20th Century Orchestral Music

[METALMAN]

I really don't know what to call this. People would understand what you're going on about if you call it "20th century classical music" but that's also a bit of a contradictory term as classical music is generally restricted to music from roughly 1750-1810. Regardless, I've always been interested in the more modal, avant-garde and impressionist developments of the 20th century.

An absolute favourite of mine is "Chairman Dances"(the real song is about 13 minutes long. Could only find a small part on youtube though. ). This also happens to be one of my favourite songs ever. It's fairly well known - I imagine some of you might recognise it from the Civilisation IV soundtrack. Anyway, my relation with this song goes back quite a long way. I originally discovered it at school, where I wrote about it for my critical analysis when I was studying music. It also has the dubious honour of being the first song I ever conducted.

Basically it's from an opera which covers the theme of Richard Nixon's visit to China. For me, this song is far more evocative than any "pop" song I've ever heard. "Pop" here being anything that wouldn't get played on Classic FM. >_>

So yeah, if any of you happen to know any more exciting 20th century orchestral music I'd really appreciate it. Nixon In China is all I have and while I love it, I'd really like some more.

This is a pretty interesting outline of "Chairman Dances" for those of you who are interested.

Oh and also I'm by no means a "classical" music buff but I really do appreciate that whole area of music a lot. You can obviously tell from my posts here that I prefer contemporary "pop" music but I've both played in and watched orchestras a number of times. I've also studied that area pretty extensively academically - to a far greater extent than pop music - and I found it fascinating. So yeah, any talk on that would be excellent too.

Sadly I think this thread might not get any replies. Which is a shame because it's something I really want to talk about.

[Skummy]

I don't really know enough about the subject to hold much of a discussion beyond impassioned "I LOVE THIS" outbursts, but Steve Reich, Harry Partch, Stockhausen, John Cage...all the obvious ones, really, are bloody incredible. Penderecki is incredible too, obviously "Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima" is his "big" avant-garde piece, but his collaboration with Don Cherry is really wonderful stuff. Morton Feldman is amazing too, "Rothko Chapel" is one of my favourite pieces of music.

Have you read the book "The Rest Is Noise"? It's a history of "classical" music in the 20th century, and easily the most accessible on the subject, really good, one of my favourite non-fiction books ever.

[LittleDaniel]

It may just be the ex-percussion student in me, but I like Ionisation by Edgar Varèse.

[Skummy]

Oh, I'd forgotten Varese. Bloody brilliant. LaMonte Young deserves a mention too.

[METALMAN]

I don't really know enough about the subject to hold much of a discussion beyond impassioned "I LOVE THIS" outbursts

It's the same for me really, because although it was my chosen focus when I studied music I still heard relatively little. I'll definitely look into those names you mentioned. I'm a bit familiar with John Cage. (I might be totally wrong here but I seem to remember him doing "electronic" music.)

Oh and that Varese is excellent. Such a good quality recording as well.

I'd not heard of "The Rest Is Noise" but I read some reviews of it just there and it looks fantastic. I'm definitely going to try and get my hands on it.

[Crybaby Bunting]

This is probably where I start pimping Philip Glass... but he's more electrical than composers that you're after.

Plus you'll likely have heard of him ¬_¬

[Bushmeister]

Gustav Holst's The Planets Op. 32 was written in the early 20th century, premiered during the First World War, and is absolutely stunning.

[DFF]

Having just listened to some Philip Glass ('Mad Rush' and 'Pruit Igoe') I've got to say that I'm really liking it. Could anyone recommend me some similar works?