The combination of classical music and multimedia is another notable practice in the 21st century; the Internet and its related technology are important resources in this respect.
La Monte Young experimented with performance art; John Cage applied the I Ching to his music; Reich and Glass developed minimalism.
[1] This trend has continued into the 21st century: in 2009 BBC Music Magazine asked 10 composers, mostly British (John Adams, Julian Anderson, Henri Dutilleux, Brian Ferneyhough, Jonathan Harvey, James MacMillan, Michael Nyman, Roxanna Panufnik, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and John Tavener), to discuss the latest trends in western classical music.
[4] Styles developed in the 20th century, such as minimalism (Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich), postminimalism (Louis Andriessen (died 2021), Gavin Bryars, John McGuire, Pauline Oliveros (died 2016), Julia Wolfe), New Complexity (James Dillon, Brian Ferneyhough), and New Simplicity (Wolfgang Rihm) continue to be developed.
[2] They combine elements of diverse musical genres and compositional techniques, often alien to the composers' own culture, into a unified and coherent body of works.
[7] Kati Agócs' work for chorus and orchestra The Debrecen Passion (2015) surrounds settings of poetry by Szilárd Borbély[8] with mystical texts of Medieval Latin, Hungarian, and Georgian origin, as well as a Kabalistic prayer.
For example, in 2002, La Monte Young, along with Marian Zazeela and senior disciple Jung Hee Choi, founded the Just Alap Raga Ensemble which performs Indian classical music of the Kirana Gharana and merges the traditions of Western and Hindustani classical music, Young applying his own compositional approach to traditional raga performance, form, and technique.
[12] In a more abstract manner, religious and mystical associations are also found in the works of Sofia Gubaidulina, a devout member of the Russian Orthodox church.
He composes for the lute, orpharion, and torban, and is an advocate of musical historicism and has collaborated with Hans Kockelmans and the New York Bandura Ensemble led by Julian Kytasty.
[15] Tan Dun, best known for his scores for the movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Hero, attempts to connect Buddhist, Christian and other cultures in his works.
Examples from the 21st century include Pauline by Tobin Stokes (libretto by Margaret Atwood), The Corridor by Harrison Birtwistle, El Caballero de la triste figura by Tomás Marco and The Sound of a Voice by Philip Glass.
Debra Craine of The Times wrote, "Embrace is an earnest and heartfelt gay coming-out tale, with dramatic music (from Sarah Kirkland Snider, played live) and a clearly defined choreographic journey from confusion and confrontation to acceptance and reconciliation.
Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls (2002) is a choral piece commemorating the victims of the 11 September 2001 attacks[20] (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003).
Golijov, being a Jew and Latin American, offered a different perspective on the Passion: he drew on African-influenced traditions from Cuba and Brazil, flamenco and Baroque music to create a work that enacts the story as a ritual through voices, dance and movement.
[28] Jennifer Higdon's blue cathedral, premièred in 2000, is a one-movement orchestral tone-poem and is ranked among the most widely performed works of the early 21st century.
[20] Samuel Adler's compositions for orchestra from this century include: A Bridge to Understanding (2008), All Nature Plays (2009), Drifting on Winds and Currents (2010), and In the Spirit of Bach (2014).
The composer included a moment of blocking during which the solo performer rises, walks behind the orchestra, and exits through the stage door, all the while being followed by a spotlight while a string trio, offstage, plays.
[20] Stockhausen's last major work, the unfinished cycle of twenty-four compositions collectively titled Klang, is predominantly made up of chamber-music pieces.
Mario Davidovsky has extended his series Synchronisms, which in live performance incorporate both acoustic instruments and electroacoustic sounds played from a tape.
Other composers including Mason Bates, Jean-Claude Éloy, Rolf Gehlhaar, Jon Hassell, York Höller, Hanspeter Kyburz, Mesías Maiguashca, Philippe Manoury, and Gérard Pape are active is this field.
Bates' The B-Sides is a symphony in five movements for electronica and orchestra and Hassell's music exploits unusual electronic manipulation of the trumpet sound.
[43] Other important composers include Eric Whitacre, Kaija Saariaho, Jennifer Higdon, Magnus Lindberg, Michael Finnissy, Michel van der Aa, Airat Ichmouratov and Nico Muhly.
Even after women started getting careers, it took a while before they could find work as composers, but we got there in the end, thanks to role models such as Judith Weir, Nicola Lefanu [sic], and Thea Musgrave.
Hip young things like Tansy Davies and Emily Hall will exert a great influence on the new music scene in the next ten years.
[44]Important female composers working in the 21st century (not already mentioned in this article) include Elisabetta Brusa, Chaya Czernowin, Gabriela Lena Frank, Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian, Sophie Lacaze, Liza Lim, Meredith Monk, Onutė Narbutaitė, Olga Neuwirth, Doina Rotaru, Rebecca Saunders, Linda Catlin Smith, Joan Tower and Agata Zubel.
These include: Konrad Boehmer, Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, Eötvös, Dutilleux, Maxwell Davies, Rautavaara, Stockhausen, and Tavener (already mentioned); Maryanne Amacher, an installation artist and experimental composer; Milton Babbitt whose final works included songs, chamber music and Concerti for Orchestra (2004); Hans Werner Henze whose opera L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe was premièred in 2003 followed by Sebastian im Traum (2004) for large orchestra and the opera Phaedr (2007); Peter Lieberson whose Shing Kham for percussion and orchestra (2010–11) was finished by Oliver Knussen and Dejan Badnjar after his death; John McCabe whose final works include the seventh symphony (Labyrinth) and chamber music; Emmanuel Nunes whose La Main noire for 3 violas (2006–2007) was based on his opera Das Märchen; and Peter Sculthorpe whose Thoughts from Home for piano was intended to form part of the Gallipoli Symphony for Anzac Day (2015).
During the earlier part of the 20th century, new music was sometimes written for and performed by closed circles of musicians: In 1918, Schoenberg founded the Society for Private Musical Performances in Vienna, a membership-only organization which deliberately kept out "sensation-seeking" members of the public, and, although similar societies that sprang up in New York at the same time tried to be more inviting to the general public, the International Composers' Guild founded by Varèse and championed by Carl Ruggles, was perceived as elitist.