Nice List. For my personal taste I would add: -Béla Bártok's Night Music of the five piano pieces Out of Doors (1926) It's odd this music even though Bartok will go deep in this way of sensation and conception of music across many works, this piano pieces feel kind of abstract both in time and about the whole Bartok night music production. A glimpse of a feeling to come later by Morton Feldman on his latest piano works. -Giacinto Scelsi's "Okanagon" (1968) for Harp, Tam Tam and Double bass. I find the instrumentation singular with an amazing compositional work and sound result, as well as the whole force of this music. -Iannis Xenakis "Ikhoor" (1978) for string quartet (It maybe passes the 10 min by some seconds). I find the string trio a quite singular instrumentation, I guess because of the unique but same instrumental family three individuals. This piece is amazingly solid and it surprise me how rich in terms of gesture, vibe, harmony and energy it is besides this "short scale" length of work. -Luigi Nono's "Donde estás hermano" (1982) for four part female choir Well, There's so much to say about Luigi Nono, at least in my opinion I think this composer have put the bar not high but far away in another place, speaking aesthetically, socially and politically. It results me curious about the fragile and cautious of this music regarding how affects the listening, how immediately attracts and focus the attention in a powerful way. I would like to know more female composers, especially from the beginning of the 20th century to mid century (50`s/60`s) besides all the electronic female artist that came up around the 60's and 70's (Daphne Oram, Eliane Radige, Suzanne Cianni, Delia Derbyshire, Pauline Oliveros, Wendy Carlos, just to name a few) Also it would be nice to know non western female composers. Any recommendations? Kind regards from Mexico City, Samuel. I really like your videos and podcasts.
I ve got many alternatives, just spontaneosly: - Strauss Salome - Strawinsky Histoire du Soldat - Ravel Sonata for vl+vc - Berg Violin concerto - Bartok Concerto for orchestra - Bernstein West Side Story - Lutoslawsky Livre pour Orchestra (or Sgt.Pepper) - Ligeti Le Grand Macabre - Ivan Eröd 2nd violin sonata - Kurt Schwertsik Sinfonia-Sinfonietta 🥰
Despite what some commenters have said, I appreciate that you don’t patronize your subscribers by spoon-feeding them. We are here because we are hungry to learn and want to be challenged. I look forward to listening to these pieces with open ears and thank you for introducing them to me-your contextualization really helps. Keep it up!
Thank you Mr Andreyev! I'm a total newbie to modern classical music. I think these are absolute gems. I love discovering new music, getting out of my comfort zone and you are helping in a massive way!
Same for myself. I have some listening to do. While I know some composers from other works, I have never come upon these compositions. I love all music from Russian sacred music, Persian, Indian, African and so on, I do get blasé with Western classical music at times. So a new listening challenge is always welcome. Like the character says : "Make my day."
Let's see what I can come up with! 1. Debussy - reflets dans l'eau 2. Ravel - Jeux d'eau 3. Scriabin - Vers la flamme 4. Messiaen - le banquet céleste 5. Wyschnegradsky - arc-en-ciel 6. Scelsi - tre canti sacri 7. Xenakis - mists 8. Ligeti - Lux eterna 9. Haas - second string quartet 10. Finnissy - the history of photography in sound I'm obviously a pianist (Last one is a joke, yes)
the viola of my life is actually a series where i think Morton FELDMAN was totally vulnerable, and i was surprised to get that out of him. the "viola of my life iv" is my favourite piece of all time.. it is just so truthful, delicate and bare.
John Cage - In A Landscape Terry Riley - In C (original CBS recording) Morton Subotnick - Silver Apples of the Moon Micheal Nyman - Bell Set No.1 Gavin Bryars - The Squirrel And The Ricketty-Racketty Bridge Julius Eastman - Feminine John Zorn - Lacrosse
Just wanted you to know that I enjoyed this video a lot! It contains both artworks which I personally enjoy and others which I’ll take to in the right moment. Thank you, Samuel.
I was so fortunate to had some lessons on composing for voices and orchestra with Kaija Saariaho back in 2022...She really had a love for for composing and for the human voice. Really amazing!
This is a great list of works to listen to; thanks so much! This video also made me listen again to Ruth Crawford's piano works. I find the preludes especially amazing; they're so beautifully crafted and she had such an extraordinary understanding of how a piano works.
I was very much impressed by the Ruth Crawford Seeger songs. The only piece of hers I'd heard before is the string quartet, and that was a long time ago. I'm definitely going to start listening to her again.
I don't know if it's a masterwork but last night on a radio program I was introduced to George Crumb, particularly his work Ancient Voices of Children. I thought it was wonderful!
My first encounter with Crumb's music, nearly 40 years ago, was a live performance of _Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III),_ with the original performers, in the hall for which it was written. I don't think it's an overstatement to say it changed my life.
