How To Write Contemporary Music

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.

You could try analysing some pieces of contemporary music you like to figure out what the composer is doing, and then imitate them.

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

Some of the major publishers put scores online -

Boosey & Hawkes (you need to register to view them, but it's free)

Music Sales Classical

Edition Peters

Peer Music Classical

Theodore Presser

- and of course there is interlibrary loan for those who aren't covered, if you're a member of a library (which you should be).

Some composers who aren't affiliated with a publisher will just put up scores on their websites. Others, if you like them, you can contact and ask if they can send you anything. Composers tend to be a lot more laid-back about making such things available than are publishers (particularly if you're then going to play their piece somewhere it otherwise wouldn't have been played). Some of the really famous ones are exceptions, and can be a bit nasty, but they're uniformly overrated.

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

What do you consider to be "contemporary music"?

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

As already stated you need to study the music of these composers to understand the logic behind them. And not just the scores but the musical movements they were apart of, the area in which they composed, etc. But this task can be equivalent to doing a 1000 piece puzzle with no picture to reference, so here are some facts about contemporary music that might help you navigate through it.

Contemporary music or aka post-modernism is usually considered to begin roughly in 1945 during and after ww2.

Darmstabt school refers to a collection of composer that attended the schools summer new music program. Most notable composer from there are Boulez and stockhauzen and there development of total serialism.

This whole period can be marked by "-isms" due to the various styles and schools of thought that developed during this era. Total serialism, sound massing, spectrualism, minimalism, post-minimalism, neo-romanticism, neo-classicalism, the list goes on. All these isms have strict rules governing there style, this is due impart how aware and intentional these isms where. Many of them are still being developed today.

Many focus on the avant-garde composer but they were and still are major composers who maintained a tonal tradition, as well as composer who changed there style to a more tonal style. Composers such as Brittin, Vaughn Williams, Barber, Adam, etc.

when we talk about contemporary music, we include music written today. Many of the composer that are cited as influential in this period are still alive and actively composing music.

I hope this helps in some way. This is by far not everything, just what I can remember off the top of my head. Use this as a jumping off point. Hope it helps and good luck.

And go to some contemporary concerts where composers are premiering work, if you live somewhere that's possible.  There is often a good lecture/question and answer session as a part of the concert, decent program notes, and the possibility of nervously sipping punch while picking the brain of the composer after the concert.  

Well there's many ways to analyze contemporary pieces, but you can't look at them like you would look at say, Brahms. i.e. "Oh look that's a V going to I." Generally, composers now a days don't really follow functional harmony. The piece you posted makes use of a lot of chordal extensions, i.e. add 2s, major 7ths, etc. If I were looking at a contemporary piece, I would look to see if there was any predominating intervallic patterns both harmonically and melodically. Does the melody make use of big leaps ( it does in this piece)? Are the chords triadic, clusters, fourths, or is it more contrapuntal? How does the composer transform and vary the initial motifs/themes throughout the piece? What's the overall form? Does it even have a clear cut form? These are just some questions you could ask yourself to get started.