Kalyb Prince

Anything written after modernism... So anything past the early 70's I would say.

To be honest I'm not sure how I would go about analyzing a contemporary score outside of tonality.... Any suggestions on that?

That was a last resort :D Is there anywhere you know of where I can find scores?

I'm relatively new to the contemporary classical styles, and I'm interested in writing a string quartet. The problem that I have is that the common practice era composers used a strict harmonic logic as the basis of generating a sense of progression, however, contemporary composers seem to have done away with the old paradigms and now seem to be focused on the raw feel of a piece. Contemporary composers seem to rather exploit melodic and rythmic motifs, colouration and textures of different chords/instruments and really harness the properties of these instruments as they are (rather than spoon-feeding them to the listener). The problem is that I have a difficult time understanding the underpinning logic of contemporary pieces. I'm capable of generating contemporary-style ideas, but it's difficult to know whether or not they are any good without some kind of reference point; it forces me to rely on instinct rather than knowledge, and causes me insecurity, as I've composed for many years in the CPE styles. How do I begin writing a contemporary string quartet? Here is an example of something I find agreeable: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaCvjYQcrhs I'm used to my creative impulses being filtered through many intricate mechanisms, but this music seems more unadulterated and pure. I'm interested in transitioning to this side of music and I'm not sure how to do it.

The title pretty much says it all. I'm interested in studying early medieval polyphony, as well as monophony, and I'm having a great deal of difficulty finding resources. Any texts or online resources that can be suggested would help me tremendously. Thanks in advance!