I like this list. Here's mine. 13 must hear pieces since 1900, seeing as we're in the 21st century: Sibelius: Symphony no.2 1903 Ives: Three Places in New England 1903-29 Varese: Integrales 1925 Crawford Seeger: String Quartet 1931 Shostakovitch: Piano Trio No 2 1945 Stockhausen: Gesange der Junglinge 1956 Ligeti: String Quartet no 2 1968 Ustvolskaya: Composition no.2 Dies Irae 1973 Xenakis: Tetras 1983 Birtwistle: Ritual Fragment 1993 Holt: A Table of Noises 2007 Adamek: Kameny 2012 Feshareki: Aetherworld 2021
I'm really happy that you mentioned Boulez's Éclat, which is a really wonderful and - dare I say? - accessible piece of his. Now, there are tons of works of his that I love even more, but it warms my heart to see something else pop up in the discussions than the obligatory 2nd sonata, Marteau sans maître, Répons etc etc... =) Great list, with several pieces I've never heard. Ferneyhough is a composer I've sort of unintentionally avoided until now, maybe it's time to finally dive in!
What a genius new idea to offer us the chance to listen to these unknown by many masterworks. I will dive in in each one of them and come back and share my impressions! Way to go!
Thank you! I’ve been wondering what that piece by Schoenberg was called for the best part of forty years. I used to have it on an amazing record that also included Pierrot Lunaire and a cabaret song of his. I didn’t remember the name and I haven’t heard it for all these years but I’ve been haunted by the memory of it. So good to actually hear it again!
Wonderful selections! I am just a casual fan.. .Not an academic or professional by any means but I would have added Varese. Perhaps Poem Electronique. His approach to composition and sound was so ground breaking and radical that it still feels contemporary today.
Varese is like Webern, in that his smallest pieces are often his biggest pieces. Octandre is far and away my favorite Varese piece, and it clocks in at less than seven minutes for three movments!
Great list. I *have* to add one that literally changed my life. It was Yves Klein monochrome (part 1). I walked into it knowing nothing at a live concert, which I think is the best way to approach it. I don't want to reveal much details, but the premise, the journey and the lived experience of it was nothing short of life changing. It happened when I was a young man over 30 years ago, and I talk about it still as the most profound, beautiful and surprising thing that ever happened to me. Ps. Open mind required.
It's a really challenging parameter that excludes a lot of major composers and certainly their major works, though you have done it! The first 3 could possibly remain with wider parameters, and we would surely see Bartok, Messian, Britten, appearing later on. A contender for under 10 mins might be Ligeti's Lux Aeterna.
I would add Olga Neuwirth - a great late 20th/early 21st century composer who is still living but my God the caliber of her works is astoundingly high. She covers and synthesizes in her works many of trends going from WW2 to present. Her opera "Lost Highway" is so worth listening to and a modern opera that I think will have performances 100 or more years from now. Other omissions - Schnittke for his use of he mosaic style with disparate styles. You didn't cover any electronic composers which is a serious omission - I would start with Vladmir Ussachevsky and move from there. I would displace Ferneyhough and have instead Xenakis who was doing many of the things Ferneyhough did in the 70's a decade before him. The challenge you did set for yoruself was "short" masterworks so I could understand the composers I mentioned likely being omitted. However I can offer a few masterworks that are short : Dallapiccolla - Quaderno Musicale di Annalibera, a series of short pieces for solo piano Ruth Crawford Seeger - 2 nd mvmt of her String Quartet (it anticipates to some degree serialization of many musical elements with the employment of canonic devices with dynamics -- successfully!) Bartok - Mikrokosmos Bk 6 any of the last few pieces in this book Petrassi (Italian neo-classist that then took on the 12-tone and serialism trends of the mid 20th century with his last period starting in the late 60's showing an idiosyncratic blend of his former influences and representing some of his best works) - Kyrie for choir, his last work. Vaughn Williams - choose any of his hymn settings for the Church of England in the early 20th century - they are masterworks from a composer with his own personal and unique language (although somewhat conservative to many of his peers). Why masterworks? They are very singable and beautiful settings of hymn tunes (many that were in need of renewal). To start I suggest "Come Down Oh Love Divine" (th-cam.com/video/Z8QPCnpb8AM/w-d-xo.html). Trust me as a composer myself and also a church organist, I know how difficult this is to do and how hard it is to find modern settings of hymn tunes that are attractive and amenable to amateur singers. .
Wonderful video, Sam! Many pieces I couldn't be without in that list. Knussen's Coursing would be a good addition - as could some Berio - it's a shame the Violin Sequenza is too long to count, but O King is a total gem 💎 and fits nicely. Lovely stuff!
Thanks for your very interesting, inspiring, and informative videos, as always, Samuel! Here is my incomplete and arbitrary list: Arnold Schönberg - Fünf Orchesterstücke, Op. 16 (1909) Edgar Varèse - Amériques (1918-1921) Sergei Prokofiev - Symphony 2 in D minor, Op. 40 (1925) Ruth Crawford Seeger - Four Diaphonic Suites (1930) Olivier Messiaen - Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941) Galina Ustvolskaya - Symphony No.1 (1955) György Ligeti - Requiem (1965) Louis Andriessen - De Staat (1976) Claude Vivier - Lonely Child (1980) Wolfgang Rihm - Vers un Symphonie Fleuve IV (1998) Edward Top
As you said, biased, unfair and incomplete, however excellent list! Thank you for this list! ...Cage, Zappa and Xenakis would easily fit in that list imho! Once again, thank you so much, I love your work here (YT) !!!
