21st-century Classical Music
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21st-century Western classical music is
art music Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high culture, high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerationsJa ...
in the contemporary classical tradition that has been produced since the year 2000. A loose and ongoing period, 21st-century classical music is defined entirely by the calendar and does not refer to a musical style in the sense of
Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
or
Romantic music Romantic music is a stylistic movement in Western Classical music associated with the period of the 19th century commonly referred to as the Romantic era (or Romantic period). It is closely related to the broader concept of Romanticism—the ...
. Many elements of the previous century have been retained, including
postmodernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...
, polystylism, and
eclecticism Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories i ...
, which seek to incorporate elements of all styles of music irrespective of whether these are "classical" or not—these efforts represent a slackening differentiation between the various musical genres. Important influences include rock, pop,
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
, and the dance traditions associated with these. The combination of classical music and
multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...
is another notable practice in the 21st century; the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
and its related technology are important resources in this respect. Attitudes towards female composers are also changing.
Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
is also being used to create music.


Overview

During the 20th century, composers started drawing on an ever wider range of sources for inspiration and developed a wide variety of techniques.
Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...
became fascinated by the music of a Vietnamese theatre troupe and a Javanese gamelan ensemble, and composers were increasingly influenced by the musics of other cultures. Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School developed the dodecaphonic system and serialism. Varèse, Stockhausen, and Xenakis helped pioneer
electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...
.
Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
and the
popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
of the West became increasingly important—both as influences on art music and as genres of their own.
La Monte Young La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best k ...
experimented with
performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
;
John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...
applied the ''
I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yijing'' ( ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The ''I Ching'' was originally a divination manual in ...
'' to his music;
Reich ( ; ) is a German word whose meaning is analogous to the English word " realm". The terms and are respectively used in German in reference to empires and kingdoms. In English usage, the term " Reich" often refers to Nazi Germany, also ca ...
and
Glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...
developed
minimalism In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...
. Music generally became more and more diverse in style as the century progressed. This trend has continued into the 21st century: in 2009
BBC Music Magazine ''BBC Music Magazine'' is a British monthly magazine that focuses primarily on classical music. The first issue appeared in September 1992. BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC, was the original owner and publisher together with ...
asked 10 composers, mostly British (
John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...
, Julian Anderson, Henri Dutilleux,
Brian Ferneyhough Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and ...
, Jonathan Harvey, James MacMillan, Michael Nyman, Roxanna Panufnik, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and
John Tavener Sir John Kenneth Tavener (28 January 1944 – 12 November 2013) was an English composer, known for his extensive output of choral religious music, religious works. Among his best known works are ''The Lamb (Tavener), The Lamb'' (1982), ''The ...
), to discuss the latest trends in western classical music. The consensus was that no particular style is favoured and that individuality is to be encouraged. The works of each of these composers represent different aspects of the music of this century, but these composers all came to the same basic conclusion: music is too diverse to categorise or limit. In his interview with the magazine, Dutilleux argued that "there is only good or bad music, whether serious or popular". The music of the 21st century is mostly post-modernist, drawing on many different styles and open to a great many influences. Yet it is still a struggle to encourage the public to listen to contemporary music. Dutilleux, Harvey, Rautavaara, and Tavener have since died.


