5 Contemporary Composers You Should Definitely Check Out

_______________________________________

S N A P C H A T: Brettybang | Eddy.Chen

[linglinghours]

Number 1: Brett Yang for his aMaZiNg lofi music

[mellowknee]

Eddy: Not to go to nerdy, but
Me: pls go nerdy

[ellabouenos]

Me: missing notes on my performance
Also me: it's minimalistic style

[j.j.schlachtfeld]

This video was absolutely necessary. I feel one of the reasons why classical music fails to connect with many young people on a wider manner is that sense of distancing powered by the fact that traditional composers all died many years ago. This is extremely beautiful music made by living people and I sincerely thank you guys for giving them a shout out, even knowing that this video was getting demonetised. Prime example of how much music actually matters to you, guys.

[phdeclerck]

Beethoven's gone, but his music lives on,
And Mozart don't go shopping no more.
You'll never meet Liszt or Brahms again,
And Elgar doesn't answer the door.
Schubert and Chopin used to chuckle and laugh,
Whilst composing a long symphony,
But one hundred and fifty years later,
There's very little of them left to see.
They're decomposing composers.
There's nothing much anyone can do.
You can still hear Beethoven,
But Beethoven cannot hear you.
Handel and Haydn and Rachmaninov
Enjoyed a nice drink with their meal,
But nowadays, no one will serve them,
And their gravy is left to congeal.
Verdi and Wagner delighted the crowds
With their highly original sound.
The pianos they played are still working,
But they're both six feet underground.
They're decomposing composers.
There's less of them every year.
You can say what you like to Debussy,
But there's not much of him left to hear.

- Monty Python, the Decomposing Composers

[valeriavagapova]

1:40 Arvo Pärt
4:56 Max Richter
9:00 Takashi Yoshimatsu
10:50 Michael Nyman
11:45 David Lang

[hannanorma]

I actually screamed (it usually never happens, also I almost never comment under anything) when I saw Arvo Pärt in the thumbnail. I'm always so surprised and happy when someone outside of Estonia mentions something to do with our small nation :) Espescially someone like Arvo Pärt who I'm sure every Estonian has at least heard of once and he's truly our national treasure, but it's sometimes still hard to believe that he is as well known as is said, so when something like that happens, it just shows that it's true.
Also, I met him briefly at Uni and he is genuinely the nicest and most humble man, which says a lot about him, because he is considered (or at least I would consider him) the most well know Estonian in the world and as we see, especially nowadays form social media, it can change a man, but thankfully not him :)
In the moments like these, where someone like Arvo Pärt is bit by bit, thanks to his nationality, introducing small Estonia to the wolrd, I'm really proud to be Estonian!!

[azariahernandez]

Can we just appreciate how they didn’t care if they were gonna get copyrighted because they just care about us and not money

[free]

The music in this video in order:
1:40 Arvo Pärt
: "Spiegel im Spiegel"
4:56 Max Richter
: "Nature of Daylight", "Recomposed Four Seasons"
9:00 Takashi Yoshimatsu
: "Memo Flora"
10:50 Michael Nyman
: "The Heart Asks Pleasure First"
11:45 David Lang: "Cheating, Lying, Stealing", "This Was Written by Hand"

[elmshore]

They've been so educational lately and I'm so loving it.

[kinzokushirogane]

The difference between "film music" and "classical music" is mostly that in films, the movie itself has the attention, you cannot implement anything with too much detail, or too sophisticated, that would steal away your attention. This is why it will mostly be "simplistic" or "minimalistic". It is there to complement and strengthen the feeling you are supposed to get from watching the scene in the movie while in a standalone classical piece you can do a lot more because your interest is now purely in listening. Both have their strengths and both can be great

[charlotteb]

I read somewhere that Arvo Pärt’s piece was written on his old piano which was the most out of tune in the middle, hence the fact that it only really uses the extremes of low and high. It was the last piece he wrote on this piano as he had to leave his home town, , which to me makes it more emotional knowing the context