Thanks for your selections Samuel, all great and hadn't heard of the last composer on the list. How about Busoni Sonatinas, Varese Octandre, a Nancarrow study, Ligeti Etude. One day I'd like to create an accessible programme of shortish 20th cent. works for my local volunteer radio station.
Long time Harvard professor Mario Davidovsky short collections called "Synchronisms" would be good on the list. In particular #1 for Flute and Electronic tape.
Only by trying I recognised how difficult it is to do such list. Here's mine... '00s Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit -Ondine '10s Debussy: Sonata for flute viola and harp -I. Pastorale '20s Stravinsky: Octet for winds -Sinfonia '30s Varèse: Ionisation '40s Dallapiccola: Canti di prigionia -Preghiera di Maria Stuarda '50s Messiaen: Oiseaux Exotiques '60s Scelsi: Canto del capricorno n1 '70s Ferneyhough: Cassandra's Dream Song '80s Takemitsu: Rain Spell 90's Boulez ...explosante fixe... -Originel I have to say, it is very biased by the fact that I am a flute player (too many pieces featuring the flute, sorry) and by my general taste obviously
The scheme is delightful: ten pieces, one per decade, each one under ten minutes, and described, in toto, in barely *over* ten minutes. I hoped that Cage's 4'33", which certainly fits the bill, would represent the 1950s: halfway through the century, we are exhorted to sit still and just listen, and it's a piece that is performed by the audience as much as by the performers. It is an important, revolutionary, essential piece of music.
re. Ferneyhough, I am wondering what quality or property of his music justifies such a ridiculously high degree of complexity, which neither the performers nor the listeners are able to grasp fully?
@@darushkii That is an interesting point, thank you. Complexity as a kind of transcendental playing instruction. Earnest attempt and ultimate failure as an underlying expression over the whole piece.
I see..Performers as robots blindly trying to follow abstract instructions which they can't understand and audiences like sheep with a religious tendency...
All wonderful works, Samuel! I think in my list I'd include Scriabin's 10th Sonata (1913), probably some Sofia Gubaidulina (her Bassoon Concerto is amazing) or Edison Denisov (esp. his Chamber Symphony #1), Maderno (his Oboe Concerto #2), from Feldman I especially love his "Piano and Orchestra". Really, there's so much to choose from. I don't think I could fault any list.
Igor Stravinsky - Feu d'Artifice (1908) Arnold Schoenberg - Six Little Piano Pieces (1911) Carl Ruggles - Portals (1925) John Cage - Bacchanale (1939) Aaron Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man (1942) Wallingford Riegger - Music for Orchestra (1953) Olivier Messiaen - Monodie (1963) Frank Zappa - Black Page (1976) Steve Reich - Vermont Counterpoint (1982) Iannis Xenakis - Zythos (1997) Maybe not the best, but some good tunes nonetheless.
Limiting this to 10 minutes each is difficult. For the 60's i probably would have done Ligeti's Atmospheres, or one of Babbitt's synthesizer pieces. Almost all the Boulez i love is over the time limit, though Eclat is definitely a good one.
And some short pieces that head in other directions: Ravel: Une barque sur l'océan (orchestrated version) Pärt: Summa Lilburn: Drysdale Overture Lili Boulanger: D'un soir triste Bernstein: Candide Overture Honegger: Pacific 231 Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man Sibelius: Tulen synty (The Origin of Fire) Rautavaara: Isle of Bliss Milhaud: La Cheminée du Roi René
Love the video like all of yours (although always a bias for the longer forms!). Personally I would have to include Varèse but I don't see who you would be taking out for that. (Also for a future video, would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on Philip Glass and John Cage as just realizing I don't think you've ever talked about them...)
Beautiful presentation as always ... sometimes too convincing as any objectivity i might have had goes out the window, I find myself swooning before the first note of a piece announces itself..such refined but passionate criticism is inspiring and cumulatively sexy...
It's an excellent video considering the reactions it gets. I thought about what alternative list I could propose and it's quite difficult to make a selection. For example, when I thought about _Mode de valeurs et d'intensités_, I realized that it was a MUST-ANALYSIS and not a MUST-HEAR. And the more your list differs from the one I made, the more interesting it is. For example, it is therefore very good to have chosen SCHOENBERG op. 20 or _Symphony for Winds_ rather than WEBERN op.7 or _Ionisation_
my personal list would be: Ravel - Introduction et Allegro (1906) Boulanger - Vieille priere bouddhique (1917) Webern - Sinfonie op.21 (1927) Hindemith - Harp Sonata (1939) Henze - Apollo et Hyacinthus (1948) Cage - Six Melodies (1950) Becerra-Schmidt - Canciones de Altacopa (1962) Eastman - Joy Boy (1974) Monk - "Biography" from "Education of the Girlchild" (1981) Hosokawa - Landscape I (1992)
I think you need a Debussy prelude like Des pas sur la neige, or Jeux since Boulez loved it. Likewise Ligeti's Chamber Concerto, still shorter than Haydn's Hornsignal or Mercury symphonies, which are pretty concise!
