A Guide to Modern Music

by Piero Scaruffi
(forever in preparation)
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This page contains the outline of a book that I am writing on the classical and avantgarde music of the last fifty years. Contrary to most available books, I would like to focus on truly modern composers (most "modern music" guides end with Stravinsky...)
I added the comments by Thanh-Tam Le`, whom I also have to thank for correcting many of my mistakes.

L'era del serialismo/ The age of serialism

  • Carter: Sonata piano (1946)
  • Babbitt: Three Compositions for Piano (1947)
  • Carter: Sonata cello & piano (1948)
  • Boulez: Sonata piano 2 (1948)
  • Boulez: Livre Pour Quatuor (1949)
  • Messiaen: Mode de Valeurs (1950)
  • Boulez: Structures (1951)
  • Stockhausen: Kreuzspiel (1951)
  • Barraque: Sonata piano (1952)

Nuovi strumenti/ New instruments

  • Jolivet: Concerto pour ondes Martenot (1947)
  • Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano (1948)
  • Messiaen: Turangalila (1948)
  • Schaeffer: Symphonie Pour Un Homme Seul (1950)
  • Cage: Concerto prep. piano (1951)

Nuovi metodi di composizione/ New methods of composition

  • Cage: Imaginary Landscape no.4 (1951)
  • Cage: Music Of Changes (1951)
  • Feldman: Projections (1951)
  • Luening: Fantasy In Space (1952)
  • Cage: Water Music (1952)
  • Brown: December 1952 (1952)
  • Wolff: Twentyfive pages (1953)
  • Wolff: Burdocks
  • Schaeffer: Orphee (1953)
  • Stockhausen: Kontra-Punkte (1953)
  • Xenakis: Metastasis (1954)

I Quartetti Scientifici/ The scientific quartets

  • Messiaen: Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps (1940)
  • Cage: Quartet (1950)
  • Carter: Quartet 1 (1951)
  • Carter: Sonata fl, oboe, violoncello, clavicembalo (1952)
  • Wolpe: Quartet per tromba, sassofono, piano & percussioni (1952)
  • Babbitt: Quartet per archi 2 (1954)

Il canto fra tradizione e rivoluzione/ The voice between tradition and revolutioin

  • Messiaen: Harawi (1945)
  • Wolpe: Yigdal (1945)
  • Dallapiccola: Prigioniero (1948)
  • Blitzstein: Regina (1949)
  • Menotti: Consul (1950)
  • Henze: Boulevard Solitude (1951)
  • Babbitt: Du (1951)
  • Tippett: Midsummer Marriage (1952)
  • Britten: Turn Of The Screw (1954)
  • Boulez: Le Marteau Sans Maitre (1954)
  • Henze: Konig Hirsch (1955)
  • Barraque: Sequence (1955)
  • Moore: Ballad Of Baby Doe (1956)

La sinfonia nordica degli anni Cinquanta/ Nordic symphony in the Fifties

  • Vaughan Williams: Symphony 7 (1952)
  • Martinu: Symphony 6 (1953)
  • Cowell: Symphony 11 (1953)
  • Sostakovic: Symphony 10 (1953)
  • Vaughan Williams: Symphony 8 (1955)
  • Tubin: Symphony 6 (1954)
  • Holmboe: Symphony 8 (1952)
  • Harald Saeverud: Symphony 9 (1965)
  • Hilding Rosenberg: Symphony 6 (1951)
  • Karl-Birger Blomdahl: Symphony 3 (1950)
  • Sandor Veress: Symphony 2 Minneapolitana (1952)

L'Elettronica/Electronic music

  • Varese: Deserts (1954)
  • Stockhausen: Gesang der Junglinge (1956)
  • Hiller: Illiac Suite (1957)
  • Berio: Thema (1958)
  • Varese: Poeme Electronique (1958)
  • Kagel: Transition II (1959)
  • Xenakis: Orient Occident (1960)
  • Babbitt: Ensemble For Synthesizer (1964)

