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

TelemusikKarlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen – Telemusik (1966)

If you’re interested in contemporary music or electronic music, this is one piece you absolutely must experience at least once.

The composer is Karlheinz Stockhausen, the German master of contemporary music.

He started out as a young musician studying piano and even made a living as a pianist for a time.

He also studied philosophy and other subjects, and after relocating to France, he composed the world’s first works of electronic music, becoming a leading figure of postwar avant-garde music.

The work introduced here, Telemusik, was produced at NHK’s Electronic Music Studio in Tokyo during his first visit to Japan, from January 23 to March 2, 1966.

Drawing on materials from gagaku, Japan’s imperial court music, as well as folk and traditional musics from around the world, this piece became a landmark in the history of electronic music.

Incidentally, Stockhausen himself openly stated how deeply he was influenced by Japan, even describing the country as “a work of art in itself.”

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Symphony No. 3 “Elegy Symphony”Henryk Gorecki

Henryk Górecki Symphony no. 3 – Dawn Upshaw (soprano); David Zinman & London Sinfonietta

Even if you knew nothing about the background of this piece, simply surrendering yourself to its unhurried tempo and patiently unfolding structure, and listening to the beauty of its melody, steeped in deep sorrow, would naturally instill a sense of solemnity.

Known in Japanese as the “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs,” this symphony was composed in 1976 by the Polish contemporary composer Henryk Górecki.

It is said to be one of the most successful symphonies of the late 20th century and is among Górecki’s signature works.

The avant-garde tendencies evident in Górecki’s early period are somewhat restrained here, while elements of repetition and silence characteristic of minimalism, as well as a religious dimension rooted in faith, are brought to the forefront.

Though it departs from traditional symphonic forms, it is a remarkable work that incorporates many accessible, classical-sounding phrases.

Even those not particularly interested in contemporary music will likely find a universal appeal here, provided they don’t dislike classical music.

Recordings on CD are excellent, of course, but this is the kind of work you’ll truly want to experience in the concert hall.

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Epitaph for MoonlightRaymond Murray Schafer

Epitaph for Moonlight – R. Murray Schafer

Raymond Murray Schafer, the Canadian composer famous for proposing the concept of the so-called “soundscape,” wrote many choral works for Japanese choirs, and it is still fresh in our memory that he sadly passed away on August 14, 2021.

His 1968 work Epitaph for Moonlight—known in Japanese as “Gekkō e no Hibun” (Epitaph for Moonlight)—is a popular piece.

Although it was reportedly written as a study piece for student choirs, its fantastical and mystical sonorities alone inspire a sense of solemnity in the listener.

Rather than relying on a main phrase repeated or on strict metric subdivision, the piece is characterized by a high degree of freedom; it is sometimes performed a cappella or with metallic percussion.

As each part expresses itself with distinctive character while forming a single ensemble, the result may well be called a true “landscape of sound.”

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Pierrot LunaireArnold Schönberg

Complete performance: Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire

Also known in Japanese as “Tsuki ni Tsukareta Pierrot” (Pierrot Lunaire), this work was originally a French poetry collection published by a Belgian poet, and the musical piece is based on its German translation.

Among the several composers who set these poems to music, the most famous version is by the Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg.

Schoenberg is known for founding the twelve-tone technique, which broke away from traditional tonal music, and after emigrating to the United States he taught, among others, the famed John Cage—an influence that profoundly shaped contemporary music.

The Pierrot Lunaire introduced here predates Schoenberg’s establishment of the twelve-tone method; it is written in an atonal style that abandons tonality, making it not only a masterpiece of contemporary music but also one of the most important works in 20th-century music history.

It departs radically from conventional chamber music with a succession of striking dissonances, and intertwines songs that fall somewhere between singing and poetic recitation, creating a complex and uncanny world.

There are no beautiful melodies to be found, and it is by no means comfortable listening, but as a musical experience unlike any other, I encourage you to give it a try—Japanese translations of the texts in hand.

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Etude to the Tone of the SeaSalvatore Sciarrino

Salvatore Sciarrino: “Studi per l´Intonazione del Mare” 1. Teil / 1st Part

Anyway, I’d really like you to watch a performance video of this piece.

In addition to the ensemble of countertenor, flute quartet, saxophone quartet, and percussion, it’s a work that resembles a grand sonic experiment expressed by, astonishingly, 100 flutes and 100 saxophones.

The sight of more than 200 performers standing on stage is spectacular in itself, but I’m even more impressed by the very idea of attempting such a thing.

The original title is “Studi per l’Intonazione del Mare,” and the composer is the Italian contemporary music composer Salvatore Sciarrino.

He is said to have been largely self-taught in composition, and his highly acclaimed body of work—utterly inexpressible through conventional classical music theory—shows his unique originality.

This piece, too, contains none of the so-called melodious, beautiful phrases; it is truly a music of sounds born from the sea itself, an acoustic world that, if possible, should be experienced not on a CD but live in the hall.

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