Styles and influence

Post-modernism continues to exert an influence on composers in the 21st century. Styles developed in the 20th century, such as
minimalism In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...
(Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich), postminimalism ( Louis Andriessen (died 2021),
Gavin Bryars Richard Gavin Bryars (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer and double bassist. He has worked in jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, Musical historicism, historicism, Avant-garde music, avant-garde, and experimental music. Early lif ...
, 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. 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 art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
ist and moved through various genres including jazz,
hardcore punk Hardcore punk (commonly abbreviated to hardcore or hXc) is a punk rock music genre#subtypes, subgenre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots ...
,
film music A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...
, and classical, and often embraces Jewish musical elements. All of these diverse styles appear in his works. Julian Anderson combines elements from many different musical genres and practices in his works. Elements of
modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
, spectral music, and
electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both 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. 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 A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
and Iannis Xenakis are both major influences. Kati Agócs' work for chorus and orchestra ''The Debrecen Passion'' (2015) surrounds settings of poetry by Szilárd Borbély with mystical texts of Medieval Latin, Hungarian, and Georgian origin, as well as a Kabalistic prayer. Composers are influenced from around the world. For example, in 2002,
La Monte Young La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best k ...
, along with Marian Zazeela and senior disciple Jung Hee Choi, founded the Just Alap Raga Ensemble which performs
Indian classical music Indian classical music is the art music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It is generally described using terms like ''Shastriya Sangeet'' and ''Marg Sangeet''. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as ...
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.Young, L., & Zazeela, M. (2015). "The Just Alap Raga Ensemble, Pandit Pran Nath 97th Birthday Memorial Tribute, Three Evening Concerts of Raga Darbari". MELA Foundation, New York. Other composers have also drawn upon diverse cultural and religious influences. For example,
John Tavener Sir John Kenneth Tavener (28 January 1944 – 12 November 2013) was an English composer, known for his extensive output of choral religious music, religious works. Among his best known works are ''The Lamb (Tavener), The Lamb'' (1982), ''The ...
(died 2013) drew his inspiration from eastern mysticism and the music of the
Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...
, and James MacMillan is influenced by both traditional Scottish music and his own
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
faith. 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. Marxist songs serve as basic material for Konrad Boehmer in many works. Roman Turovsky-Savchuk is influenced by his Ukrainian heritage and Baroque music. He composes for the
lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...
, 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. Tan Dun, best known for his scores for the movies '' Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'', and ''
Hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...
,'' attempts to connect Buddhist, Christian and other cultures in his works. His works often incorporate
audiovisual Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions. Audiovisual service provide ...
elements Composers find inspiration from other sources, too. The music of
John Luther Adams John Luther Adams (born January 23, 1953) is an American composer whose music is inspired by nature, especially the landscapes of Alaska, where he lived from 1978 to 2014. His orchestral work ''Become Ocean'' was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize ...
(an Alaskan
environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...
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. ''Frank's House'' by Andrew Norman tries to evoke the architecture of
Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry ( ; ; born February 28, 1929) is a Canadian-American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become attractions. Gehry rose to prominence in th ...
's house in Santa Monica. Péter Eötvös employed 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. He died in 2024. Composers have even created mashups, more commonly found in
pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...
.
Jeremy Sams Jeremy Sams (born 12 January 1957) is a British theatre director, composer, and lyricist. Early life and education Sams is the son of the Shakespearean scholar and musicologist Eric Sams. He read music, French, and German at Magdalene Colleg ...
' '' The Enchanted Island'' is one example: he draws from Handel,
Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist, impresario of Baroque music and Roman Catholic priest. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lif ...
, 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 Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...
work". 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 File:1960s montage.png, Clockwise from top left: U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War; the Beatles led the British Invasion of the U.S. music market; a half-a-million people participate in the Woodstock, 1969 Woodstock Festival; Neil Armstrong ...
onward.