Concerti del boom economico/ Concerts of the economic boom

  • Schuman: Concerto per violino (1947)
  • Korngold: Concerto per violino (1947)
  • Hovhaness: Concerto 7 (1953)
  • Hovhaness: Symphony 2 (1955)
  • Sostakovic: Concerto violin 1 (1955)
  • Sostakovic: Concerto piano 2 (1957)
  • Sostakovic: Concerto cello 1 (1959)
  • Carter: Doppio Concerto (1961)
  • Harrison: Concerto in slendro (1961)
  • Barber: Concerto pianoforte (1962)
  • Carter: Concerto piano (1965)
  • Gerhard: Concerto for Orchestra (1965)
  • Sostakovic: Concerto cello 2 (1966)
  • Sostakovic: Concerto violin 2 (1967)
  • Carter: Concerto per orc (1969)
  • Maric: Byzantine Concerto (1959)
  • Tauno Marttinen: Violin Concerto (1962)

Sinfonie del boom economico/ Symphonies of the economic boom

  • Messiaen: Oiseaux Exotiques (1956)
  • Rochberg: Symphony 2 (1956)
  • Wolpe: Symphony (1956)
  • Dutilleux: Symphony 2 (1959)
  • Gerhard: Symphony 3 (1960)
  • Obradovic: Mikrosimfonija (1967)
  • Part; Nekrolog (1960)
  • Sostakovic: Symphony 13 (1962)
  • Britten: Symphony per cello (1963)
  • Bernstein: Symphony 3 (1963)
  • Hartmann: Symphony 8 (1963)
  • Hovhaness: Symphony 7 (1963)
  • Harris: Symphony 9 (1963)
  • Gerhard: Symphony 4 (1967)
  • Eduard Tubin: Symphony 8 (1966)
  • Rudolf Bruci: Symphony 2 Lesta (1965)
  • Enriko Josif: Symphony 2 in one movement (1964)
  • Ahmet Saygun: Symphony 3 (1960)
  • Mordechai Seter: Jerusalem (1968)
  • Egon Wellesz: Symphony 5 (1956)
  • Primoz Ramovs: Symphony 4 (1968)
  • Erich Korngold: Symphony in F# Major (1950)
  • Havergal Brian: Symphony 8 (1949)
  • Havergal Brian: Symphony 10 (1954)

Musica da Film

L'Alea/ Alea

  • Boulez: Sonata piano 3 (1957)
  • Cage: Concerto piano orc (1958)
  • Austin: Improvisation (1961)
  • Foss: Echoi (1963)

Esperimenti sul suono/ Experiments on sound

  • Stockhausen: Gruppen (1957)
  • Messiaen: Catalogue d'Oiseaux (1958)
  • Partch: Revelation (1960)

Esperimenti sulla voce/ Experiments on voice

  • Nono: Canto Sospeso (1956)
  • Berio: Epifanie (1961)
  • Boulez: Pli Selon Pli (1962)
  • Ligeti: Aventures (1962)

Texture music

  • Stockhausen: Carre (1960)
  • Penderecki: Trenodia per le vittime di Horishima (1960)
  • Ligeti: Atmospheres (1961)

L'ultima musica da camera/ The last chamber music

  • Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesu (1944)
  • Carter: Quartet 2 (1959)
  • Gerhard: Quartet 2 (1962)
  • Messiaen: Sept Haikai (1962)
  • Messiaen: Couleurs de la Cite' Celeste (1963)
  • Scelsi: Quartet 4 (1964)

La musica gestuale/ Gesture music

  • Kagel: Sur Scene (1960)
  • Pousseur: Votre Faust (1963)
  • Stockhausen: Aus den Sieben Tagen (1968)
  • Moran: Halleluja (1971)

La voce nell'epoca del silenzio/ Voice in the age of silence

  • Britten: War Requiem (1961)
  • Stockhausen: Momente (1963)
  • Nono: La Fabbrica Illuminata (1964)
  • Babbitt: Philomel (1964)
  • Ginastera: Don Rodrigo (1964)
  • Henze: Bassarids (1965)
  • Ligeti: Requiem (1965)
  • Penderecki: Passione di San Luca (1965)
  • Bussotti: Passione Selon Sade (1965)
  • Birtwistle: Punch and Judy (1967)
  • Ligeti: Lux Aeterna (1967)
  • Feldman: Rothko Chapel (1971)
  • Roger Sessions: "When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloom'd" (1970)