I think you have to include Helmut Lachenmann's Pression. He changed the whole horizon of awareness of 'instrumental' sound. Personally, after Lachenmann, I thinck that the contemporary instrumental music developed enormously.
For the Ferneyhough piece, what made you choose the Second Quartet over Cassandra's Dream Song? While they're both high quality works, like you said the second quartet can feel like staring into the sun, whereas i think dream song is more "accessible" to a starting listener while still being a genius piece of music
Hi Samuel, sorry but I have to ask, regarding the Ferneyhough piece: is this really your opinion or do you want to cultivate an image as avantgarde composer? It is an honest question ...
great video and list! possible suggestions (or rather, additions, although I love your choices!): Gorecki - Elementi, Ligeti (etude n1 or Hungarian Rock), Nancarrow - Study no 7, 11 or 21...
many thanks once again to add my personal bias I would have included Ligeti's Atmoshpheres : that period in which he produced unique and magical work (and then actually managed to have a career full of highest quality works which moved away from the techniques of that period)
I think it's a great list. Bit embarrassing for me to note that I hadn't heard of the two women composers yet, so I'm definitely going to give them a listen. Some other composers on my personal favorite list are Olivier Messiaen, György Ligeti, Steve Reich, John Cage, Edgar Varèse, Erik Satie. I'm an avid consumer of Score Follower here on YT, but admittedly, I have a bit of a gap in my knowledge of the past 2 decades. Do you have any suggestions for composers/compositions from between 2000 and 2020?
![Chris Langan - The Interview THEY Didn't Want You To See - CTMU [Full Version; Timestamps]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9miVG2xT5jY/mqdefault.jpg)
Please note, for those who need to hear it: this list is arbitrary, biased, unfair and incomplete. Float your amendments below!
I agree with maybe two of your choices.
Help make it better
Nice List.
For my personal taste I would add:
-Béla Bártok's Night Music of the five piano pieces Out of Doors (1926) It's odd this music even though Bartok will go deep in this way of sensation and conception of music across many works, this piano pieces feel kind of abstract both in time and about the whole Bartok night music production. A glimpse of a feeling to come later by Morton Feldman on his latest piano works.
-Giacinto Scelsi's "Okanagon" (1968) for Harp, Tam Tam and Double bass. I find the instrumentation singular with an amazing compositional work and sound result, as well as the whole force of this music.
-Iannis Xenakis "Ikhoor" (1978) for string quartet (It maybe passes the 10 min by some seconds). I find the string trio a quite singular instrumentation, I guess because of the unique but same instrumental family three individuals. This piece is amazingly solid and it surprise me how rich in terms of gesture, vibe, harmony and energy it is besides this "short scale" length of work.
-Luigi Nono's "Donde estás hermano" (1982) for four part female choir Well, There's so much to say about Luigi Nono, at least in my opinion I think this composer have put the bar not high but far away in another place, speaking aesthetically, socially and politically. It results me curious about the fragile and cautious of this music regarding how affects the listening, how immediately attracts and focus the attention in a powerful way.
I would like to know more female composers, especially from the beginning of the 20th century to mid century (50`s/60`s) besides all the electronic female artist that came up around the 60's and 70's (Daphne Oram, Eliane Radige, Suzanne Cianni, Delia Derbyshire, Pauline Oliveros, Wendy Carlos, just to name a few) Also it would be nice to know non western female composers. Any recommendations?
Kind regards from Mexico City, Samuel. I really like your videos and podcasts.
I ve got many alternatives, just spontaneosly:
- Strauss Salome
- Strawinsky Histoire du Soldat
- Ravel Sonata for vl+vc
- Berg Violin concerto
- Bartok Concerto for orchestra
- Bernstein West Side Story
- Lutoslawsky Livre pour Orchestra (or Sgt.Pepper)
- Ligeti Le Grand Macabre
- Ivan Eröd 2nd violin sonata
- Kurt Schwertsik Sinfonia-Sinfonietta
🥰
Bach the WTC Book 2 for sure
Despite what some commenters have said, I appreciate that you don’t patronize your subscribers by spoon-feeding them. We are here because we are hungry to learn and want to be challenged. I look forward to listening to these pieces with open ears and thank you for introducing them to me-your contextualization really helps. Keep it up!
Really appreciate that :-)
Autechre is also a must listen!
@@flyingsteaksseconded! Especially Confield, Untitled, and NTS sessions 1-4
@@flyingsteaksthey are inspired by Stockhausen too!
Same!!
Thank you Mr Andreyev! I'm a total newbie to modern classical music. I think these are absolute gems. I love discovering new music, getting out of my comfort zone and you are helping in a massive way!
So happy to hear that
Same for myself. I have some listening to do. While I know some composers from other works, I have never come upon these compositions. I love all music from Russian sacred music, Persian, Indian, African and so on, I do get blasé with Western classical music at times. So a new listening challenge is always welcome. Like the character says : "Make my day."
