Contemporary classical music from ARTbrain!
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1.2.1 Conceptualism
1.2.2 Minimalism and Post-Minimalism
1.2.3 Post Classic Tonality
1.2.4 World Music

1.3 Experimentalism
1.4 Electronic Music
1.5 Neo-Romanticism

2 External link
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Movements in Contemporary Music
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Modernism
Many of the key figures of the high modern movement are alive, or only recently deceased and there is also still an extremely active core of composers, performers and listeners who continue to advance the ideas and forms of Modernism. Elliot Carter is still active, for example, as is Lukas Foss. While high modernist schools of composing, such as serialism are no longer as rhetorically central, the contemporary period is beginning the process of sorting through the modern corpus, looking for works which will have repertory value.

Modernism is also present as surface or trope in works of a large range of composers, as atonality has lost much of its ability to terrorize listeners, and even film scores use sections of music clearly rooted in modernist musical language. Active modernist composers include Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Judith Weir, Thomas Ades, Magnus Lindberg and Gunther Schuller.

See: Modernism (music).

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Post-Modernism
Post-Modernism is, naturally, a strong influence in contemporary classical music. One critic remarked that the easiest way to find "post-modernism" is to find the word "new" or the prefix "post-" attached to the name of a movement. However, in an era where media, systematic presentation, and power relationships remain the dominant reality for most people born in to the core industrialized nations, post-modernism is likely to remain the most common mode for artistic expression.

See: Postmodern music.

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Conceptualism
When Duchamp displayed a urinal in an art museum, he struck the most visible blow for artistic conceptualism. Music conceptualism found a champion in John Cage. A conceptualist work is an act whose musical importance draws from the frame, rather than the content of the work. An example would be Alvin Singleton's 56 Blows, a work that has the distinction of being mentioned in debate on the floor of the Senate.

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Minimalism and Post-Minimalism
The minimalist generation still has a prominent role in new composition, Phillip Glass has been expanding his symphony cycle, while John Adams' work in memorium to 911 won a pulitzer prize. Steve Reich has explored electronic opera and Terry Riley has been active in composing instrumental music. But beyond the minimalists themselves, the tropes of non-functional triadic harmony are now common place, even among composers who are not regarded as minimalists per se.

Many composers are expanding the resources of minimalist music to include rock and world instrumentation and rhythms, serialism, and many other techniques. Kyle Gann considers William Duckworth's Time Curve Preludes as the first "post-minimalism" piece, and labels John Adams as a "post-minimalist" composer, rather than as a minimalist. Gann defines "post-minimalism" as the search for greater harmonic and rhythmic complexity by composers such as Mikel Rouse and Glenn Branca. Post-minimalism is also [1] (http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/movement_works_Post_Minimalism_0.html) a movement in painting and sculpture which began in the late 1960s. (See lumpers/splitters)

See: Minimalist music and Postminimalism.

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Post Classic Tonality
Other aspects of post-modernity can be seen in a "post-classic" tonality that has advocates such as Micheal Daugherty and Tan Dun.

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World Music
An increasing number of composers mix western and non-western instruments, including gamelon from Indonesia, Chinese traditional instruments, ragas from Indian Classical music. There is also an exploration of non-Western tonalities, even in relatively traditionally structured works. This can be in the context of post-minimalist works, such as Janice Giteck's Balinese influenced works, or in the context of post-classic tonality, such as in the music of Bright Sheng, or in the context of thoroughly modernist styled works.

See: World music.

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Experimentalism
One important movement in contemporary music involves expanding the range of gestures available to instrumentalists, for example the work of George Crumb. The Kronos Quartet has been among the most active ensembles in promoting contemporary works for string quartet, and they take delight in music which stretches the manner in which sound can be drawn out of instruments.

See: Experimental music.

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Electronic Music
Electronics are now part of mainstream music creation. Performances of regular works often use midi synthesizers to back or replace regular musicians. However the older idea of electronic music - as a search for pure sound and an interaction with the hardware itself - continues to find a place in composition, from commercially successful pieces to works targeted at very narrow audiences.

See: Electronic music.

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Neo-Romanticism
The resurgence of the vocabulary of extended tonality which flourished in the first years of the 20th century continues in the contemporary period, though it is no longer considered shocking or controversial as such.

See: Neoromanticism (music).

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