Top Avant-Garde Artists on Rhapsody Online

David Darling

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 09:42:31 -0700

Listening to David Darling, you get a sense of an elderly classical musician slowly drawing his bow across his cello for the last time, drowning in a sea of self-pity so viscous that it's almost pleasurable. This is misery that likes company, and manages to sound pretty in the process. - Sarah Bardeen

John Cage

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 16:49:19 -0800

Perhaps the most innovative musician in history. Cage's evening-long musical collage, Variations IV, represents a sonic collage of random bits of music in countless genres, fragments of conversation, speeches, chanting, and various kinds of white noise. The overall effect is similar to hearing the soundtrack of a movie with no plot. This style of music is known as "musique concrete." - Noah Enelow

Anton Webern

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 11:03:01 -0700

"Doomed to total failure in a deaf world of ignorance and indifference, he inexorably kept on cutting out his diamonds, his dazzling diamonds, of whose mines he had a perfect knowledge," said Igor Stravinski of Anton Webern. A member of the Second Viennese School, Webern's diamonds appear mostly in geometric twelve-tone technique and serialism, a compositional technique based on the manipulation of a set of musical elements, stemming from twelve-tone technique.

Born in Vienna in 1883, he was a dedicated pupil of Arnold Schoenberg, and, in one of his early tonal works, produced 1908's Passacaglia. He left tonality altogether with his songs of 1908-'09, though, and his instrumental pieces between1909-'14 were very short due to technical limitations on thematic development. The songs of 1910-'25 show a reintroduction of traditional formal patterns which prelude his late-career serialism. On September 15, 1945, during the occupation of Austria, he was accidentally shot and killed by an American Army soldier while smoking a cigar after curfew. - Nate Cavalieri

Charles Ives

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:43:44 -0700

Perhaps more than any of his 20th-century contemporaries, Charles Ives' works tend to sound distinctly American due to their use of hymns, popular songs, and marches of the composer's youth. The son of a Danbury, Conn., bandmaster, Ives was greatly influenced by the rather eccentric musical ideals of his father, and began composing as a young adult. His studies with Parker at Yale led to the relatively conventional First Symphony (1898) and song sets of at the turn of the century. His profession, however, was selling insurance, not writing music, and even though he diligently produced three monumental symphonies and numerous orchestral and chamber works in middle age, most of it was written without prospect of performance. Ironically, he became among the most widely performed American composers of his generation after death, and the only consistent characteristic of this music is defiant originality and disregard for convention. He died in New York in 1954. - MUZE

Pierre Boulez

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:04:35 -0700

Born in 1925, this French composer and world-renowned conductor is a farsighted champion of the limitless possibilities of compositional technique, easily seen in his development and mastery of serialsm, his compositions of so-called "controlled chance," and pioneering experiments with electronic music. After studying under Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire he appeared with a pair of intense, violent piano sonatas and the Livre pour quatuor for string quartet. In the early '50s he became friends with Stockhausen, with whom he led the European avant garde through his teaching and key postwar works of "tonal serialism," which include a number of works equally challenging and elegant.

In the mid-1950s, Boulez extended his activities to conducting, first with a post as Barrault's musical director and then with brief engagements with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. Since the mid-1970s, Boulez has concentrated on his work as director of the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), a computer studio in Paris where he composes mostly for ensembles of computer generated sound and orchestra. - Nate Cavalieri

Olivier Messiaen

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:38:10 -0800

One of the twentieth century's most unique composers, Olivier Messiaen often went out into the wild, transcribing birdsongs he heard and incorporating the sounds into his music. He based other melodies on ancient Gregorian chants, complex conglomerations of pitches that he devised, and the music of North India. Like Arnold Schoenberg, Messiaen also applied principles of the modern compositional style of serialism to his writing, using the complex rules to generate rhythms and chord changes. A detailed look at the score of Quartet for the End of Time reveals palindrome-like layered rhythms, a clarinet bird call floating above and hundreds of harmonies logically interlaced with mathematical intricacy. Unlike many of his peers, intellectualisms did not take away from the purity and natural beauty of his style. His influence is felt in many areas, from the work of equally original students -- including Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen -- to the open harmonies of pianist McCoy Tyner. - Jessy Terry

Gyorgy Ligeti

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:00:24 -0700

Lou Harrison

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:05:24 -0700

Lou Harrison is a marquee name in avant music for good reason; his studies with Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg and his work with John Cage gave him a strong grasp of contemporary theory. But the incorporation of Eastern musical traditions and micro-tonality really distinguished his work -- he employed everything from Indonesian gamelan instruments to tin cans. A friend and admirer of Charles Ives, Harrison was also a noted music scholar and political activist. Toward the end of his life, Harrison lived with longtime partner William Colvig in Joshua Tree, California, in a straw-bale house. He died in Lafayette, Indiana, in 2003 from a heart attack - Nate Cavalieri