Genre developments


Opera

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...
, George Benjamin, Osvaldo Golijov, Cristóbal Halffter (died 2021), James MacMillan, Einojuhani Rautavaara (died 2016), Kaija Saariaho (died 2023), Karlheinz Stockhausen (died 2007), and Judith Weir have all made important contributions in this field: * '' Licht'', Stockhausen's cycle of seven operas, begun in 1977, was completed in 2003 with the opera '' Sonntag aus Licht''. * Weir's opera '' Armida'' was premiered on television, rather than on stage.
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
commissioned the work in 2005. The libretto, also written by Weir, updates
Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...
's 1581
epic poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to ...
, '' La Gerusalemme liberata,'' setting it in a modern Middle-East conflict which alludes to but never specifically mentions the
Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...
. Weir's opera calls for props that could not be used practically in an opera house, such as a helicopter. * '' Doctor Atomic'' by Adams (which covers Robert Oppenheimer, the
Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...
, and the building of the first atomic bomb). Oppenheimer's aria ''Batter my heart'' blends post-minimalist techniques with an expressive vocal line recalling 19th-century opera. In October 2008, just before the premiere, Adams told BBC Radio 3 that he had been blacklisted by the U.S. Homeland Security department and immigration services, probably because of controversy surrounding his 1991 opera '' The Death of Klinghoffer'', which was based on the hijacking of the passenger liner ''Achille Lauro'' by the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985 and the hijackers' murder of wheelchair-bound 69-year-old
Jewish-American American Jews (; ) or Jewish Americans are Americans, American citizens who are Jews, Jewish, whether by Jewish culture, culture, ethnicity, or Judaism, religion. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research, approximately two thirds of Am ...
passenger Leon Klinghoffer. * Saariaho's '' L'amour de loin'' uses her spectralist-influenced orchestral style to tell the story of 12th-century troubadour Jaufré Rudel. In the last tableau of Act IV, the modernist technique of cells based on arrays of semitones and
tritone In music theory, the tritone is defined as a interval (music), musical interval spanning three adjacent Major second, whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be ...
s within perfect fifths is applied to the melodic material, while troubadour songs are evoked in the patterns of repeating phrases and the melodic style of short phrases focussed around certain pitches. Thus, 12th- and 20th-century musical ideas are fused in a unique manner. * The Spanish composer Halffter wrote his second and third operas, ''Lazarus'' (2008) and ''Schachnovelle'' (2013), both for the Kiel Opera House. * In 2023, Canadian composer Airat Ichmouratov, composed an opera Tha Man Who Laughs to a libretto in french by poet Bertrand Laverdure, adapted from an eponymous novel. Commissioned by Festival Classica, it was premiered on May 31, 2023, in
Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
* Golijov's Grammy-award winning '' Ainadamar'' (2005) is about the murder in 1936 of Spanish poet
Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...
by the Fascists. The score combines computer music, ''
musique concrète Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic ...
'' and modernist dissonance with elements from
Flamenco Flamenco () is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the Gitanos, gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and Region of Murcia, ...
music, Latin American popular music and Cuban rhythms. * '' Written on Skin'' by Benjamin, '' The Sacrifice'' by MacMillan and ''Rasputin'' by Rautavaara are other representative works. * ''
Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' (originally ''Animal Farm: A Fairy Story'') is a satirical allegorical novella, in the form of a beast fable, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of anthropomorphic far ...
'' is a 2023 English-language opera by Russian composer Alexander Raskatov based on
George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...
's 1944 novella of the same name. * '' Mináǧi kiŋ dowáŋ: A Zitkála-Šá Opera'' (English: ''My Spirit Sings'') is a 2022 operatic film about the life and work of Yankton Dakota author and activist Zitkála-Šá. It is considered by some to be the first opera that uses Dakota language. The opera was composed by Lyz Jaakola (Fond du Lac
Anishinaabe The Anishinaabe (alternatively spelled Anishinabe, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, Anishinaabeg, Anishinabek, Aanishnaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of C ...
), directed by Sequoia Hauck (Anishinaabe, Hupa), and produced by Kelly Turpin of An Opera Theater (AOT). Jaysalynn Western Boy is one of four actors to play Zitkála-Šá. It premiered October 12, 2022 at Water Works Park in
Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
.
Chamber opera Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a Chamber music, chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra. Early 20th-century operas of this type include Paul Hindemith's ''Cardillac'' (1926). Earlier small-scale operas ...
is an important type of opera developed in the mid-twentieth century. They use smaller scale forces than regular operas. Examples from the 21st century include ''Pauline'' by Tobin Stokes (libretto by
Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight chi ...
), '' The Corridor'' by
Harrison Birtwistle Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include '' T ...
, ''El Caballero de la triste figura'' by Tomás Marco and '' The Sound of a Voice'' by Philip Glass.


