20th century/modern music

So...I used to be really anal about just about all music composed in the last 100 year or so, I have come to realize that I have genuinely missed much enjoyable music.

So therefore, I need a list! Who is going to get credit for showing me the best modern music! I dig Higdon, but...I don't know who else I should listen to.

JENNIFER HIGDON FOR THE WIN.

I'd say some essentials would be Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky (Sacre du Printemps), Steve Reich (Music for Eighteen Musicians, Different Trains), JOHN ADAMS (Harmonielhere, The Dharma at Big Sur, Phrygian Gates, Short Ride in a Fast Machine), Sergei Prokofiev (Piano Concerto No. 3) Samuel Barber (Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, Symphony No. 1), Michael Gandolfi (Garden on Cosmic Speculation), Christopher Rouse (Flute Concerto, Symphony No. 2, Trombone Concerto) and DEFINITELY LISTEN TO ANYTHING BY ERIC WHITACRE.

If you're feeling more experimental (just a little bit) listen to Varese. His wntire opus can be listened to in one life-changing afternoon.

Hope I helped.

For a broad introduction to modern music from...say, 1900-1950, I would pick:

Debussy: Preludes, Books I and II, especially Voiles, Brouillards, and Feux d'Artifice, Prelude a l'apres midi d'un faune (which isn't technically twentieth-century, but it's an early example of musical modernism)

Ravel String Quartet in F Major, maybe Daphnis et Chloe, too

Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps and Symphony of Psalms

Varese: Deserts and maybe Ameriques

Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire, Violin Concerto

Berg: Piano Sonata, Violin Concerto

Webern: Symphonie, String Trio

Hindemith: Konzertmusik for Brass and Strings and any one of his late duo sonatas (I recommend either the 1939 Viola Sonata, the Clarinet Sonata, or the Trombone Sonata)

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1, Piano Concerto No. 2

Bartok: String Quartet No. 4 (or really any of them), Concerto for Orchestra

Strauss: Don Juan

Barber: Piano Sonata, Excursions

Bloch: Suite for Viola and Piano, Second String Quartet

Copland: Rodeo, Sextet, maybe Piano Variations

Ives: Everything!

(If you're really into American music, you might also want to look at composers like Riegger, Cowell, and Ruggles.)

Honegger: Pacific 231, other stuff

Shostakovich: Symphonies 5 and 10, Cello Sonata

And various works by Milhaud, Villa-Lobos, and others.

I would also recommend that you look at some more obscure composers like Nancarrow (Studies for Player Piano), Seeger, and Antheil. Maybe also some less modernist composers like Vaughan Williams and Rachmaninov.

I'm probably omitting something (well, besides 1950-2009), but others can fill in the blanks. Good luck!

Bartok: Divertimento for String Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta

Ligeti: Violin Concerto; Etudes pour Piano

Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet; Requiem Canticles

Ginastera: Piano Concerto No. 2; Danzas Argentinas

Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 11

You may not like some of the more recent music at first, but it's good to expose yourself nonetheless.

How could I forget Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta? :D

I would also recommend the Ysaye Solo Violin Sonatas, not because they'll help you understand 20th century music better, but just because they're awesome.

Additions:

1. Stravinsky - Soldier's Tale (a little dense at first, but keep trying it)

2. Alban Berg - Lyric Suite (especially the string orchestra version)

3. Ned Rorum - 11 Studies for 11 Players, any of his vocal music

4. Hindemith - Symphonic Metamorphosis, Viola Sonata, Trumpet Sonata

5. Gregson - Tuba Concerto

6. Ginastera - Pompananas for violin and piano (there are several - all great)

7. John Adams - Nixon in China

8. Erwin Junger - Violin Sonata

9. Michael Daughtery - Diamond in the Rough

As a hilarious aside, I've spent some time every semester studying the Rite of Spring. Last fall, my composition professor took the opening bassoon melody and starting singing "I'm... not an English horn... I'm not an English Horn... this is too high for me". I still can't listen to it without smiling.

4. Hindemith - Symphonic Metamorphosis, Viola Sonata, Trumpet Sonata

Which Viola Sonata? The 25/1, the 25/4, the 11/4, 11/5, 31/4, 1939, or 1937? :P

I think 11/4, 25/1, and 1939 are the most famous. 25/1 is the completely bizarre one, if that helps. 11/4 is basically romanticist, with emerging Hindemith-iness in it. All of them are awesome.