Let's see what I can come up with!
1. Debussy - reflets dans l'eau
2. Ravel - Jeux d'eau
3. Scriabin - Vers la flamme
4. Messiaen - le banquet céleste
5. Wyschnegradsky - arc-en-ciel
6. Scelsi - tre canti sacri
7. Xenakis - mists
8. Ligeti - Lux eterna
9. Haas - second string quartet
10. Finnissy - the history of photography in sound
I'm obviously a pianist
(Last one is a joke, yes)
Those Scelsi, Ligeti, Xenakis and Haas pieces are fire. love 'em!
the last one is too long😀I also like his" Wild Flowers", about 12'
This is a beautiful list. It’s compact, and it hits all the main points in 20th century without resorting to “the hits”.
the viola of my life is actually a series where i think Morton FELDMAN was totally vulnerable, and i was surprised to get that out of him. the "viola of my life iv" is my favourite piece of all time.. it is just so truthful, delicate and bare.
John Cage - In A Landscape
Terry Riley - In C (original CBS recording)
Morton Subotnick - Silver Apples of the Moon
Micheal Nyman - Bell Set No.1
Gavin Bryars - The Squirrel And The Ricketty-Racketty Bridge
Julius Eastman - Feminine
John Zorn - Lacrosse
Even if it might not suit everyone’s tastes, these are indeed “must-hear” pieces. Thank you for this list, Samuel!
All of the pieces you mentioned are my favorites. Wonderfully selected choices! Thank you for sharing them with the world.
Just wanted you to know that I enjoyed this video a lot! It contains both artworks which I personally enjoy and others which I’ll take to in the right moment. Thank you, Samuel.
Symphonies Of Wind Instruments is my favorite Stravinsky piece not for large Orchestra. It's timbral and harmonic colours are unmatched.
I've never really known how to approach listening to 20th century classical music. This seems like just what I needed :D
There's a vast array of styles and composers to dig into from totally loopy avant garde to easily accessible Neo-Romanticism. Something for everyone.
Thank you for helping me discover, enjoy and think about music outside of my usual listening haunts!
Thanks!
Thank you!
Thank you for introducing me to music and composers I have never heard.
I was so fortunate to had some lessons on composing for voices and orchestra with Kaija Saariaho back in 2022...She really had a love for for composing and for the human voice. Really amazing!
Congratulations! A fantastic list of music; a great introduction to the music of all these composers.
Thank you for offering great suggestions to us not so well versed in modern music ... appreciated... 😊
What a wonderful list! These are great works to start with.
This is a great list of works to listen to; thanks so much! This video also made me listen again to Ruth Crawford's piano works. I find the preludes especially amazing; they're so beautifully crafted and she had such an extraordinary understanding of how a piano works.
This is inspiring, thank you very much.
I now have a great listening list to renew my love of music and expose me to new 20th century works. Thank you.
I was very much impressed by the Ruth Crawford Seeger songs. The only piece of hers I'd heard before is the string quartet, and that was a long time ago. I'm definitely going to start listening to her again.
Excellent choices. I'd also consider: Birtwistle Ritual Fragment, Donatoni Lumen, Lili Boulanger Psaume 129, Kurtág Grabstein für Stephan, John Cage First Construction, Penderecki De Natura Sonoris 2, Takemitsu Rain Spell, Ustvolskaya Sonata 6, Varèse Ionisation
Thanks for this video. It's been years since I studied this music in college. Good to go back for a listen. Nice explanations for each one too!
I don't know if it's a masterwork but last night on a radio program I was introduced to George Crumb, particularly his work Ancient Voices of Children. I thought it was wonderful!
That's how I was introduced to Crumb - my friend and I picked up a score from the university library. Still one of my favorite 20th century composers!
My first encounter with Crumb's music, nearly 40 years ago, was a live performance of _Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III),_ with the original performers, in the hall for which it was written. I don't think it's an overstatement to say it changed my life.
Great list! My personal addition would be Messiaen’s Quator
Yeah, but it had to be less than 10 minutes, which excludes most of Messaien’s output
Absolutely!!! Great list!! And a great list for my teen psych patients!!
thank you so much for sharing such amazing music!
Thank you, Samuel.
I like this list.
Here's mine. 13 must hear pieces since 1900, seeing as we're in the 21st century:
Sibelius: Symphony no.2 1903
Ives: Three Places in New England 1903-29
Varese: Integrales 1925
Crawford Seeger: String Quartet 1931
Shostakovitch: Piano Trio No 2 1945
Stockhausen: Gesange der Junglinge 1956
Ligeti: String Quartet no 2 1968
Ustvolskaya: Composition no.2 Dies Irae 1973
Xenakis: Tetras 1983
Birtwistle: Ritual Fragment 1993
Holt: A Table of Noises 2007
Adamek: Kameny 2012
Feshareki: Aetherworld 2021
Next tell us the 21st century list (so far) 😊
This!
Samuel, excellent content as always.
Very sensible choices. Thanks!