Ballet

'' Embrace'' is a
ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
written in 2018 by the American composer
Sarah Kirkland Snider Sarah Kirkland Snider (born October 8, 1973) is an American composer. She has received critical acclaim for her chamber, orchestral, song cycle, choral, and ballet works. Biography Snider was born and raised in Princeton, New Jersey. Despite a ...
and choreographed by the British choreographer George Williamson. Debra Craine of ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' wrote, "''Embrace'' is an earnest and heartfelt gay coming-out tale, with dramatic music (from Sarah Kirkland Snider, played live) and a clearly defined choreographic journey from confusion and confrontation to acceptance and reconciliation." '' Chroma'' is a one-act contemporary ballet created by Wayne McGregor for the Royal Ballet. The work received its premiere at the
Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...
,
Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...
, on 17 November 2006. The ballet is performed to a combination of original music by Joby Talbot and arrangements of music by
Jack White John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975) is an American musician who achieved international fame as the guitarist and lead singer of the rock duo the White Stripes. As the White Stripes disbanded, he sought success with his solo career, subse ...
of the White Stripes, with orchestrations by Christopher Austin.


Song and choral music

Adams' '' On the Transmigration of Souls'' (2002) is a choral piece commemorating the victims of the
11 September 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
(for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003). Roxanna Panufnik's recent output includes ''The Song of Names'' and ''All Shall be Well''. Golijov's ''La Pasión según San Marcos,'' Gubaidulina's ''Johannes-Passion,'' Tan Dun's ''Water Passion'', and Wolfgang Rihm's ''Deus Passus'' were all composed for the Passion 2000 project, through which the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart commemorated the 250th anniversary of the death of J.S. Bach. Golijov, being a Jew and Latin American, offered a different perspective on the Passion: he drew on African-influenced traditions from Cuba and Brazil, flamenco and Baroque music to create a work that enacts the story as a ritual through voices, dance and movement. Henri Dutilleux's last works (died 2013) include ''Correspondances'' and '' Le temps l'horloge'', both of which are
song cycle A song cycle () is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in sequence, as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice or an ensemble, or rarely a combinat ...
s.


Orchestral works

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in p ...
's Symphony No. 4, ''Los Angeles'' is the first of his symphonies to be written post-1976 and is the first of his pieces to focus on larger scale, instrumental tintinnabulation. Jennifer Higdon's '' blue cathedral'', premièred in 2000, is a one-movement orchestral tone-poem and is ranked among the most widely performed works of the early 21st century. It was written in memory of her brother and features flute (her instrument) and clarinet (his instrument) in dialogue in their upper registers. The work evokes
Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...
's more accessible form of
modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
: parallel triads in strings and brass; changes in pitch set demarcating musical units, such as phrases, and providing a sense of harmonic progression; and Debussy's distinctive orchestral colour. Samuel Adler's compositions for orchestra from this century include: ''A Bridge to Understanding'' (2008), ''All Nature Plays'' (2009), ''Drifting on Winds and Currents'' (2010), and ''In the Spirit of Bach'' (2014). Jonathan Harvey's ''Body Mandala'' (2006) and ''Speakings'' (2008), Anna Clyne's '' Night Ferry,''
Elliott Carter Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer who was one of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century. He combined elements of European modernism and American " ...
's '' Three Illusions for Orchestra'', Christopher Theofanidis' '' Rainbow Body'', Peter Maxwell Davies's '' Eighth'' (2001), '' Ninth'' (2012), and '' Tenth'' (2013) Symphonies, and Per Nørgård's Seventh (2006) and Eighth (2011) Symphonies, Airat Ichmouratov's '' Symphony in A minor'', '' Overture "The Myth of Falcon"'', '' Overture "Maslenitsa"'' are just some of the other important orchestral works produced since 2000. Composers have also written concertos in the 21st century. Oliver Knussen's Violin Concerto, Op. 30, written for Pinchas Zukerman, premièred in 2003. '' Milky Ways'' is concerto for
cor anglais The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn (mainly North America), is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially ...
and
orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...
written in 2022 by the Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen. The composer included a moment of blocking during which the solo performer rises, walks behind the orchestra, and exits through the stage door, all the while being followed by a spotlight while a string trio, offstage, plays. There were also 4 violin concertos in 2021: Missy Mazzoli, James MacMillan,
Unsuk Chin Unsuk Chin ( ; born July 14, 1961) is a South Korean composer of contemporary classical music, who is based in Berlin, Germany. Chin was a self-taught pianist from a young age and studied composition at Seoul National University as well as with ...
, and
John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (November 15, 2022)Classic Connection review, ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...
. Concertos for Orchestra have also been written: '' Walkabout: Concerto for Orchestra'' by Gabriela Lena Frank and one by
André Previn André George Previn (; born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929 – February 28, 2019) was a German-American pianist, composer, and conductor. His career had three major genres: Hollywood films, jazz, and classical music. In each he achieved ...
both premiered in 2016. Christopher Rouse's Concerto for Orchestra was premiered in 2008. Jennifer Higdon ( Oboe Concerto, Percussion Concerto both in 2005), Dieter Lehnhoff, Elliot Carter, Philip Glass, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Airat Ichmouratov,
Thomas Adès Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès (born 1 March 1971) is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: ''The Tempest (opera), The T ...
, Magnus Lindberg, Hans Abrahamsen, Helen Grime, and many others continue to add concertos to the repertiore in the 21st century.


