I wish I liked modern classical music more than I do.
But frankly I think a lot of it is a competition to make the most daft and unconventional racket imaginable.
For every piece of beauty I hear I hear someone swinging microphones and creating feedback loops.
For every interesting piece of music I hear something that sounds like rubbing a balloon against someone running their fingers across a chalkboard.
It reminds me a lot of modern art. It reminds me of Andy Warhol.
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It's the sort of music that requires a musical education and a knowledge of what came before in order to truly enjoy it. It requires you to understand the kinds of things that they're rebelling against.
Unfortunately I think a lot of this stuff becomes pastiche rather quickly. Someone figures out a target for parody and then everyone tries to make something similar to poke the institutions.
Sometimes it's art and sometimes it's just a bunch of metronomes winding down; wasting your time.
@BobTarte Thinking folks like Reich in particular.
@craigmaloney Oh, right. And I've got his ECM Recordings box right across from me. The slowing-down-metronome made me think of Cage. I do like Henry Cow's first two albums very much, but they don't quite fit into modern classical. Then again, Henry Cow doesn't quite fit in anywhere.
@craigmaloney I don't know a lot of recent classical music, but I like Alfred Schnittke's Piano Sonata No. 2, especially the last movement.
It's emotionally intense, both the loud, dissonant parts and the quiet, clearly-tonal parts.
Fun fact: Schnittke wrote this piece after being pronounced dead.
@ejworthing Thank you for recommending this. I'll give it a few listens to overcome the initial expectations.
@progo I do love classical. Part of the reason I posted was because iIgot on a Youtube loop looking up a disc that I picked up (on a lark, unheard) of Iannis Xenakis to see what it was about. Also picked up yet-another-copy of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra because it was backed with Janacek and was on Telarc.
I've been exposed to a lot of classical; some that works, some that doesn't. I keep my ears open as much as possible. I subscribe to BBC Music Magazine and have a collection of discs.
@progo Thing is I can listen to something like this and find absolute beauty in it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXJWO2FQ16c
And then I see something like this and see a curiosity; nothing more:
@craigmaloney Are you talking about folks like Stockhausen and John Cage? Or more recent?