Masterpieces of contemporary (art) music. Recommended popular pieces.

Chorale VI-Cantus-Song of AeolusKarl Jenkins

Adiemus-Chorale VI-Cantus-Song of Aeolus

For anyone hearing it for the first time, the mystical chorus sung in a fictional language called “Adiemus,” based on African languages, coupled with expansive rhythms and grand orchestration that seem to evoke a kind of religious experience, may well have been astonishing.

This piece—also known by its Japanese title “Kaze no Kami no Uta” (Song of the Wind God), used in a 2017 Toyota Prius PHV commercial featuring Satomi Ishihara—is included on the 1997 album Adiemus II: Cantata Mundi by the group Adiemus.

Adiemus is a musical unit formed around Welsh-born Karl Jenkins.

Jenkins received academic musical training at a conservatory and, after graduating, joined jazz-rock groups such as Nucleus and Soft Machine.

It was in the 1990s that he launched Adiemus.

As an avant-garde classical music unit, they can be regarded as one of the forces that sparked a worldwide healing-music boom, including in Japan.

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String Quartet No. 3Alexander Goehr

Alexander Goehr – String Quartet no. 3

Without Gayer’s presence, Britain would have been far behind in the field of classical (contemporary) music.

The fact that he unearthed music history and studied the interpretation of a single note from the classics to the present is an asset to us.

After all, no one else wants to bother with such a tedious task.

We cannot in good conscience sleep with our feet pointed toward England.

Choral piece: “Jerusalem”Charles Hubert Parry

Parry – Jerusalem (Last Night of the Proms 2012)

This piece is a lavish work in which Elgar arranged for orchestra a choral piece with organ accompaniment composed by Parry.

It is also famous for being sung on the Last Night of the Proms, the summer classical music festival held in London over eight weeks each year.

What could be more delightful than having everyone join their voices to sing a piece you composed yourself?

B. Bartok. Ballet suite from The Miraculous MandarinDmitri Jurowski

B. Bartok. Ballet suite from The Miraculous Mandarin

The Miraculous Mandarin is one of Bartók’s mature works.

It was originally composed as accompaniment for a pantomime, but it is also often performed as a ballet or as an orchestral piece on its own.

Its story—where the virginity of a young girl redeems a protagonist who has become zombified—caused a major scandal at the time of its premiere.

Overture from The Threepenny OperaKurt Weill

Kurt Weill – Overture from The Threepenny Opera

When such a comical melody is performed with that distinctly German, hard-edged resonance, it becomes impossible to tell whether it’s a tragedy or a comedy.

It’s Brecht’s play The Threepenny Opera set to music by Weill, and since the overture already has this level of quality, the rest of the production is filled with even more strikingly original pieces.