Dean Roberts

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:41:17 -0800

Luciano Berio

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:55:14 -0700

Henry Cowell

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:05:29 -0700

By contemporary standards, strumming the innards of a piano is old hat -- just as conventional as taking a fist to a piano and calling it art. However, someone had to do those things first. Enter Mr. Cowell. Born in 1887 and raised poor in San Francisco, he showed an early confidence in exploring new musical forms. After a University of California education he became one of the cornerstone composers of new music of the twentieth century. Teacher to John Cage, Lou Harrison, and George Gershwin, as well as promoter of then-unknown Charles Ives, his influence has become all-pervasive. His innovations include usage of aleatory elements, as in Mosaic Quartet (performers have spontaneous choices to make); tone clusters, or harmonies built upon the interval of the second rather than the third (i.e. play the piano with your entire forearm, WHAM!); and the heavy incorporation of polyrhythms and other non-Western elements. He infused much of his work with far/near eastern, south Asian, African, and Javanese gamelan sounds and rhythms, studying and combining all these influences long before postmodernism dictated it was hip to do so. Exit Mr. Cowell, 1965. - Henry B.

Krzysztof Penderecki

Sat, 7 Nov 2009 11:26:31 -0800

(born 23 Nov 1933)

Polish composer. He was a pupil of Malawski at the KrakÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ³w Conservatory (1955-8), where he has also taught. He gained international fame with such works as Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima for 52 strings (1960), exploiting the fierce expressive effects of new sonorities, but in the mid-1970s there came a change to large symphonic forms based on rudimentary chromatic motifs. Central to his work is the St Luke Passion (1965), with its combination of intense expressive force with a severe style with archaic elements alluding to Bach, and its sequel Utrenia, in which Orthodox chant provides musical material and at the same time a sense of mystery. His operas have been admired for their dynamic expression even if their discrete vignettes offer more opportunity for characterization than development.

- MUZE

Edgard VarÃ¨se

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:22:09 -0800

(born: Paris, 22 Dec 1883; died: New York, 6 Nov 1965)

American composer of French origin. He studied with dIndy at the Schola Cantorum (1903-5) and Widor at the Paris Conservatoire (1905-7), then moved to Berlin, where he met Strauss and Busoni. In 1913 he returned to Paris, but in 1915 he emigrated to New York; nearly all his compositions disappeared at this stage, with the exception of a single published song and an orchestral score, Bourgogne (1908), which he took with him but destroyed towards the end of his life. His creative output therefore effectively begins with Am?riques for large orchestra (1921), which, for all its echoes of Debussy and of Stravinsky's early ballets, sets out to discover new worlds of sound: fiercely dissonant chords, rhythmically complex polyphonies for percussion and/or wind, forms in continuous evolution with no large-scale recurrence.

In 1921 he and Carlos Salzedo founded the International Composers Guild, who gave the first performances of several of his works for small ensemble, these prominently featuring wind and percussion, and presenting the innovations of Am?riques in pure, compact form: Hyperprism (1923), Octandre (1923) and Int?grales (1925). Arcana (1927), which returns to the large orchestra and extended form with perfected technique, brought this most productive period to an end.

There followed a long stay in Paris (1928-33), during which he wrote Ionisation for percussion orchestra (1931), the first European work to dispense almost entirely with pitched sounds, which enter only in the coda. He also took an interest in the electronic instruments being developed (he had been calling for electronic means since his arrival in the USA), and wrote for two theremins or ondes martenot in Ecuatorial for bass, brass, keyboards and percussion (1934). The flute solo Density 21. 5 (1936) was then his last completed work for nearly two decades.

During this time he taught sporadically and also made plans for Espace, which was to have involved simultaneous radio broadcasts from around the globe; an Etude pour Espace for chorus, pianos and percussion was performed in 1947. Then, with electronic music at last a real possibility owing to the development of the tape recorder, he produced D?serts for wind, percussion and tape (1954) and a Po?me ?lectronique (1957-8), devised to be diffused in the Philips pavilion at the Brussels Exposition of 1958. His last years were devoted to projects on themes of night and death, including the unfinished Nocturnal for voices and chamber orchestra (1961).