Thank you! Your video excites and urges one to start listening!☝
I'm really happy that you mentioned Boulez's Éclat, which is a really wonderful and - dare I say? - accessible piece of his. Now, there are tons of works of his that I love even more, but it warms my heart to see something else pop up in the discussions than the obligatory 2nd sonata, Marteau sans maître, Répons etc etc... =) Great list, with several pieces I've never heard. Ferneyhough is a composer I've sort of unintentionally avoided until now, maybe it's time to finally dive in!
What a genius new idea to offer us the chance to listen to these unknown by many masterworks. I will dive in in each one of them and come back and share my impressions! Way to go!
Thank you! I’ve been wondering what that piece by Schoenberg was called for the best part of forty years. I used to have it on an amazing record that also included Pierrot Lunaire and a cabaret song of his. I didn’t remember the name and I haven’t heard it for all these years but I’ve been haunted by the memory of it. So good to actually hear it again!
Wonderful selections!
I am just a casual fan..
.Not an academic or professional by any means but I would have added Varese. Perhaps Poem Electronique. His approach to composition and sound was so ground breaking and radical that it still feels contemporary today.
Totally agree. Great suggestion!
Varese is like Webern, in that his smallest pieces are often his biggest pieces. Octandre is far and away my favorite Varese piece, and it clocks in at less than seven minutes for three movments!
Excellent selection. Not what I expected.
Thank you! Short parts would be lovely for teasers
Can we get 10 masterpieces from the 21st century? I think there is so much for people to discover right now.
Excellent suggestion. I would be fascinated to hear that.
Great to see Saariaho in the list. One of my favorite composers of the last half century or so...
I also highly recommend the work of Lili Boulanger! She only lived to 24, but in her time she composed amazing works!
Great list. I *have* to add one that literally changed my life. It was Yves Klein monochrome (part 1). I walked into it knowing nothing at a live concert, which I think is the best way to approach it. I don't want to reveal much details, but the premise, the journey and the lived experience of it was nothing short of life changing. It happened when I was a young man over 30 years ago, and I talk about it still as the most profound, beautiful and surprising thing that ever happened to me. Ps. Open mind required.
Outstanding list. For some fun, I would add Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams.
nice content as always
Yep doing that soon
I love you included Seeger
It's a really challenging parameter that excludes a lot of major composers and certainly their major works, though you have done it! The first 3 could possibly remain with wider parameters, and we would surely see Bartok, Messian, Britten, appearing later on. A contender for under 10 mins might be Ligeti's Lux Aeterna.
I would add Olga Neuwirth - a great late 20th/early 21st century composer who is still living but my God the caliber of her works is astoundingly high. She covers and synthesizes in her works many of trends going from WW2 to present. Her opera "Lost Highway" is so worth listening to and a modern opera that I think will have performances 100 or more years from now.
Other omissions - Schnittke for his use of he mosaic style with disparate styles. You didn't cover any electronic composers which is a serious omission - I would start with Vladmir Ussachevsky and move from there.
I would displace Ferneyhough and have instead Xenakis who was doing many of the things Ferneyhough did in the 70's a decade before him.
The challenge you did set for yoruself was "short" masterworks so I could understand the composers I mentioned likely being omitted.
However I can offer a few masterworks that are short :
Dallapiccolla - Quaderno Musicale di Annalibera, a series of short pieces for solo piano
Ruth Crawford Seeger - 2 nd mvmt of her String Quartet (it anticipates to some degree serialization of many musical elements with the employment of canonic devices with dynamics -- successfully!)
Bartok - Mikrokosmos Bk 6 any of the last few pieces in this book
Petrassi (Italian neo-classist that then took on the 12-tone and serialism trends of the mid 20th century with his last period starting in the late 60's showing an idiosyncratic blend of his former influences and representing some of his best works) - Kyrie for choir, his last work.
Vaughn Williams - choose any of his hymn settings for the Church of England in the early 20th century - they are masterworks from a composer with his own personal and unique language (although somewhat conservative to many of his peers). Why masterworks? They are very singable and beautiful settings of hymn tunes (many that were in need of renewal). To start I suggest "Come Down Oh Love Divine" (th-cam.com/video/Z8QPCnpb8AM/w-d-xo.html). Trust me as a composer myself and also a church organist, I know how difficult this is to do and how hard it is to find modern settings of hymn tunes that are attractive and amenable to amateur singers. .
Yes to Dallapiccola
@InfluxDecline he almost made it but my fav pieces are too long
I would also mention Webern's Cantata Opus 29. It's like walking through a pristine desert environment, with everything in its proper place.
Such lists will always be subjective and incomplete, of course but I would have to query the complete absence of any electronic pieces.
Amazing video !
Wonderful video, Sam! Many pieces I couldn't be without in that list. Knussen's Coursing would be a good addition - as could some Berio - it's a shame the Violin Sequenza is too long to count, but O King is a total gem 💎 and fits nicely. Lovely stuff!
Great choices. I haven't listened to _Coursing_ in a long time. Think I'll go rectify that situation...
