Contemporary classical art music is alive and well, and I want to give you a taste of some current sounds going on right now.
First off, please watch Howard Goodall, part 6 (only part 1 is available in America)
Next, watch all four pieces on the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQLZ90V8MeAe5UskeCd5vtTl7104VDGJT
– Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine
John Adams is a Pulitzer Prize winning composer and represents a genre called Post-Minimalism: simple harmonies, rhythmic, repetitive, a reaction to the crazy-weird post-war stuff
– Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel
Arvo Pärt writes music that finds its inspiration from the Medieval period, and the genre is known as New Simplicity: very simple, only two lines of music, one line only uses three notes of a triad, and the other line moves up and down the scale to form a slow-unfolding melody. Stunning in its simplistic beauty
– Whitacre: Fly to Paradise
Eric Whitacre is a rock-star choral composer (who I do happen to know personally :)), and this piece is just cool! He represents the current choral compositional voice in America.
– Bates: Mothership
Mason Bates is a DJ by night, pretty awesome composer by day. Mothership is quite a global piece and represents the current trend in fusing together classical, pop, world, dance, improvisation, and so on to create a really interesting orchestral experience.
After watching all excerpts, write a brief 3-5 sentence reaction (for each piece) to what you heard. So, you’re submitted four brief paragraphs.
