Most important living composer.

After a very hectic and not so pleasant day, I see the thread is again on fire, with a quite a few issues raised and of my concern. Going the opposite way, Chris comes first:

You are very open-minded and kind to admit you find pleasure in something which has been not "quite as satisfying as favourite composers from not long ago". I find too some contemporary composers' works interesting, very few quite interesting, but only as listening experience. Since I'm not satisfied with the musical form, structure, harmony (or lack of it), dissonances (most of the time incredibly difficult to justify) and, of course, the lack of any sort of melody, I cannot call either the works or the composers worthy of the tradition, even the most recent one.

Besides, Bach, in his different structure and form, developed further (up to the way of codification) what previous composers have achieved, in a continuously evolving phase of the Classical Music. The same applies to Mozart compared to Bach (whom, by the way, he admired most and he modelled or devoted works or movements of his works to the Master: see the second movement of the Violin Sonata in e minor, K.304). So, the difference between the composers of the "tradition" (which, practically ends with Shostakovich) and the more modern/contemporary along with the ones who had already decided to "go astray" lies in the break-up, in  one or the other way, with the continuation of the Music as we knew (and love and appreciate) it. The melody was the first and most obvious victim, but what about these clusters of dissonant even cacophonous sounds, the extreme sonorities, the over-stretched form, the almost or most of the time self-justified structure, etc.?

Finally, since you are so interested on Lachenmann's String Quartets, please note that there is a very fine new recording (on SACD) with the Athena Quartet, on the label specialised on contemporary music, namely the NEOS. On the same label, you may find also the Complete Quartets of Kurtag and of Georg Katzer, all of them on brilliant SACD. As I said, I may find interesting some contemporary music (as a consistent collector, I listen to as much music as possible), but I cannot call it Classic...

Good hunting and eventual listening, (if you must).

Parla

Hi Parla!

Did I tell you the story of the Mexican Pupeteer?

(I haf deleted thees story due to representation by the Mehican Pupeteer's agent.)

Arbutus, the reason there was some extensive exchanges on the frequency of the performances of certain works of contemporary composers was not to justify or deal exclusively with the "worth of the piece of music". It has to do with how influential or significant is a modern work (a work of our times) for the audiences it is supposed to address.This factor indicates how well the work is received and accepted; it shows its function and, to some extent, its worth in the world of Classical Music.

The example with the two Missae Pro Defunctis by Victoria is not a quite relevant one to our case. Old music is to be discovered by those who are interested. Their value has been established, whether they are going to be performed frequently or not. Bach's Art of Fugue is not for everyday performance and it cannot be played anywhere. However, it is a well-known, established masterpiece of reference.

However, when we talk about contemporary composers, the frequency and the level of performances, the amount of recordings and how they sell (in any possible form), the impact on the media of the Classical Music and their followers are all elements which, in one way or another, count to assess the actual worth and value of a work in its development in becoming an established work, let alone an established modern masterpiece. The same applies, grosso modo, for the contemporary composers. Take Gorecki's Third, for example: the media and the "establishment" promoted it, in its first recording on Nonesuch, back some good years ago. It managed to become a sort of modern Classic. However, afterwards...There followed about ten other recordings, which almost failed to sell; the live performances? Not such a success story. So, what is the impact (and the fate) of the work as such, beyond the whichever pure musical value?

Craig, with the "experiment" I didn't try to prove anything. The whole "project" indicated that, people who have nothing to do with Classical Music, demonstrated an alienation for this music. In some cases, this alienation reached the levels of repulsion, which is something that goes beyond the issue of accessibility of some sort of music. The degradation has to do with whether one can accept what had been defined as "standards" (or "rules", etc.) to identify what Bach, for example, had set as such and Boulez respected.

For Gorecki's Third, as long as we agree it was a "one-off", I'm fine with that. There have been and will always be exceptions.

Parla

Golden mediocrities...minimal interest...Adams is trivial, Boulez is incomprehensible...no influential figures...rarely performed limited success...Boulez did not develop his language...important goes with influential...I don't deal with any of my preferences...I don't see any of the composers can leave their indelible mark for the next generations...I don't find enough features in anyone to make them worthy of the title of the most important...lower and more indifferent music...degradation and alienation...composers who betray their art...who lead it astray...

...apart from Bernstein, Sondheim and Piazzola...

I think I've got the picture Parla. Now we are asked to believe that unless the work is performed frequently by the top four orchestras in the world and sells in multiples the work is insignificant.

Parla, as a traditionalist ok you have exercised your right to an opinion on this thread, as I also have done as more of a modernist than you. With respect I would say to you that your opinion is not always shared by others. Those of us who are interested in talking about modern/contemporary music will hopefully continue to do so.

Mark

Everybody I've heard, including composers born as late as the 1980s. There's no avant garde, that I know of, any more. Which makes for a very dull situation, especially when there are apparently no great composers of any description. To rephrase the subject of this thread; which composers' new works do you eagerly look forward to? How many new works are you even aware of? Substitute "conductors" or "artists" for "composers" and "recordings" for "works" and I think the response might be more fruitful. The rise of the conductor, in particular, signalled the demise of the composer.