Can you rate the best among YOUR OWN works? That sounds like a challenge to me :)
There is only one correct answer and it's Verifications, but I'm a biased low-register-piccolo enthusiast and my opinion doesn't count 😂
Thanks for your very interesting, inspiring, and informative videos, as always, Samuel! Here is my incomplete and arbitrary list:
Arnold Schönberg - Fünf Orchesterstücke, Op. 16 (1909)
Edgar Varèse - Amériques (1918-1921)
Sergei Prokofiev - Symphony 2 in D minor, Op. 40 (1925)
Ruth Crawford Seeger - Four Diaphonic Suites (1930)
Olivier Messiaen - Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941)
Galina Ustvolskaya - Symphony No.1 (1955)
György Ligeti - Requiem (1965)
Louis Andriessen - De Staat (1976)
Claude Vivier - Lonely Child (1980)
Wolfgang Rihm - Vers un Symphonie Fleuve IV (1998)
Edward Top
R.I.P. Wolfgang Rihm 7/27/24.
Do more videos like this every once in a while!
As you said, biased, unfair and incomplete, however excellent list! Thank you for this list! ...Cage, Zappa and Xenakis would easily fit in that list imho! Once again, thank you so much, I love your work here (YT) !!!
Thank you!
5:34 Webern looks a bit like Stockhausen there, and vice-versa ;)
Wrong name on right photo. ;-)
I dig your draig goch. Nice one
Thanks for your selections Samuel, all great and hadn't heard of the last composer on the list. How about Busoni Sonatinas, Varese Octandre, a Nancarrow study, Ligeti Etude. One day I'd like to create an accessible programme of shortish 20th cent. works for my local volunteer radio station.
All good ideas, Brian. Thanks for watching.
Long time Harvard professor Mario Davidovsky short collections called "Synchronisms" would be good on the list. In particular #1 for Flute and Electronic tape.
Only by trying I recognised how difficult it is to do such list. Here's mine...
'00s Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit -Ondine
'10s Debussy: Sonata for flute viola and harp -I. Pastorale
'20s Stravinsky: Octet for winds -Sinfonia
'30s Varèse: Ionisation
'40s Dallapiccola: Canti di prigionia -Preghiera di Maria Stuarda
'50s Messiaen: Oiseaux Exotiques
'60s Scelsi: Canto del capricorno n1
'70s Ferneyhough: Cassandra's Dream Song
'80s Takemitsu: Rain Spell
90's Boulez ...explosante fixe... -Originel
I have to say, it is very biased by the fact that I am a flute player (too many pieces featuring the flute, sorry) and by my general taste obviously
The scheme is delightful: ten pieces, one per decade, each one under ten minutes, and described, in toto, in barely *over* ten minutes. I hoped that Cage's 4'33", which certainly fits the bill, would represent the 1950s: halfway through the century, we are exhorted to sit still and just listen, and it's a piece that is performed by the audience as much as by the performers. It is an important, revolutionary, essential piece of music.
re. Ferneyhough, I am wondering what quality or property of his music justifies such a ridiculously high degree of complexity, which neither the performers nor the listeners are able to grasp fully?
Just listen or don’t no one cares
I think the justification comes from the fact that he wanted it to be like that, I hope that helps
@@darushkii That is an interesting point, thank you. Complexity as a kind of transcendental playing instruction. Earnest attempt and ultimate failure as an underlying expression over the whole piece.
I see..Performers as robots blindly trying to follow abstract instructions which they can't understand and audiences like sheep with a religious tendency...
@@Martykun36 I see. Performers as robots blindly following abstract instructions and audiences like sheep with a religious tendency…
ps: two more, which I think have been influential and continue to be sl: Cage - 4'33'' (50s), Ligeti - Continuum
So you really mean I should LISTEN to 4'33 ?
😂
All wonderful works, Samuel! I think in my list I'd include Scriabin's 10th Sonata (1913), probably some Sofia Gubaidulina (her Bassoon Concerto is amazing) or Edison Denisov (esp. his Chamber Symphony #1), Maderno (his Oboe Concerto #2), from Feldman I especially love his "Piano and Orchestra". Really, there's so much to choose from. I don't think I could fault any list.
No big worry, but wrong graphic at 5:35 for Karlheinz STOCKHAUSEN
Klavierstücke I-IV (1952)
Much appreciated. Please consider doing one, two, three more such lists on the same theme?
Planning to!
Igor Stravinsky - Feu d'Artifice (1908)
Arnold Schoenberg - Six Little Piano Pieces (1911)
Carl Ruggles - Portals (1925)
John Cage - Bacchanale (1939)
Aaron Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man (1942)
Wallingford Riegger - Music for Orchestra (1953)
Olivier Messiaen - Monodie (1963)
Frank Zappa - Black Page (1976)
Steve Reich - Vermont Counterpoint (1982)
Iannis Xenakis - Zythos (1997)
Maybe not the best, but some good tunes nonetheless.
Limiting this to 10 minutes each is difficult. For the 60's i probably would have done Ligeti's Atmospheres, or one of Babbitt's synthesizer pieces. Almost all the Boulez i love is over the time limit, though Eclat is definitely a good one.
