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Contemporary classical music is Western art music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included serial music, electronic music, experimental music, and minimalist music.
- c. 1730-1820
- c. 1400-1600
- c. 500-1400
- Max Richter. 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.
- Ludovico Einaudi. Since the release of his debut album for solo piano, Le Onde, in 1996, Ludovico Einaudi’s name has become synonymous with hypnotically minimalist piano music.
- Hildur Guðnadóttir. Born to a family of musicians, the Icelandic composer, cellist, and vocalist Hildur Guðnadóttir is best known for her award-winning film and TV scores.
- Eric Whitacre. Award-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre is responsible for some of the most glorious choral music of the 21st century. Known for his close, crunchy, complex harmonies, which form what he calls ‘the golden brick’, his most famous works include Sleep, Cloudburst, and Lux Aurumque.
- Serialism and The Continuation of Modernism
- Experimental Music
- Computer Music and Spectralism
- Minimalism
- Current Composers of Contemporary Classical Music
- Summary
The modernist movement emerged in the 20th Century as a response to the epically grand music of the late Romantic period, as there was a feeling that almost everything that was possible had now been achieved within the structures and conventions of the Common Practice Era (which used a tonal system based on key centers and standard chord progressio...
In the mid-20th Century some composers began writing pieces that questioned the very definitions of music, art and composition. One of the most famous examples of this is John Cage’s 4’33”,in which the performers do nothing except be present for four minutes and 33 seconds, meaning that the piece is actually composed of the sounds and atmosphere in...
As music technology developed, composers began to use computers as part of their working process. This might include having a computer algorithm generate an element of composition, use of synthesized sounds, or using a program to digitally manipulate acoustic sound waves. Much of this work is based on the relationship between music and mathematics....
The minimalist movementemerged in the United States in the late 1950s. Using minimal amounts of musical material, minimalist music takes repeating, interweaving fragments of melody to create hypnotic tapestries of sound, which tend to lack the peaks and troughs, the sense of tension and release, found in lots of other music. Against the backdrop of...
The 20th Century saw music become more divergent than previous eras, with a more divergent range of styles and sound worlds emerging than ever before. This trend has continued and, in fact, there are more subgenres and scenes than it is possible to cover in this article. But to give you a sense of the stylistic breadth of contemporary classical mus...
So, that concludes our guide to Contemporary Classical Music. We’ve learned about an extremely varied selection of styles and scenes, from the uncompromising sounds of high modernism, to the quirky experimentalism of John Cage and his peers, the perhaps more approachable work of the minimalists, and the high-tech approach of spectralism. We hope th...
- Maddy Shaw Roberts
- Marin Alsop – conductor. American conductor Marin Alsop has been a crucial figure in progressing classical music over the past century. With a string of ‘firsts’ to her name, her historic move to the helm of the Baltimore Symphony in 2007 made her the first woman appointed director of a major US orchestra.
- Martha Argerich – pianist. Arguably the best living pianist, Martha Argerich is revered for her interpretations of 19th and 20th-century piano music. With Deutsche Grammophon the Argentine musician has recorded the solo works of Bach and Liszt, and concertos of Chopin and Prokofiev, and continues to perform today with concert dates coming up in Europe and the Middle East.
- Alison Balsom – trumpeter. Forward-looking, genre-crossing, with a refreshingly personable style – English trumpeter Alison Balsom is one of 2022’s classical superstars.
- Daniel Barenboim – pianist. Hailed by Opera Now as “one of the most versatile cultural figures of our time”, Argentine-born pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim is among today’s most in-demand performers on the concert stage.
21st-century classical music is art music in the contemporary classical tradition that has been produced since the year 2000. A loose and ongoing period, 21st-century classical music is defined entirely by the calendar and does not refer to a musical style in the sense of Baroque or Romantic music.
- c. 1730-1820
- c. 1400-1600
- c. 500-1400
Dec 23, 2021 · The Best Contemporary Classical of 2021. The taxonomy of contemporary classical music—new music, contemporary music, whatever you want to call it—is a thorny issue. That ambiguity makes rating the year’s best offerings difficult, if not impossible, but embracing the big picture of musical diversity that these 20 albums have ...
Dec 13, 2023 · Discover a broad spectrum of this year's most compelling classical music, from symphonic hell rides and soaring voices to searing string quartets, cathartic choirs and one amazing comeback.