Chamber music

Elliott Carter Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer who was one of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century. He combined elements of European modernism and American " ...
(died 2012) has written a large body of music for chamber groups and soloist since 2000. These include ''Tintinnabulation'' for percussion sextet, ''Double Trio'' for trumpet, trombone, percussion, piano, violin and cello, a string trio, ''Hiyoku'' for two clarinets, as well as several new pieces in his ''Retracing'' and ''Figment'' series for soloists and ''Two Thoughts about the Piano. ''His ''Caténaires'' for solo piano (2006) evokes both the texture of the finale of Chopin's B minor Sonata and 20th-century serialism. Stockhausen's last major work, the unfinished cycle of twenty-four compositions collectively titled '' Klang'', is predominantly made up of chamber-music pieces. Notable string quartets composed since 2000 include: * the quartet by Hanspeter Kyburz * the Sixth (2002), Seventh ("Espacio de silencio", 2007), Eighth ("Ausencias", 2013), and Ninth ("In memoriam Miguel de Cervantes", 2016) Quartets by Cristóbal Halffter * two numbered quartets—the Fifth (2006) and Sixth (2009)—and ''Dum transisset I–IV'' (2007), ''Exordium'' (2008), and ''Silentium'' (2014) by Brian Ferneyhough * the series of ten Naxos Quartets (2001–07) by Peter Maxwell Davies. At his death in 2016, Davies also left an unfinished final String Quartet, Op. 338, of which only the first movement was completed. The German composer Wolfgang Rihm extended his list of string quartets, first with the Twelfth Quartet (2001), the brief ''Fetzen 2'' (2002), and a ''Quartettstudie'' (2003–04), then with a revised version of String Quartet No. 11 (2010) and the Thirteenth Quartet (2011), as well as another short work, ''In Verbundenheit'' (2014). Austrian Georg Friedrich Haas has written a Third ("In iij. Noct.", 2003) and Fourth String Quartet (2003), and the Hungarian composer György Kurtág has also extended his series of (unnumbered) works for this medium, with ''Six Moments Musicaux'' (1999–2005), ''Hommage à Jacob Obrecht'' (2004–2005), and—in collaboration with György Kurtág junior—''Zwiegespräch'' for string quartet and electronics (1999–2006). '' Concentricities'' is a
piano trio A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in European classical music, classical chamber music. The term can also ...
by Graham Waterhouse composed in 2019 for clarinet, cello and piano.


Electronic music

Electronic, electroacoustic, and computer music, pioneered in the 20th century, continue to develop in the 21st century. One of the major figures in the early development of electronic music, Karlheinz Stockhausen, composed his last electronic works—'' Cosmic Pulses'' and eight further pieces derived from it—as hours 13 to 21 of his ''Klang'' cycle (2005–2007). Mario Davidovsky has extended his series '' Synchronisms'', which in live performance incorporate both acoustic instruments and electroacoustic sounds played from a tape. Other composers including Mason Bates, Jean-Claude Éloy, Rolf Gehlhaar,
Jon Hassell Jon Hassell (March 22, 1937 – June 26, 2021) was an American trumpet player and composer. He was best known for developing the concept of "Fourth World" music, which describes a "unified primitive/futurist sound" combining elements of various w ...
, York Höller, Hanspeter Kyburz, Mesías Maiguashca, Philippe Manoury, and Gérard Pape are active is this field. Bates' '' The B-Sides'' is a symphony in five movements for
electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...
and
orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...
and Hassell's music exploits unusual electronic manipulation of the trumpet sound.


