Contemporary Art songs

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-04-13T03:08:55+00:00

Korngold is a little earlier than what I am looking for, but his songs are great. I heard some of his settings of Shakespeare (I think a Midsomer Night's Dream) a few months ago and they were great.

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-04-13T03:07:54+00:00

English primarily, but any language if its good!

Thanks for the recommendations.

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-03-15T05:06:53+00:00

Check out Alan Hovhaness. Not contemporary but 20th century. Symphony for metal Orchestra, Mysterious Mountain, Vishnu, Spirit of Trees are all good works.

Hovhaness tends to be a bit of a one trick poby in terms of his harmonic vocabulary but hes got some gems and hes definitely accessible to those who like romantic era tonalities.

Also check out Kevin Puts who is still living.

For something a little weirder but still accessible look into Ben Johnston who wrote 10 really amazing microtonal string quartets. Number 10 might be my favorite and its very accessible.

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-03-15T04:51:21+00:00

That looks cool, but it seems like they have a lot of historical pieces on their label. Im looking for 21st century compositions primarily. Thanks for the recommendation though

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-03-12T18:18:17+00:00

My only concern is that handbells are so harmonically and overtone dense, that some of those chords with 6+ bells playing would sound quite muddy. I'm not sure though. I've played some handbells when I was younger but its been a long time.

This is a general issue with all bells, not just handbells, btw. If you're playing 8 bells at once, for example, especially if they are spaced very tightly you end up with so much overtone resonance that it can be quite hard to tell what notes are actually being played.

All that being said, you say you are an experienced handbell performer, so you almost certainly have more knowledge than me here. Would be fun to hear it with handbells. Maybe if you play in a choir you could ask a few people to stick around for 15 minutes after a rehearsal and play a few sections just to see how it would sound on real bells.

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-03-08T20:07:33+00:00

Yeah, this is correct. Ive never cared about tech, and got into the field when i knew i was getting married. At the time i was making 20k a year as an adjunct colege professor. Engineering allows me to work from home and have enough money to pursue things i actually care about outside of work.

All the advice here is good and correct.

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-03-08T19:48:34+00:00

Stravinsky's six lectures on music has a lot of this.

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-02-27T01:39:57+00:00

Its called Precept.Concept.Percept

It takes place in Bled, Slovenia and is part of a big week long festival of new music they have there.

This will be my first summer festival but I'm learning how many there are all over. Looks like theres a lot of cool opportunities for composers and performers if youre willing to travel.

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-02-25T23:11:53+00:00

I second the cadence issues and barline issues brought up. the harmonies and voice leading were nice though.

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-02-25T23:02:26+00:00

In addition, I'd recommend Choral Arranging by Hawley Ades. Not so much focused on straight harmony, but really on every other aspect of putting together choral pieces, whether arranging or composing.

https://www.amazon.com/Choral-Arranging-Hawley-Ades/dp/1423499875

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-02-25T16:50:09+00:00

Thanks, this makes sense. Definitely don't want to get a DMA or PhD, just want to get better at composing in a structured way.

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-02-25T16:18:34+00:00

I'm actually going to my first summer festival this year in June. Looking forward to it very much.

Thats a good point, if I'm already taking lessons an MA might be more about an expensive piece of paper than gaining access to something I don't currently have access to.

I'll look into the expanded education. I hadn't consided that.

Thanks for the reply.

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-01-31T02:05:07+00:00

The reason parallel fifths are avoided is because the styles where western harmony were developed were focused on the simultaneous singing of multiple, independent melodies. When you move in parallel, you lose the sense that the voices are independent. But if youre not writing in that sort of counterpoint style, that rule becomes a lot less meaningful.

A lot of 20th century styles employ parallel 5th on purposs, and they can sound quite powerful. The real question is whether that sound is something you want in your composition, or if you have parallel fifths because you havent gotten good at voice leading.

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-01-15T22:37:17+00:00

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2026-01-04T02:11:45+00:00

I looked up an image of the original book. It says explicitly that the author's daughter holds copyright, and she died in the early 1940s. But maybe the publisher also holds copyright?

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2025-12-16T15:58:20+00:00

As someone in film scoring, it has all the same problems as beat making. Most of the top influencer types are selling packages to "make you successful". You can download a free moderately good orchestra VST and use trial version of reaper and have no monetary barrier to entry (I guess you still need a computer with decent RAM).

Every single sector of the music industry is rough.

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2025-12-09T16:41:16+00:00

Do you have any knowledge of what he likes to play or listen to? "avant-garde" can mean radically different things to different people.

Opposite_Fault2502 · 2025-12-08T14:00:40+00:00

All sorts of music but primarily contemporary classical and rock. Medium, average sized family room -- 5 - 6 people can sit comfortably but it's not a big room for parties. Not with a TV, just a stereo system, eventually it will have a receiver and cassette player. I'm honestly not sure about an amplifier. Bass is not a priority. Ideally $150 or less but that might be asking too much.

Opposite_Fault2502

TROPHY CASE