
Octandre
Déserts For Brass, Percussion, Piano & Tape
Poeme electronique
Anton Webern
Quartet for Violin, Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone and Piano
Six Bagatelles for String Quartet
Kurt Weill
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
String Quartets
Stefan Wolpe
String Quartet
Oboe Quartet C. 130
Frank Zappa
The Yellow Shark (all works on that album)