Iannis Xenakis

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 11:02:15 -0700

Iannis Xenakis (pronounced zah-nach-us) is among the most important Greek composers of the 20th century, of chief importance to musical modernism and -- perhaps due to his other career as an architect -- a major figure of the so-called "architectonic" school. His most widely performed works are for percussion solo and ensemble, including the immaculately constructed "Rebounds A + B." - Nate Cavalieri

Jeffrey Reid Baker

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:23:57 -0700

An engaging pianist and composer, Baker chooses to experiment rather than stagnate. He's arranged Rachmaninov cello concertos for two pianos and performed electronic tape manipulations of Liszt's work, among other experiments. - Jessy Terry

Henry Flynt

Mon, 9 Feb 2009 10:20:13 -0800

Sarah Hopkins

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:25:10 -0700

Hopkins uses a unique, circular bowing technique to create wonderfully enchanting sounds and effects with her cello. Other works utilize vocals in surprising ways to create drifting, descending sounds that sound nothing short of extraterrestrial. - Will Lerner

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 11:02:15 -0700

Born in a small village outside of Cologne, Germany, in 1928, Karlheinz Stockhausen became a giant of 20th century composition. His prolific catalog includes 35 works for orchestra, 46 for choir and 200 works of electronic music, while his life and influence encompassed several progressive musical movements, including total serialism, electronic music, spatial music, chance music and even world music. He spent his early career studying the serial techniques of Schoenberg and Webern, taking them to unexplored regions in works such as Kontra-Punkte and Kreuzspiel. In 1953, the composer began working in West German Radio's Studio for Electronic Music, a tenure that lasted until 1998. Pieces from this period, the haunting Kontakte and his groundbreaking spatial composition, Gesang Der Junglinge, had immeasurable influence on the Avant-Garde, and are perhaps his most enduring concepts. By the late 1960s, Stockhausen's vision had exploded into the cosmos. His work became increasingly expansive as he struggled to find sonic material worthy of his extraordinary ambitions. Elaborate staging and choreography became an integral part of works such as Inori and Sirius, but these were a prelude to what became his masterpiece: the seven-part opera cycle entitled Licht. Composed between 1977 and 2004, it is enormous in its narrative scope, spanning history from the birth of the universe to the final stages of man's evolution; indeed, it is 29 hours long. Shortly after its completion, a new song cycle, Klang, based on the 24 hours of the day, began to take shape. He would only compose a fraction of the "days," however, before his death in December of 2007. In a letter written in early 2006 Stockhausen speculated on the direction of his new work. "It seems that each hour contains the spiral of the 24 hours of the day, and that the contents of the hours concern all of us. (It is recommended to ensure your entry to a heaven's door already now)." - Nate Baker

Charles Wuorinen

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:43:24 -0700

One of America's more prolific twentieth century composers, Charles Wuorinen successfully tried his hand at virtually every established form while maintaining close ties to the new electronic music movement as well. His early work, including his "Piano Variations (1963)" focused heavily on expressive performance eccentricities like slamming the keys with his fist and scratching the strings inside the instrument. His later work, for which he is most closely associated, took a more academic approach, drawing heavily from the work of Milton Babbitt and the second-generation serialists. These later works have a dryer, more studied feel to them, ensuring that his legacy would be left with the academic world as opposed to the popular one. Wuorinen was awarded the Pulitzer Prize 1970 for his work "Time's Enconium," an interesting, if dated, electronic work. - Doug Russell

Eyvind Kang

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:05:42 -0700

Eyvind Kang is a tough nut to crack. One day he might be unleashing shrieking jazz/rock noise with his Painkiller-meets-1970s Miles Davis trio Dying Ground, then the next he's studying with an Indian violinist or working on a Django Reinhardt tribute. His main instrument is the violin, but he's also doubled on tuba (with guitarist Bill Frisell's folksy chamber jazz quartet) and electric guitar (with the Middle Eastern Surf/Metal band Secret Chiefs 3). His own albums are similarly diverse and puzzling. 7 NADEs is a beautifully arranged and recorded studio collage that weaves together passages of melodious '60s soundtrack-inspired music, disturbing Musique Concrete and sadistic violin noise, often using quick-change techniques reminiscent of John Zorn yet evoking a dark, mysterious air of its own. Its follow-up, theatre of mineral NADEs, is much less jarring, voyaging through Asian, Indian and Medieval territories via a series of brief, primarily instrumental songs. Remaining efforts -- The Story of Iceland, Sweetness of Sickness -- are equally distinct and twisted, offering further pieces in the yet-to-be-solved puzzle of exactly what this Eyvind Kang character is really up to. - Will York