Composer, conductor, and creative thinker - John Adams occupies a unique position in the world of American music. His works, both operatic and symphonic, stand out among contemporary classical compositions for their depth of expression, brilliance of sound, and the profoundly humanist nature of their themes. Over the past 25 years, Adams’ music has played a decisive role in turning the tide of contemporary musical aesthetics away from academic modernism and toward a more expansive, expressive language, entirely characteristic of his New World surroundings.

Born and raised in New England, Adams learned the clarinet from his father and played in marching bands and community orchestras during his formative years. He began composing at age ten and heard his first orchestral pieces performed while still a teenager. The intellectual and artistic traditions of New England, including his studies at Harvard University and attendance at Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts, helped shape him as an artist and thinker. After earning two degrees from Harvard, he moved to Northern California in 1971 and has since lived in the San Francisco Bay area.

Adams taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for ten years before becoming composer-in-residence of the San Francisco Symphony (1982-85), and creator of the orchestra’s highly successful and controversial "New and Unusual Music" series. Several of Adams’ landmark orchestral works were written for and premiered by the San Francisco Symphony, including Harmonium (1980-81), Grand Pianola Music (1982), Harmonielehre (1984-85), and El Dorado (1991).

In 1985, Adams began a collaboration with the poet Alice Goodman and stage director Peter Sellars that resulted in two groundbreaking operas: Nixon in China (1987) and The Death of Klinghoffer (1991). Produced worldwide, these works are among the most performed operas of the last two decades. Four further stage collaborations with Sellars followed: the 1995 "songplay", I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, with a libretto by June Jordan; El Niño (2000), a multilingual retelling of the nativity story; Doctor Atomic (2005), about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the first atomic bomb; and A Flowering Tree, inspired by Mozart’s Magic Flute and premiered in Vienna in 2006.

Nixon in China receives its Metropolitan Opera debut in February of 2011 in six performances the Sellars production conducted by the composer, including a worldwide live telecast on February 12th.

Other signal Adams works that have become repertory with orchestras, choruses and ensembles include Shaker Loops for strings, The Dharma at Big Sur (a concerto for electric violin inspired by the

writings of Jack Kerouac), Doctor Atomic Symphony (a 22-minute symphony drawn from the opera), Violin Concerto, Chamber Symphony and Son of Chamber Symphony (choreographed as Joyride by Mark Morris).

City Noir, a 35-minute symphonic work inspired by "noir" films of the Forties and Fifties, was premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel in October of 2009 and toured throughout the country the following spring.

Absolute Jest

, Adams’ most recently

completed work commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the San Francisco Symphony, is scored for orchestra and solo string quartet and is based on scherzo fragments from late Beethoven quartets.

Harvard University has twice honored Adams with significant awards: in 2004 he received the Centennial Medal of the university’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences "for contributions to society," and in 2007 he received the Harvard Arts Medal. He has received from Northwestern University both the 2004 Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition (the first ever awarded) and in 2008 an honorary doctorate. Honored with a proclamation by governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California for his distinguished service to the arts in his adopted

home state, he has also been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Cambridge and an honorary membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He was honored by his home city of Berkeley, California, for his sixtieth birthday. He was also a 2009 recipient of the NEA Opera Awards.

John Adams is an active conductor, appearing with the world’s greatest orchestras in programs combining his own works with a wide variety of repertoire. In past seasons, he has conducted the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and London Symphony Orchestra, among others. He conducted the National Symphony in Washington DC in a two-week residency in May of 2010 and returned to the San Francisco Symphony later that year as part of an eight concert focus on his music led by himself and by music director Michael Tilson Thomas. In 2011 in addition to conducting Nixon in China at the Metropolitan Opera he leads concerts with the Juilliard Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the New World Symphony and the Toronto Symphony.

Adams has also received critical acclaim for his creative programming. In 2003, Lincoln Center presented a festival titled "John Adams: An American Master", the most extensive festival that the venue has ever devoted to a living composer. As the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall from 2003-07, Adams conducted the first public concert in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and founded the annual "In Your Ear" festival. In 2006, he curated the hugely popular "Minimalist Jukebox" and "West Coast/Left Coast" festivals for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He is a frequent guest with both the London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony at London’s Barbican Centre and the BBC Proms at Albert Hall. He is currently the Creative Chair for the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In 1985, Nonesuch Records released Adams’

Harmonielehre, a landmark recording of American symphonic music. Since then, Nonesuch has released first recordings of all of his works, both symphonic and theatrical. Nonesuch’s ten-disc set, The John Adams Earbox, documents his recorded music through 2000.

Adams’ music plays a dynamic role in the highly acclaimed Tilda Swinton film "I Am Love," directed by Luca Guadagnino. His music has also been used in films by Martin Scorsese and Barbet Schroeder.

In addition to being a composer and conductor John Adams is also a productive and provocative writer. He maintains a popular blog about music and literature called "Hell and

Mouth," and his writings have appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review and the Times of London. "Hallejulah Junction" – Adams’ volume of memoirs and commentary on American musical life – appeared in 2008, by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in the U.S., and by Faber & Faber in the U.K The book won the Northern California Book Award for Creative Nonfiction and was named one of the "most notable books of the year" by The New York Times.