La citazione/ The quotation

  • Zimmermann: Die Soldaten (1964)
  • Rochberg: Contra Mortem Et Tempus (1965)
  • Stockhausen: Telemusik (1966)
  • Stockhausen: Hymnen (1967)
  • Foss: Baroque Variations (1967)
  • Pousseur: Couleurs Croisees (1968)
  • Berio: Symphony (1968)
  • Crumb: Ancient Voices of Children (1970)

Live Electronic Music

  • Stockhausen: Mikrophonie (1965)
  • Cage: HPSCHD (1969)
  • Xenakis: Kraanerg (1969)
  • Stockhausen: Sternklang (1971)

Il Minimalismo/ Minimalism

  • LaMonte Young: A Well Tuned Piano (1964)
  • Riley: In C (1965)
  • Mumma: Dresden Interleaf (1965)
  • Reich: Drumming (1971)
  • Glass: Music In Twelve Parts (1974)

La moderna musica per ensemble/ Modern ensemble music

  • Maxfield: Toy Symphony (1962)
  • Boulez: Eclat (1965)
  • Birtwistle: Tragoedia (1965)
  • Ligeti: Horn Trio (1982)
  • Sostakovic: Sonata violin & piano (1968)
  • Xenakis: Nomos Alpha (1968)
  • Birtwistle: Verses For Ensemble (1969)
  • Ligeti: Concerto da camera per tredici strumenti (1970)
  • Davies: Ave Maris Stella (1975)
  • Sostakovic: Sonata viola & piano (1975)

Musica vocale del dissenso/ Vocal music of dissent

  • Cage: Musicircus (1967)
  • Stockhausen: Ensemble (1967)
  • Penderecki: Dies Irae (1967)
  • Henze: Das Floss der Meduse (1968)
  • Penderecki: I Diavoli (1968)
  • Stockhausen: Kurzwellen (1968)
  • Dallapiccola: Ulisse (1968)
  • Barraque: La Morte di Virgilio (1968)
  • Davies: Taverner (1968)
  • Allan Pettersson: Cantata "Vox humana" (1974)

Il misticismo orientale/ Eastern misticism

  • Stokhausen: Stimmung (1968)
  • Stockhausen: Mantra (1970)
  • Eloy: Kamakala (1971)
  • JeanClaude Eloy: Kamakala (1971)
  • Dao Nguyen-Thien: Koskom (1971)

I Quartetti dell'era postmoderna/ The quartets of the postmodern age

  • Schnittke: Quartet 1 (1966)
  • Ligeti: Quartet 2 (1968)
  • Babbitt: Quartet 3 (1969)
  • Babbitt: Quartet 4 (1970)
  • Sostakovic: Quartet 13 (1970)
  • Rochberg: Quartet 3 (1973)
  • Rochberg: Trio (1963)
  • Carter: Quartet 3 (1973)
  • Sostakovic: Quartet 14 (1973)
  • Sostakovic: Quartet 15 (1974)
  • Britten: Quartet 3 (1975)
  • Aho: Bassoon Quintet (1994)
  • Roussakis: Ephemeris (1979)
  • Feldman: Quartet 2 (1983)
  • Carter: Quartet 4 (1986)
  • Riley: Salome dances (1989)
  • Gorecki: Already it is dusk (1991)
  • Dubravko Detoni: Forgotten music for String Quartet (1981)
  • Vagn Holmboe: String Quartet 17 Mattinata (1982)
  • Hilding Rosenberg: String Quartet 8 (1957)

Il poema elettronico/ The electronic poem

  • Oliveros: Bye Bye Butterfly (1965)
  • Subotnick: Touch (1968)
  • Riley: Rainbow in curved air (1968)
  • Wuorinen: Time's encomium (1969)
  • Dodge: Earth's Magnetic Field (1970)
  • Ussachevsky: Conflict (1971)
  • Lansky: Mild und Leise (1973)