Elliott Carter

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:43:59 -0700

(b. New York, 11 Dec 1908).
American composer. He studied at Harvard (1926-32), at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris (1932-5) and privately with Boulanger. Back in the USA he worked as musical director of Ballet Caravan (until 1940) and as a teacher. From boyhood he had been acquainted with the music of Schoenberg, Var?se, Ives and others, but for the moment his works leaned much more towards Stravinsky and Hindemith: they included the ballets Pocahontas (1939) and The Minotaur (1947), the Symphony no.1 (1942) and Holiday Overture (1944). However, in his Piano Sonata (1946) he began to work from the interval content of particular chords, and inevitably to loosen the hold of tonality. The development was taken further in the Cello Sonata (1948), already characteristic of his later style in that the instruments have distinct roles.
A period of withdrawal led to the First Quartet (1951), a work of complex rhythmic interplay, long-ranging atonal melody and unusual form, the "movements" being out of step with the given breaks in the musical continuity: effectively it is a single unfolding of 40 minutes' duration. It was followed by exclusively instrumental works of similar complexity, activity and energy, including the Variations for orchestra (1955), the Second Quartet (1959), the Double Concerto for harpsichord and piano, each with its own chamber orchestra (1961), the Piano Concerto (1965), the Concerto for Orchestra (1969), the Third Quartet (1971) and the Brass Quintet (1974). At that point Carter returned to vocal composition for a triptych of works for soloist and ensemble: A Mirror on which to Dwell (1975), Syringa (1978) and In Sleep, in Thunder (1981), with words by Elizabeth Bishop, John Ashbery and Robert Lowell respectively. But he has also continued the output of large instrumental movements with A Symphony of Three Orchestras (1976), the piano solo Night Fantasies (1980), the Triple Duo (1983) and Penthode for small orchestra (1985). His String Quartet no.4 (1986) is in a simpler style. - MUZE

Meredith Monk

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:05:03 -0700

Christopher Bissonnette

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:19:54 -0700

Cello Octet Conjunto Ibérico

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:46:27 -0800

Toru Takemitsu

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:49:57 -0700

Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) is one of the most widely celebrated Japanese composers of the 20th century. He is known for works that drew inspiration from a wide range of influences -- including American jazz and pop, traditional Japanese music, and French art music -- and utilized a broad, special depth. Among the best known are 1957's "Requiem for Strings," 1977's "A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden," and 1990's treatise for percussion and orchestra, "From me flows what you call Time." - Nate Cavalieri

Glenn Branca

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:23:50 -0700

Though not featured on the Eno-produced No New York compilation, the Branca-fronted Theoretical Girls and The Static were an integral part of No Wave. Perhaps because of his association with rock music, Branca went on to become one of the most grossly underrated American composers of our time. Most famous for his deafening compositions for multiple electric guitars, Branca released his first attempt at the form, Lesson No. 1, in 1980. Though classic, it was a mere hint of what he'd soon accomplish: Symphony No. 5 is nothing short of a masterpiece of sweeping textures and dramatic power. The piece is performed on "mallet guitars," homemade instruments with strings designed to be struck with short sticks, resulting in a bell-like chime rich with overtones. Driven by an almost ever-present drumbeat, the music swells with massive, overwhelming waves of sound, full of frightening intensity as well as shimmering beauty. In addition to other, smaller works, Branca has completed ten symphonies, the ninth of which was composed for symphony orchestra. After witnessing a performance of his sixth symphony, John Cage reportedly described Branca's work as "the devil's music." - Doug Russell

Chen Yi

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 09:46:57 -0700

Laura Rossi

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:06:22 -0700

Paul Mottram

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:57:14 -0700

Phill Niblock

Wed, 6 May 2009 09:33:44 -0700

Phill Niblock is a veteran of Downtown New York's fertile experimental music and art scene of the 1970s, but it's not surprising that much of his work has been released on the UK's Touch, a label of the '90s and onward that specializes in futurist ambient studies and unconventional sonic investigations. Sometimes called history's "forgotten Minimalist," Niblock's work helped lay the foundations for all manner of drone-based electronic and electro-acoustic experiments to follow. In 1968 he founded Experimental Intermedia, a multi-disciplinary studio and performance space that remains active today. His music is often minimalist in the extreme -- not in the pulsing, polyrhythmic vein of Steve Reich or Terry Riley, but in the long, mercurial drones of La Monte Young. Layering long, yawning tones played on a handful of instruments -- strings, winds and electronics appear frequentl -- he lets unitone sounds unravel into frayed ropes of buzzing harmonics and queasy overtones. Niblock's music has had a profound influence on noise-rockers like Sonic Youth as well as electronic musicians like Thomas Koener. His music is truly made for getting lost in. - Philip Sherburne

