Anybody know any good contemporary composers?

I have recently started listening to classical music but the only stuff i really know is beethoven and dvorak. dvorak is deffinately my favorite, but like, i really like expirimental so i was wondering if there is and good experimental classical type of music or any good contemporary music at all. i just dont know where to start looking so ill take all suggestions

thanks :D

THEY DON'T EXIST

ahahahaha. wrong forum, btw

I can't speak for "good" and "bad", but here are a few:

Penderecki, Stockhausen, Boulez, Ligeti, Xenakis, Birtwistle, Crumb, Dello Joio, Corigliano, Reich, (John) Adams, (La Monte) Young, Glass, Riley, Part, Gorecki, and...well...many, many others.

By the way, some of these are more "listenable" than others for those who haven't heard much contemporary music.

I can't speak for "good" and "bad", but here are a few:

Penderecki, Stockhausen, Boulez, Ligeti, Xenakis, Birtwistle, Crumb, Dello Joio, Corigliano, Reich, (John) Adams, (La Monte) Young, Glass, Riley, Part, Gorecki, and...well...many, many others.

By the way, some of these are more "listenable" than others for those who haven't heard much contemporary music.

Thanks :D

Im pretty open minded when it comes to listening to new music.

so im sure ill find someone in the names that you mentioned i will enjoy

which forum should this topic go in for future reference???

which forum should this topic go in for future reference???

I moved it for you. I figure it belongs here, in Composer's Headquarters.

Eric Whitacre and Morten Lauridsen compose absolutely gorgeous choral works.

~Christian

There are some good ones right here on this forum.

In particular, I would reccomend QcCowboy (Michel Edward) and nikolas (Nikolas Sideris).

In terms of composers not on this site, I cannot reccomend anyone more highly than Alan Belkin. Check his website out here:

Alan Belkin, composer

Lots of his music is available on there to listen to.

You're looking for experimental music and people are recommending that you listen to minimalists, post-romantics, a few Avant Garde guys, and generally tonal composers (with the exception of Xenakis, right?). I'm a bit surprised at the recommendations, honestly. You want 'experimental'. Look into Morton Feldman, John Cage (aleatoric, "chance" work), Elliot Carter (specifically his Symphony of Three Orchestras), and Stockhausen (for a comparison to Carter, his Gruppen, also for three orchestras). Also give a listen to Reich's Different Trains if you like the electronic aesthetic (which you can also compare against Honegger's Pacific 231 if you'd like). There are a barrage of other futurist composers as well that you can look into, the contemporary equivalent of the style being almost anything from Edgar Varese, some of the above-mentioned composers, and George Antheil's works Airplane Sonata, Death of the Machines, and Ballet Mechanic.

I mean, you're looking for more 'experimental' works, aren't you? Most of these works are about as far away from what you've been listening to as you can get, if that's really what you're after. Good listening and let us know what you find.

Eric Whitacre and Morten Lauridsen compose absolutely gorgeous choral works.

I used to think Lauridsen was okay until I heard his Lux Aeterna. Not only does it sound identical to everything else he's written, it's just 30 minutes of pure schlock in the first place. It speaks to American taste in classical music when Morten Lauridsen can make enough money to buy himself an island and a living master like Elliott Carter has to rely on Europe for the vast majority of his radio play time. Bluh. *End rant*

Daniel: Thanks ^_^

For other more... "elegant", or less "dissonant" names try:

Shostakovich

Prokofiev

Berg

Schnittke

Messiaen

Kancheli

Stravinsky

Charles Ives

and many others, from whom film composers have borrowed a lot of things, so their music does seem to be more... edible. Not experimental, not in almost all the cases, but certainly interesting.

I've always quite liked Berio, James MacMillan and if Shostakovich is contemporary then so is Benjamin Britten.

THanks again everyone!