Multimedia and music

Classical composers continue to write
film music A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...
: Philip Glass ('' The Hours'', '' Naqoyqatsi'', and '' Notes on a Scandal''), Michael Nyman ( ''Everyday''),
John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (November 15, 2022)Classic Connection review, ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...
( ''Harry Potter'' film series, '' Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,'' and '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'') are some of the most notable. Apart from film composers and Judith Weir, mentioned above, other composers have embraced the growing technological advances of the 21st century. The work '' In Seven Days'' (2008), by
Thomas Adès Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès (born 1 March 1971) is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: ''The Tempest (opera), The T ...
, was composed for a piano, an orchestra, and six video screens. The video segments were created by Tal Rosner, Adès's civil partner. ''Polaris'' for orchestra and five video screens was released in 2011. In 2008, Tan Dun (best known for the score for '' Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'') was commissioned by Google to compose ''Internet Symphony No. 1—"Eroica"'' to be performed collaboratively by the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. This work used the internet to recruit orchestra members and the final result was compiled into a mashup video, which premiered worldwide on YouTube. Ludovico Einaudi is one other notable composer still working in the 21st century, blending classical, folk, pop, rock and
world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...
s. Polystylism and musical eclecticism are therefore important. He came to prominence in 1996 with his piano album Le Onde and is still very popular in Britain and Italy. His latest work is '' Elements,'' for piano, electronics and orchestra (2014), and he has written the film music for '' This Is England'' (2006) and its sequels (2010, 2011, and 2015), the trailer music for ''Black Swan'' (2010), and the classical album '' Una Mattina'' (2004). His album, '' In a Time Lapse'', was released on 21 January 2013, with US and Canadian supporting tours.


Artificial Intelligence (AI) and music

Composers are starting to use
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
to create all or part of their music. Robert Laidlow's ''Silicon'' is for symphony orchestra and artificial intelligence. Likewise, his ''Post-Singularity Songs'' uses
ChatGPT ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI and released on November 30, 2022. It uses large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4o as well as other Multimodal learning, multimodal models to create human-like re ...
.
Tod Machover Tod Machover (born November 24, 1953, in Mount Vernon, New York), is a composer and an innovator in the application of technology in music. He is the son of Wilma Machover, a piano, pianist and Carl Machover, a computer scientist. He was named ...
, an American composer who uses AI in his works and his teaching, says the technology needs the human touch: “ tis generating infinite music that isn’t actually composed by anybody, and that’s a terrible, scary, awful way of thinking about where music could go. I mean, really, it’s the worst kind of elevator music.” Machover heads the Opera of the Future group at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
's Media Lab which focuses on the exploration of “concepts and techniques to help advance the future of musical composition, performance, learning, and expression”. Machover's ''City Symphonies'' uses AI to organise sounds from cities; these sounds have been crowdsourced. AIVA is an algorithmic composer using AI. It is recognised by SACEM, the French
professional association A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) is a group that usually seeks to advocacy, further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in ...
collecting payments of artists’ rights and distributing the
rights Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...
to the original songwriters, composers, and music publishers.


Composers

A 2019 survey by ''
BBC Music Magazine ''BBC Music Magazine'' is a British monthly magazine that focuses primarily on classical music. The first issue appeared in September 1992. BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC, was the original owner and publisher together with ...
'' created a list of 'greatest composers', based on the feedback of 174 living composers; the living composers included on the list were Saariaho, Reich, Glass, Birtwistle and Sondheim. Other important composers include Eric Whitacre, Kaija Saariaho, Jennifer Higdon, Magnus Lindberg, Michael Finnissy, Michel van der Aa, Airat Ichmouratov and Nico Muhly.