La dissoluzione del teatro musicale/ The dissolution of musical theatre

  • Davies: Eight Songs For A Mad King (1969)
  • Messiaen: La Transfiguration (1969)
  • Davies: Vesalii Icones (1969)
  • Birtwistle: Down By The Greenwood Side (1969)
  • Kagel: Staatstheatre (1970)
  • Gerhard: Duenna (?)
  • Berio: Opera (1970)
  • Berio: Recital (1972)
  • Stockhausen: Atmen Gibt Das Leben (1974)
  • Ferneyhough: Transit (1975)

La sinfonia dell'era della crisi/ The symphony of the age of crisis

  • Davies: St Thomas Wake (1969)
  • Davies: Worldes Blis (1969)
  • Sostakovic: Symphony 14 (1969)
  • Hovhaness: And God Created Great Whales (1969)
  • Norgard: Symphony 2 (1970)
  • Sostakovic: Symphony 15 (1971)
  • Ligeti: Melodien (1971)
  • Birtwistle: Triumph of Time (1972)
  • Tubin: Symphony 10 (1973)
  • Mennin: Symphony 8 (1974)
  • Norgard: Symphony 3 (1975)
  • Messiaen: Des Canyons Aux Etoiles (1975)
  • Boulez: Rituel (1975)
  • Del Tredici: An Alice Symphony (1976)
  • Davies: Symphony 1 (1976)
  • Wuorinen: Symphony delle percussioni (1976)
  • Tippett: Symphony 4 (1977)
  • Hanson: Symphony 7 (1977)
  • Carter: Symphony of Three Orchestras (1977)
  • Balakauskas: Ostrobothnian Symphony (1989)
  • Roger Sessions: Symphony No 7 (1967)
  • Allan Pettersson: Symphony 13 (1976)
  • Balakauskas: Symphony 2 (1979)
  • Kenins: Symphony 6 "Ad Fugam"
  • Pascal Bentoiu (Romania, 1927): Symphony No 5
  • Vasks: Symphony for Strings (1991)

Esperimenti sugli strumenti/ Experiments on instruments

  • Ligeti: Volumina per organo (1962)
  • Ligeti: Continuum per clavicembalo (1968)
  • Kagel: Exotica (1971)
  • Grisey: Jour Contre-jour (1979)
  • Hugues Dufourt: Symphony for percussion instruments, Erewhon (1976)
  • Michael Levinas: Les Rires de Gilles (1981)

Il risveglio della musica religiosa/ The revival of religious music

  • Herman Koppel: Moses (1964)
  • Bernstein: Mass (1971)
  • Penderecki: Utrenja (1971)
  • Harrison: La Koro-sutro (1972)
  • Penderecki: Magnificat (1974)
  • Schnittke: Requiem (1975)
  • Penderecki: Te Deum (1979)
  • Part: De Profundis (1980)
  • Part: Passio Domini Nostri (1982)
  • Penderecki: Polish Requiem (1983)
  • Kutavicius: Panteistine` Oratorija (1970)
  • Julius Juzeliunas: Cantus Magnificat (1979)
  • Eduard Tubin: Requiem (1979)
  • Edmund Rubbra: Symphony 9 Sacra (1972)

Il concerto nonostante il concerto/ The concert notwithstanding the concert

  • Ligeti: Doppio concerto (1972)
  • Petrassi: Concerto 8 (1972)
  • Gubaidulina: Concerto per fagotto (1975)
  • Gubaidulina: Music For Flute Strings & Percussion (1994)
  • Cage: Concerto #3 piano orc "14" (1990)
  • Penderecki: Concerto per violino n.1 (1976)
  • Hovhaness: Concerto per euphonium (1977)
  • Part: Tabula rasa (1977)
  • Tippett: Triplo Concerto (1979)
  • Lutoslawski: Doppio concerto (1980)
  • Lutoslawski: Concerto piano (1986)
  • Gubaidulina: Offertorium (1980)
  • Gubaidulina: Canticle Of The Sun (1980)
  • Harrison: Doppio concerto (1982)
  • Wuorinen: Concerto pianoforte 3 (1983)
  • Bolcom: Concerto per violino (1984)
  • Zwilich: Concerto grosso (1985)
  • Dutilleux: Violin Concerto (1985)
  • Primoz Ramovs: Cello Concerto (1974)
  • Anders Hillborg: Violin Concerto (1992)
  • Talivaldis Kenins: Concerto for fourteen instruments (1982)
  • Talivaldis Kenins: Concerto for five percussionists (1983)

