21st-century classical music

Styles and influence[edit]

Post-modernism continues to exert an influence on composers in the 21st century.^[4] Styles developed in the 20th century, such as minimalism (Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich), postminimalism (Louis Andriessen, Gavin Bryars, John McGuire, Pauline Oliveros (died 2016), Julia Wolfe), New Complexity (James Dillon, Brian Ferneyhough), and New Simplicity (Wolfgang Rihm) continue to be developed.


Polystylism and musical eclecticism are growing trends in the 21st century.^[2] They combine elements of diverse musical genres and compositional techniques, often alien to the composers' own culture, into a unified and coherent body of works. Composers have often started their musical career in one discipline and have later migrated to or embraced others, while retaining important elements from the former discipline. In some cases, a composer now labelled "classical" may have started out in another discipline. For example, a specific label for John Zorn's music is difficult to choose: he started out as a performance artist and moved through various genres including jazz, hardcore punk, film music, and classical, and often embraces Jewish musical elements. All of these diverse styles appear in his works.^[5] Julian Anderson combines elements from many different musical genres and practices in his works. Elements of modernism, spectral music, and electronic music are combined with elements of the folk music of Eastern Europe and the resulting works are often influenced by the modality of Indian ragas.^[6] His large-scale Book of Hours for 20 players and live electronics premiered in 2005. Tansy Davies's music also fuses elements of pop and classical music. Prince and Iannis Xenakis are both major influences.^[7] Kati Agócs' work for chorus and orchestra The Debrecen Passion (2015) surrounds settings of poetry by Szilárd Borbély^[8] with mystical texts of Medieval Latin, Hungarian, and Georgian origin, as well as a Kabalistic prayer.^[9]


Composers are influenced from around the world. For example, in 2002, La Monte Young, along with Marian Zazeela and senior disciple Jung Hee Choi, founded the Just Alap Raga Ensemble which performs Indian classical music of the Kirana Gharana and merges the traditions of Western and Hindustani classical music, Young applying his own compositional approach to traditional raga performance, form, and technique.^[10]


Other composers have also drawn upon diverse cultural and religious influences. For example, John Tavener (died 2013) drew his inspiration from eastern mysticism and the music of the Eastern Orthodox Church,^[11] and James MacMillan is influenced by both traditional Scottish music and his own Roman Catholic faith.^[12] In a more abstract manner, religious and mystical associations are also found in the works of Sofia Gubaidulina, a devout member of the Russian Orthodox church. The influence of electronic music, numerology, unusual instrumentation, and improvisational techniques are also apparent.^[13] Marxist songs serve as basic material for Konrad Boehmer in many works.^[14] Roman Turovsky-Savchuk is influenced by his Ukrainian heritage and Baroque music. He composes for the lute, orpharion, and torban, and is an advocate of musical historicism and has collaborated with Hans Kockelmans and the New York Bandura Ensemble led by Julian Kytasty.^[15] Tan Dun, best known for his scores for the movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Hero, attempts to connect Buddhist, Christian and other cultures in his works. His works often incorporate audiovisual elements^[16]


Composers find inspiration from other sources, too. The music of John Luther Adams (an Alaskan environmentalist and no relation to the other John Adams discussed in this article) is informed by nature, especially that of his native Alaska. His Pulitzer Prize-winning symphony Become Ocean was inspired by climate change.^[17] Frank's House by Andrew Norman tries to evoke the architecture of Frank Gehry's house in Santa Monica.^[18]


Péter Eötvös employs a variety of timbres and sound-worlds within his music. Extended techniques such as over-pressure bowings coexist with lyrical folk songs and synthesized sounds.^[19]


Composers have even created mashups, more commonly found in pop music. Jeremy Sams' The Enchanted Island is one example: he draws from Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, and other Baroque composers to create a combination of pasticcio and musical collage, which also combines the baroque and the modern in its staging and costume. According to A History of Western Music, "it calls into question ideas of authorship and originality, making it a thoroughly postmodern work".^[20]


The music of Osvaldo Golijov often combines the classical, modern, and popular traditions within a single work juxtaposing contrasting styles—an important trend in the music of the 1960s onward.^[20]

During the earlier part of the 20th century, new music was sometimes written for and performed by closed circles of musicians: In 1918, Schoenberg founded the Society for Private Musical Performances in Vienna, a membership-only organization which deliberately kept out "sensation-seeking" members of the public, and, although similar societies that sprang up in New York at the same time tried to be more inviting to the general public, the International Composers' Guild founded by Varèse and championed by Carl Ruggles, was perceived as elitist.^[39] In the latter half of the century, this started to change as composers again started to embrace a wider public.


In the 21st century, there are a number of musicians and groups whose primary purpose is the promotion of new music :