Modern Music
 

Went to a concert at the University of Illinois' Krannert Center. Attended the performance of Pacifica Quartet, worldwide known string quartet. Very good. They played String Quartet in D Major Op. 18, No. 3 by Beethoven. Very good, very rich, very predictable though. It's what I expected to hear. But their second piece was amazing. I've never fully been exposed to modern music and composers. String Quartet No. 1 "Metamorphoses nocturnes" by Gyorgy Ligeti.

Holy crap. This piece was amazing. Think of Night On a Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky (the Disney Fantasia Piece). But on crack. A lot of crack. But so much damn crack that the dissonances, chromaticsim, aerobic rhythm, and intense pizzicato passages make the motif imitation counterpoint sound beautiful.

I'm gonna listen to more modern music, I heard it breaks all theory but still produces beauty, but now I have proof, and damnit is it good shit.

Only in the world of classical music can something 50 years old be considered "modern!" :D

There's a lot of very good 20th & 21st century music out there that you never hear just because it's unfamiliar. (Of course as with anything, there's the 90% that's crap.)

You could do a lot worse than this introduction to 20th century concert music (written by a former teacher; includes "top 100" list).

EDIT: I mean a former teacher of mine.

True, great article Mr. Dallas.

I've been to a concert like that last year Fresh, very good indeed.

Some grad students came out and they just blew me away. I don't know what they played though.

Not being a big fan of classical music, I scanned the article with vague interest, hoping I might pick up something interesting. I almost skipped looking at his list, figuring I wouldn't know anybody on it anyway.

But I did look and holy shit, I know a lot of people on it and like the work of a bunch of them, a lot. I had no clue he was including the likes of Bernstein, Copland, Gershwin, Puccini or Ravel, under the "Classical Music" umbrella.

I didn't see the Beach Boys though.