Nuovi ensemble/ New ensembles

  • Reich: Music for 18 musicians (1976)
  • Boulez: Repons (1980)
  • Ligeti: Trio per corni (1982)
  • Carter: Triplo duo (1983)
  • Oliveros: Wanderer (1985)
  • Nyman: Water dances (1985)
  • Finnissy: WAM (1991)
  • Bastien: Mecanium (1988)

Il teatro musicale dopo l'opera/ The musical theatre after the opera

  • Wuorinen: Whore of Babylon (1975)
  • Berio: Coro (1976)
  • Henze: We Come To The River (1976)
  • Glass: Einstein on the beach (1976)
  • Crumb: Star Child (1977)
  • Ligeti: Grand Macabre (1977)
  • Penderecki: Paradiso perduto (1978)
  • Gruber: Frankenstein (1978)
  • Tavener: Therese (1979)
  • Monk: Dolmen music (1979)
  • Stockhausen: Donnerstag Aus Licht (1980)
  • Davies Peter Maxwell: Lighthouse (1980)
  • Tippett: Mask of Time (1982)
  • Stockhausen: Samstag Aus Licht (1983)
  • Birtwistle: Mask of Orpheus (1983)
  • Birtwistle: Secret Theatre (1984)
  • Messiaen: San Francesco d'Assisi (1983)
  • Berio: Un Re In Ascolto (1984)
  • Nono: Prometeo (1984)
  • Kagel: Die Erschopiano der Welt (1985)
  • Machover: Valis (1987)
  • Cage: Europera (1988)
  • Rutter: Magnificat (1990)
  • Corigliano: Ghosts of Versailles (1991)
  • Bolcom: A View From The Bridge (1999)
  • Moran: Desert of roses (1991)
  • Schnittke: Life with an idiot (1991)
  • Davies: Job (1997)
  • Part: Kanon Pokajanen (1998)

La sinfonia nonostante la sinfonia/ The symphony notwithstanding the symphony

  • Balakauskas: Ostrobothnian Symphony
  • Maxwell Davies: Symphony 5
  • Robert Simpson: Symphony 9 (1987)
  • Konstantin Iliev: Symphony 6 (1984)
  • Ib Norholm: Symphony 2 (1971)
  • Tomas Marco: Symphony 5 (1989)
  • Jozsef Soproni: Symphony 3 (1980)
  • Udo Zimmermann: Sinfonia Come Un Gran Lamento (1977)
  • Ake Hermanson: Symphony 4 Oceanus (1983)
  • Norholm: Symphony 2 (1971)
  • Alla Pettersson: Symphony 16 (1979)
  • Alla Pettersson: Symphony 13 (1976)
  • Kenins: Symphony 8 (1986)
  • Kenins: Symphony 6 (1978)
  • Gorecki: Symphony 3 (1976)
  • Hovhaness: Symphony 36 (1979)
  • Penderecki: Symphony 2 (1980)
  • Schnittke: Concerto grosso 3 (1981)
  • Adams: Harmonienlehre (1981)
  • Norgard: Symphony 4 (1981)
  • Lutoslawski: Symphony 3 (1983)
  • Lutoslawski: Symphony 4 (1992)
  • Branca: Symphony 3 (1983)
  • Zwilich: Symphony 1 (1983)
  • Schnittke: Concerto grosso 5 (1988)
  • Zwilich: Symphony 2 (1990)
  • Bolcom: Symphony 5 (1990)
  • Schnittke: Symphony 8 (1994)
  • Braga Santos: Symphony 4 (1948)
  • Messiaen: Eclairs Sur L'Au-Dela` (1991)

1960-1990

Guida all'Avanguardia