Alvin Lucier

Wed, 27 May 2009 10:36:05 -0700

Jack The Dog

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:33:35 -0700

Vibraphone and electric keyboard duo from Chicago performs original compositions combining skill, professional discipline, and a healthy dose of irreverence. Includes prerecorded parts, drones, sound collages and flourishes of Frank Zappa-esque instrumental virtuosity. Perhaps their most interesting (or at least notorious) work, "Missa Canibus," consists of an entire Catholic Mass composed around a canine theme, emphasizing biblical passages referring to the animal and organizing the words in mosostics reminiscent of John Cage's Empty Words. - Doug Russell

Lydia Kavina, Ensemble Sospeso, Charles Peltz

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 06:26:05 -0700

Morton Feldman

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 11:02:15 -0700

Morton Feldman (1926-1987) was an influential American composer whose works were inspired by the thriving downtown New York City fine-art scene of the 1950s and 1960s. He was influenced by abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko and often referenced visual art through his alternative notation systems. His music is marked by his great love for the material qualities of instruments, the freedom of trusting his instincts and his aesthetic distance from mainstream compositional values. He first met John Cage at a concert of Webern's works and went on to live in the same building as Cage, becoming his student. Feldman's 1950s and 1960s works were indeterminate or had improvisational elements and generally displayed reverence, austerity and quietude while developing startling harmonic invention and timbrale juxtaposition. In the 1970s, Feldman embraced the minimalist credo of repetition and began standardly notating music once again and directing such elements as pitch volume. In his later years, his works were extremely long, often over an hour, so listeners could experience the development of patterns and musical gestures from "inside" the music. - Daphne Carr

Alvin Curran

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:04:12 -0700

Alvin Curran's music achieves the perfect balance of challenge and musicality, setting him apart from both the intellectualists and tradition-minded composers who often befuddle modern classical music. Using orchestral instruments, electronic noises and found sounds, Curran's works can include beautiful, quiet melodies and shattering, harsh sonorities blended into a decisively planned style of composition. After studying with Elliott Carter, Curran helped found the free improvisational ensemble Musica Elettronica Viva. One of his most lauded pieces is Crystal Psalms (1988), a stunningly ambitious piece recognizing the fiftieth anniversary of the "Night of the Broken Glass," the first major German attack on Jews. The haunting composition includes over 300 musicians in six different countries performing simultaneously via radio broadcast with strings, woodwinds, accordion, choir, percussion, found sound and pre-recorded sounds of prayer. - Jessy Terry

Eliane Radigue

Sun, 5 Oct 2008 08:14:19 -0700

Maryanne Amacher

Fri, 9 Oct 2009 16:22:21 -0700

Creating lush sound from her multimedia installations since the '70s, American artist Amacher's music is an exploration in shifts in electronic sound production. Her music is often site-specific and reactive to unique architectural acoustics. As one moves through her installations, one discovers constantly changing resonances and frequencies as the sound reacts to the architecture and the ear. Her recordings, are therefore documents of auricular events and site-specific phenomena. Nonetheless, they are mesmerizing. High-tension, synthetic drones play with, melt into, and separate from one another, transforming any physical or mental space. - Marc Kate

Peter Garland

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:25:16 -0700

Zeena Parkins

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:23:48 -0800

Improviser, composer and performer Zeena Parkins is one of America's most talented avant-gardists. An integral component of New York City's downtown scene, the electric harpist has performed with an all-star list of musicians, including John Zorn, Fred Frith, the late Tom Cora, Elliot Sharp and Gate, among others. The range of sounds and textures she can coax out of her instrument and the accompanying electronics is impressive, and her instincts are superb. In addition to records with bands such as No Safety, Skeleton Crew, News From Babel and Elliot Sharp's Carbon, she has released several solo records, including two long-form compositions for Zorn's Tzadik label. Her Mouth=Maul=Betrayer is a stunner, exploring the lives and culture of Jewish gangsters through radical chamber orchestrations and mesmerizing text read in the obscure Yiddish language of Rotwelsch. - Doug Russell

Frances-Marie Uitti

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:51:17 -0700

Noted for her severely non-traditional method of playing a cello with two bows, Frances Marie Uitti makes intense, fiery improvisational music. Unlike single-bowed cellists, she's not limited to single harmonies. Complex, but not beyond musicality, her pieces are both smooth and unsettling. - Jon Pruett