[kitchen-knife-]

Joe Hisaishi also has some really interesting work outside of his work with Ghibli. He too explores minimalism and is a huge fan of Philip Glass. In a few past albums, he has experimented with how far he could push rhythm as a melody (melodies that were rhythmic and not focused on creating traditional flowing lines) and orchestral works that were focused almost entirely on melody (polyphony and layering melodies).
Also, Ryuichi Sakamoto. LEGEND. Super experimental. He has the traditional classical stuff, electronic, folk ethnic, minimalism, experimental, bossa nova, etc. He's all about exploring. He's worked on a bunch of films too (including The Revenent). If you've heard of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence by Utada Hikaru, he wrote that too! It's from the movie by the same name, which he starred in with David Bowie.
The thing that i love about Hisaishi and Sakamoto is that they both reinvent their works. They write something awesome, and instead of just playing it straight out of the books, they always re-arrange and cover it... remix it... to make it more interesting.

[MrsGamgee]

Eddy is so relatable when he's playing his favourite piece to Brett and glancing over to see his reaction.

[su-okmoon]

My favorite contemporary composer is Brett Yang.
I love his psychedelic goth music.😁

[nixixim]

i love that they know that the video would get copystriked, but still decided to upload because they genuinely love what they do and want others to discover the joy of classical music

[BollockstoPop]

I appreciate you giving a shout out to David Lang! His music usually has a lot concepts behind what he makes and his website has notes for every piece. For "cheating, lying, & stealing" he said: "I started thinking about how so often when classical composers write a piece of music, they are trying to tell you something that they are proud of and like about themselves. Here's this big gushing melody, see how emotional I am. Or, here's this abstract hard-to-figure-out piece, see how complicated I am, see my really big brain. I am more noble, more sensitive, I am so happy. The composer really believes he or she is exemplary in this or that area. It's interesting, but it's not very humble. So I thought, What would it be like if composers based pieces on what they thought was wrong with them? Like, here's a piece that shows you how miserable I am. Or, here's a piece that shows you what a liar I am, what a cheater I am. I wanted to make a piece that was about something disreputable. It's a hard line to cross. You have to work against all your training. You are not taught to find the dirty seams in music. You are not taught to be low-down, clumsy, sly and underhanded."

[SharpWalkers]

Some contemporary recommendations:

- Peteris Vasks's "The Fruit of Silence" & "Musica Serena."
- John Luther Adams' "Become Ocean" & "Canticles in the Sky."
- Maria Markan Sigfúsdottír's "Aequora" & "Oceans."
- Eric Whitacre's "Deep Field."
- Qigang Chen's "Er Huang."

- "White Landscapes" & "Ode to Birds and Rainbows" by Takashi Yoshimatsu (from the video).
- "Cantus Arcticus" by Einojuhani Rautavaara (I didn't make him up; he's Finnish).

[KatrinkaH]

Brett likes Eddy's nerdy side and his feeling of music and doesn't interrupt him speaking. I like it too. How many of us are here?

[Scriabin_fan]

Here’s a list of contemporary composers and pieces I want to see them show:
1.Qigang Chen- Er Huang piano concerto, violin concerto, cello concerto
2. Rautavaara- 8th symphony, Cantus Arcticus, Cello concerto 1 (now deceased)
3. Steve Reich- Music for 18 musicians
4. Toru Takemitsu- Rain tree Sketch 1 (deceased)
5.Eric Whitacre- Sleep, A boy and a girl, Luc Aurumque
6. Olafur Arnalds- Nyepi (voice)
7. Anna Clyne-Cello concerto
8. Nils Frahm- Says (it’s hard to classify his music, but I think it could go under the contemporary classical music umbrella
9. Eyvis Evensen- Draugdrummr (it’s Icelandic I don’t remember how to spell it)
10. Wynton Marsalis- Violin Concerto

There’s more I’d like to say but I’d love to see them make a video about these composers and their pieces.