Female composers

Roxanna Panufnik, in the aforementioned interview with the BBC, says: Important female composers working in the 21st century (not already mentioned in this article) include Elisabetta Brusa, Chaya Czernowin, Gabriela Lena Frank, Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian, Sophie Lacaze, Liza Lim, Meredith Monk, Onutė Narbutaitė, Olga Neuwirth, Doina Rotaru, Rebecca Saunders, Linda Catlin Smith, Joan Tower and Agata Zubel.


Important composers who have died

Several important composers active in the 20th century have died in the early part of the 21st century. These include: Konrad Boehmer, Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, Eötvös, Dutilleux, Maxwell Davies, Rautavaara, Stockhausen, and Tavener (already mentioned); Maryanne Amacher, an installation artist and experimental composer; Milton Babbitt whose final works included songs, chamber music and Concerti for Orchestra (2004);
Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...
whose opera '' L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe'' was premièred in 2003 followed by '' Sebastian im Traum'' (2004) for large orchestra and the opera '' Phaedr'' (2007); Peter Lieberson whose ''Shing Kham'' for percussion and orchestra (2010–11) was finished by Oliver Knussen and Dejan Badnjar after his death; John McCabe whose final works include the seventh symphony (''Labyrinth'') and chamber music; Emmanuel Nunes whose ''La Main noire'' for 3 violas (2006–2007) was based on his opera ''Das Märchen''; and Peter Sculthorpe whose ''Thoughts from Home'' for piano was intended to form part of the ''Gallipoli Symphony'' for Anzac Day (2015).


Performance of 21st-century music

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. 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 : * Pierre-Laurent Aimard, French pianist * Alarm Will Sound, 20-member chamber orchestra * Arditti Quartet, led by British violinist Irvine Arditti * AskoSchönberg, Dutch chamber orchestra based in Amsterdam * Bang on a Can, an organization founded by American composers Julia Wolfe, David Lang and Michael Gordon * Marco Blaauw, Dutch trumpet player * Boston Modern Orchestra Project, led by Gil Rose * Ensemble Musikfabrik, from Cologne * Ensemble Modern, an international ensemble based in Frankfurt * ensemble recherche, based in Freiburg * The Esoterics, a vocal ensemble based in Seattle, Washington * Judd Greenstein, an American composer and promoter of new music in New York * Michael Gielen, Austrian conductor * Peter Hannan, Canadian recorder player * Oliver Knussen, British conductor * Kronos Quartet, a string quartet with over 750 new works written for them * International Contemporary Ensemble, or ICE, an ensemble that has premiered over 500 new works * Claire Chase, American flautist, founder of ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble) * Nicholas Isherwood, American-born bass singer * Reinbert de Leeuw, Dutch conductor, pianist, and composer * Christian Lindberg, Swedish trombonist *
London Sinfonietta The London Sinfonietta is an English contemporary chamber music, chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble has headquarters at Kings Place and is Resident Orchestra at the Southbank Centre. Since its inaugural concert ...
, chamber orchestra * Paul Méfano, French conductor and composer * Les Percussions de Strasbourg, French percussion ensemble * Ensemble 2e2m, French musical ensemble specializing in the interpretation of works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. * Steven Schick, American percussionist * Peter Serkin, American pianist * Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Roe, pianists who regularly perform duets and works for two pianos * Alan Gilbert and the
New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...
* Michele Marelli, Italian clarinetist * Ludovic Morlot, French conductor *
Esa-Pekka Salonen Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish conducting, conductor and composer. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Sw ...
, Finnish conductor * Robert Spano, American conductor * Harry Sparnaay, Dutch bass clarinetist * Tambuco, Mexican percussion ensemble * Theatre of Voices, an international vocal ensemble based in Copenhagen * Frances-Marie Uitti, American-born Dutch cellist


References


Sources

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Further reading

* * * *


External links


The Living Composers Project
— A massive database of living composers {{DEFAULTSORT:21st-Century Classical Music Contemporary classical music