And some short pieces that head in other directions:
Ravel: Une barque sur l'océan (orchestrated version)
Pärt: Summa
Lilburn: Drysdale Overture
Lili Boulanger: D'un soir triste
Bernstein: Candide Overture
Honegger: Pacific 231
Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man
Sibelius: Tulen synty (The Origin of Fire)
Rautavaara: Isle of Bliss
Milhaud: La Cheminée du Roi René
You left out Ives' "Unanswered Question" one of my favorites.
You say and display Stockhausen, but the text on screen repeats "Webern".
The viola in my life ❤❤
Love the video like all of yours (although always a bias for the longer forms!). Personally I would have to include Varèse but I don't see who you would be taking out for that.
(Also for a future video, would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on Philip Glass and John Cage as just realizing I don't think you've ever talked about them...)
Minimalism had such an impact on all forms of later music that its absence makes this list incomplete for me. But thanks for the list!
I wasn’t aiming for completeness
@@samuel_andreyev I know, but you asked for comments!
True :-)
I just realized that Samuel has a taste for the extreme.
I'd include Aaron Copland's Piano Variations.
LIKE no 1000 - I think you for this fine list
Beautiful presentation as always ... sometimes too convincing as any objectivity i might have had goes out the window, I find myself swooning before the first note of a piece announces itself..such refined but passionate criticism is inspiring and cumulatively sexy...
It's an excellent video considering the reactions it gets.
I thought about what alternative list I could propose and it's quite difficult to make a selection.
For example, when I thought about _Mode de valeurs et d'intensités_, I realized that it was a MUST-ANALYSIS and not a MUST-HEAR.
And the more your list differs from the one I made, the more interesting it is. For example, it is therefore very good to have chosen SCHOENBERG op. 20 or _Symphony for Winds_ rather than WEBERN op.7 or _Ionisation_
my personal list would be:
Ravel - Introduction et Allegro (1906)
Boulanger - Vieille priere bouddhique (1917)
Webern - Sinfonie op.21 (1927)
Hindemith - Harp Sonata (1939)
Henze - Apollo et Hyacinthus (1948)
Cage - Six Melodies (1950)
Becerra-Schmidt - Canciones de Altacopa (1962)
Eastman - Joy Boy (1974)
Monk - "Biography" from "Education of the Girlchild" (1981)
Hosokawa - Landscape I (1992)
What is the name of the Stockhausen piece?
He mentioned Piano Pieces 1-4.
I think you need a Debussy prelude like Des pas sur la neige, or Jeux since Boulez loved it. Likewise Ligeti's Chamber Concerto, still shorter than Haydn's Hornsignal or Mercury symphonies, which are pretty concise!
Oliver Knussen - Ophelia Dances, Book 1!!!!!!! (1975, 8’)
I think you have to include Helmut Lachenmann's Pression. He changed the whole horizon of awareness of 'instrumental' sound. Personally, after Lachenmann, I thinck that the contemporary instrumental music developed enormously.
For the Ferneyhough piece, what made you choose the Second Quartet over Cassandra's Dream Song? While they're both high quality works, like you said the second quartet can feel like staring into the sun, whereas i think dream song is more "accessible" to a starting listener while still being a genius piece of music
Because I wanted something for the 80s. Feldman had to get the 70s slot!
@@samuel_andreyev oh of course! i totally missed you saying that they were divided by century. Thanks!
thanks ❤ for sharing
I’m not seeing the link! Aaargh! I’ll go to your channel. Really enjoy your work.
Nice. Some of my favorites and many that are completely new to me. Looking forward to them.
Wonderful list!!
Funny, but my friend who was Boulez's musical copyist, using Leyland Smith's score program may have been involved in Eclats.
Was the copyist Krystyna Reeder?
Was writing a comment complaining about the lack of Crumb but I missed the “short” 20th century pieces part
Based on the lists submitted here in the comments, a lot of people missed that.
(By the way, I'm a big fan of both Crumb and Mahler. :) )
Hi Samuel, sorry but I have to ask, regarding the Ferneyhough piece: is this really your opinion or do you want to cultivate an image as avantgarde composer? It is an honest question ...
great video and list! possible suggestions (or rather, additions, although I love your choices!): Gorecki - Elementi, Ligeti (etude n1 or Hungarian Rock), Nancarrow - Study no 7, 11 or 21...
Bravo.
From a composer not known for brevity! Olivier Messiaen - L'Ascension for Organ (1932-33)
many thanks once again to add my personal bias I would have included Ligeti's Atmoshpheres : that period in which he produced unique and magical work (and then actually managed to have a career full of highest quality works which moved away from the techniques of that period)
I think it's a great list. Bit embarrassing for me to note that I hadn't heard of the two women composers yet, so I'm definitely going to give them a listen. Some other composers on my personal favorite list are Olivier Messiaen, György Ligeti, Steve Reich, John Cage, Edgar Varèse, Erik Satie.
I'm an avid consumer of Score Follower here on YT, but admittedly, I have a bit of a gap in my knowledge of the past 2 decades. Do you have any suggestions for composers/compositions from between 2000 and 2020?
Yes - that will be another video (coming soon)
Can you perhaps make video about 10 short MUST-HEAR 20th century slaveworks?