The Contemporary Era

Music after 1960

Contemporary music can affect us profoundly because its written by living composers who experience the world in much the same way as we do. Music underwent huge changes in the first half of the twentieth century. But by 1960, modernist music was running out of steam. The real rebels were now to be found in rock ‘n’ roll and pop. The next generation of ‘serious’ composers relaxed and had a wider palette of musical colours to work with - influences from other cultures, popular music, ancient music and the experiments of modernism.

Minimalism

Building whole pieces out of repetitive rhythms and musical phrases, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman and John Adams have been at the forefront of a movement which not only broke musical boundaries but won them huge popularity. Their music reflects our cosmopolitan, technologically-advanced society - sometimes including elements of jazz and rock, sometimes played on synthesizers or generated using computers or multi-track tape recorders. In Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint, for example, a solo clarinet accompanies itself using a multi-track recording. Minimalist music is often very accessible. It’s a favourite background for TV ads!

British composers since 1960

A group of composers who met while studying in Manchester have become the main exponents of ‘post-modern’ music in Britain. While music written by Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle and Alexander Goehr isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, it can be profoundly powerful and constantly stimulating. Between them they’ve written many ‘music-theatre’ pieces. One good example is Maxwell Davies’s Eight Songs for a Mad King; if the title intrigues you, have a listen to the piece or, better still, find a video of it - it’s hilarious.

The new spirituality

A lot of today’s music is varied, colourful and has an enormous following. The British composer John Tavener has been hugely successful. The Beatles’ company Apple Corps funded many of his first works in the 1960s. Since then, the traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church have increasingly influenced Tavener and many people love his deeply religious, contemplative music as a way of dealing with the pace of modern life. Music written by Tavener was used at the funeral of Diana Princess of Wales in 1997, and to welcome in the Year 2000 at the Millennium Dome.

The Estonian composer Arvo Part also writes religious music which has found a great audience. His pieces are often very simple and sparse; the famous solo violin piece Spiegel im Spiegel, for example, uses only a few melodic and rhythmic ideas, which are repeated at a stately pace to create an incredible feeling of space and contemplation. The same is true for the Hungarian composer Henryck Gorecki, whose stunning Symphony No.3 blends repeating musical fragments with a striking soprano line to create a spellbinding effect.

What next?

Many of today’s composers are constantly blurring the line between classical and pop music. The biggest question nowadays is: what constitutes classical music? Certainly fantastic orchestral pieces are written to accompany films, and lovers of the classics have taken equally to the music of Karl Jenkins or Ludovico Einaudi. Thomas Ades is the current bright spark, who uses everything from jazz to modern dance music to get his message across.

The bottom line is: does it bring pleasure, entertain, enthrall and move us? Whatever it’s labelled doesn’t really matter anymore. In many ways, composers have never had it better. Recording technology means that new music can easily reach audiences the world over. And many of us caught up in hectic modern life look to contemporary composers to provide us with a way of feeling ‘human’ again. What will they come up with next? Watch this space!

Contemporary Greats:

Steve Reich: Different Trains, New York Counterpoint
John Adams: Shaker Loops, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Nixon in China
Philip Glass: Violin Concerto
Gorécki: Symphony no.3
Tavener: Song for Athene; Hymn to the Mother of God
Maxwell Davies: Eight Songs for a Mad King