Contemporary Composer

A contemporary composer is a living or recent composer whose work belongs to the late 20th or 21st century. The term covers concert music, opera, film score, electronic music, minimalism, and many hybrids that do not fit older categories. Contemporary composers often work across notation, recording technology, improvisation, and collaboration with performers from classical and popular traditions.

41 articles related to Contemporary Composer:

PIANO

Nuvole Blanche: the critical simplicity of Einaudi's best-known piece

Nuvole Blanche is one of the best-known piano pieces by the Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi released on his 2004 album...
FILM

Hedwig’s Theme: magical mood cast by the celesta melody

Hedwig's Theme, also known as the main theme of all eight Harry Potter films, was the first piece written by John...
Contemporary Composer

The meaningless song lyrics of Adiemus

Adiemus is a cross-genre project conceived by Welsh composer and multi-instrumentalist Karl Jenkins to refresh...
FILM

Gabriel's Oboe: soulful Morricone tune that soothes the Iguazu Falls

Gabriel's Oboe is a short instrumental piece written by Ennio Morricone for a key scene in Roland Joffé's period drama...
Game

Nobuo Uematsu refreshed prog rock concepts for his epic Final Fantasy score

Being a self-taught musician, Nobuo Uematsu accidentally entered the world of video game development where, quite...
KORA

African bard Foday Musa Suso represents griot culture by mixing kora music with Western minimalism and jazz

The most important role in the preservation of tradition in the culture of West Africa has been played by...
FLUTE

Japanese traditions meet Western avant-garde in reflective tunes of Toshio Hosokawa

Japanese contemporary composer of extraordinary aerial themes, Toshio Hosokawa, draws inspiration from the ancient...
Contemporary Composer

The path to Earth's orbit for Errollyn Wallen's music

A modern composer, songwriter, and singer Errollyn Wallen was recounted by The Observer as a "renaissance woman of...
Collaboration

Nordic folk fiddle reshapes polished classical sound in the music of Gjermund Larsen

Gjermund Larsen is a Norwegian musician and composer who dedicated his career to the music of his native land. His work...
PIANO

Sgt. Pepper's inspiration behind Carla Bley's revolutionary jazz album

Born in Oakland, California, Carla Bley was raised in a Christian fundamentalist household and received remarkably...
Classical Guitar

Mariachi tradition and Cuban dances live in the informal hymn of Mexico

Arturo Márquez was born in 1950, in Alamos, a town deeply immersed in the Sonoran desert. His father played the violin...
SYNTHESIZER

Classical modernity in Anna Meredith's underwater reality

The Scottish composer Anna Meredith has already worked with the BBC and countless orchestras and chamber ensembles...
TRUMPET

Jazz dinosaur of the new generation

Rising English trumpeter Laura Jurd has garnered an armful of awards in her relatively brief career, including both for...
PIANO

Abdullah Ibrahim created his African music of peace in exile

The works of South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, born Adolph Johannes Brand, fuse the melodic sounds of his homeland...
FILM

Instrumental simplicity of the quiet piano drama Breathe In

In the intimate story of a foreign exchange student who causes a deep and devastating rift in a close-knit upstate New...
Contemporary Composer

North Indian classics introduced into Californian underground thanks to Terry Riley

Minimalist pioneer Terry Riley remains among the most revolutionary composers of the post-war era. Famed for his...
Animation

Preserved tradition in the modern aesthetics of The Breadwinner score

The Breadwinner, directed by Nora Twomey, is an animated drama film based on Deborah Ellis’ award-winning novel that...
Classical Guitar

The fine blend of styles and cultures of the Assad brothers

Brazilian-born brothers Sérgio and Odair Assad have set the benchmark for every classical guitarist by creating a new...
FILM

Accordion for Amélie was discovered by a lucky accident

Amélie is a 2001 French romantic comedy classic directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet that depicts a contemporary yet...
FILM

Full-method approach to the score for Shakespeare's play

The classic Shakespeare play The Merchant of Venice had seen many adaptations, one of them a 2004 venture for the big...
ORCHESTRA

The most performed contemporary composer grew up with Bob Marley music

Jennifer Higdon is a contemporary composer and winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Awards. According to a recent...
FILM

Sicario's desert pulsates in Jóhannsson's score

Sicario tells the story of an idealistic FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) who is enlisted by a government official to...
Violin

Scottish fiddle tradition elevated by guitar ornamentation

Duncan Chisholm is a contemporary Scottish fiddle composer whose interpretations of traditional Highland music are...
FILM

Vintage synthesizers alleviate the Blade Runner sequel

Blade Runner 2049 is the long-anticipated sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 iconic film which defined a whole generation of...
FILM

Hero's colors come alive with silk violin strings

Hero, an undeniable martial-arts classic, is an epic collaboration between Zhang Yimou, perhaps the biggest name in...
FILM

Star Wars meets Baroque classics

The long-spanning Star Wars saga is embedded into our consciousness not only with its visual motifs but also its iconic...
FILM

Orlando's director sang the score's leitmotifs

Sally Potter’s film Orlando follows the life of an eponymous, time traveling, androgynous nobleman who transforms from a...
TECHNOLOGIES

Pi for Piano in A minor

Everyone knows that Pi is a mathematical symbol representing the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, but...
FILM

The classic Morricone flavor in Tarantino's spaghetti western

The soundtrack for Django Unchained contains both original and existing works, featuring songs Quentin Tarantino...
LUTE

Atmospheric collaboration of medieval and modern underground on Only Lovers Left Alive

For his post-modern tale of vampires trying to find purpose in their immortal lives, Jim Jarmusch employs his own group...

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