1. Stravinsky - Soldier's Tale (a little dense at first, but keep trying it)

2. Alban Berg - Lyric Suite (especially the string orchestra version)

3. Ned Rorum - 11 Studies for 11 Players, any of his vocal music

...

7. John Adams - Nixon in China

Completely agree! :D

Whoops. should have been "sonatas", but 11-4 (because it's so accessible) and 31-4

Oh yeah, I forgot that you're a violist. You can actually tell the difference...

Coltrane - A love Supreme, Ascensions

Brotzmann - Machine Gun (i know I recommend it all the time, but i feel it's more brutal than his predecessors and contemporaries)

John Zorn - Spillane

Lucier - Wire

Oh yeah, I forgot that you're a violist. You can actually tell the difference...

I am much less familiar with Hindemith than I'd like to be, but I know several seasoned performers that have tackled most of them at one time or another.

Henri Dutilleux - Metaboles, Piano Sonata

Olivier Messiaen - Turangalila Symphony, Quartet for the end of time,Vingt regards, chronochromie,

Birtwistle - Secret Theatre, Triumph of time

Stockhausen - Gruppen

Boulez - Notations, Pli selon Pli, PianoSonata 1-2

Magnus Lindberg - Clarinet Concerto

You mentioned enjoyable music, right.... of the past 100 years.

Here's a couple I like:

Ravel - Mallarme songs

Webern - op.3 no.5 'Kahl reckt der Baum' (exquisite! you can find it on youtube)

Messiaen - Preludes for piano, Oraison, Quartet for the end of time

Ives - his songs (esp the recent disk with pierre-laurent aimard)

Steve Reich - Just about everything from Piano Phase to Triple Quartet! Also, Cello Counterpoint.

John Adams - China and Phrygian Gates, Common tones in simple time, the Chairman Dances, Eros piano

Terry Riley - A Rainbow in curved Air album, numerous other works

Philip Glass - Music with changing parts

La Monte Young - Piano Trio (so eerie... can be hard to find though)

Check out Christopher Theofanidis and Kevin Puts too! They are living North American composers with wonderful music.

Mahler!

(He was in the last 100 years.)

Vaughan Williams - I quite like some of his choral work as well as the symphonies... also the lark ascending and fantasia on green sleeves.

John Tavener - Lots of choral works (The Lamb is quite a popular one the year above me is studying as a set work for their A-levels).

Michael Nyman - Quite a few film scores, I like the music from A Zed and Two Noughts and The Piano.

William Walton - Spitfire prelude and fugue, variations on a theme by hindemith, Belshazzar's Feast

Benjamin Britten - War requiem

Mike Oldfield - Music of the spheres

Just a few of the composers of the last 100 years i found whilst flicking through my ipod :)

You mentioned enjoyable music, right.... of the past 100 years.

Here's a couple I like:

Ravel - Mallarme songs

Webern - op.3 no.5 'Kahl reckt der Baum' (exquisite! you can find it on youtube)

Messiaen - Preludes for piano, Oraison, Quartet for the end of time

Ives - his songs (esp the recent disk with pierre-laurent aimard)

Steve Reich - Just about everything from Piano Phase to Triple Quartet! Also, Cello Counterpoint.

John Adams - China and Phrygian Gates, Common tones in simple time, the Chairman Dances, Eros piano

Terry Riley - A Rainbow in curved Air album, numerous other works

Philip Glass - Music with changing parts

La Monte Young - Piano Trio (so eerie... can be hard to find though)

Check out Christopher Theofanidis and Kevin Puts too! They are living North American composers with wonderful music.

Nice list. I like a lot of these composers all ready but I don't know all the pieces. gonna check them out

I just listened to some Schulhoff and I must say it's quite remarkable. Notable examples: "Concerto for Piano and Small Orchestra 'alla jazz', "Flute Sonata," "Violin Sonata," "Duo for Violin and Cello," "Hot Sonata" and of course, his infamous "Sonata Erotica," if you're really really really bored.

Messiaen - O Magnum Mysterium

George Benjamin

I forgot about another one - Alec Wilder. He wrote a lot of music that crossed borders between "art" music, popular music, and jazz.

If you want a few more well-known pieces, try...

Stravinsky - Petrushka, Rite of Spring and Firebird (especially the Infernal Dance of King Katschei)

Debussy - La Mer

Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 8

Sibelius - Finlandia and Symphony No. 2, mvt. 5

etc.