Looking for Avant-Garde Composers (I need your help.)

Is there someone who can help me to discover avant-garde composers?

Please write down avant-garde composers' names as much as you can.

Even if they are famous, I might not know them or never dug into their works.

So, I'd really appreciate it if you could raise avant-garde composers' names.

Any type of avant-garde composer is welcome: Electronic, chamber, musique concrète, etc.

Thank you for your contribution.

Best,

Lithl.

Edited September 29Sep 29 by Lithl

I would say Igor Stravinsky and George Gershwin are quite avant-garde but I'm not sure about George Gershwin.

Bela Bartok

Takashi Yoshimatsu

Masayoshi Takanaka

In fact I'd like to recommend a specific album by the latter composer that I love:

In hindsight I don't really think this album is quite "Avant-Garde" but I think it's great music anyways. It probably belongs more in that other thread - https://www.youngcomposers.com/t49833/sharing-musicians-and-works-lets-meet-new-music/

Any type of style you're interested in?

Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead is awesome, he's written concert works too. Stockhausen, Messiaen, Ligeti, Xenakis all come to mind.

Here's a weird one for ya :D

Thank you so much guys - you're all really kind!

@Musicman_3254, I haven't listened to Gershwin a lot, so I'll have to check him out. Since I'm a big fan of jazz-style music, his music sounds so nice!

@PeterthePapercomPoser, honestly, I didn't expect such music would be suggested (of course in a positive way)! I didn't know about them, like Takashi and Masayoshi; it sounds like fusion or something like that. I'll dig into them more in the future.

@Thatguy v2.0, I had no idea Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood composes concerto works. If you don't mind, could you give me some examples? It's probably gonna be awesome - in fact, Radiohead is crazy! Also, for Xenakis, that specific piece wasn't familiar.

Thank you again, guys! I really appreciate it :)

9 hours ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Any type of style you're interested in?

Well, if the pieces sound really interesting, any type of avant-garde music is welcome.
But if I were to be particular, I want to hear a combination of chamber and electronic music, or electronic avant-garde music.
(I'm a big fan of electronic music - familiar with Kraftwerk, and generally speaking, IDM, etc.)
I don't have many musical friends in person, and this means I have to search on my own - there are probably some gaps that I missed, even if they are famous.
I'm looking for shocking, amazing composers/pieces.

Best,

Lithl.

Hello @Lithl ,

Someone introduced to me George Crumb recently...he has this fun piece he wrote for his dogs. The best part is the end, where I guess I'm spoiling a bit, as he ends it with a spoken word - "bad dog!".

There is another one called Echoes of Time and the River. His scores are beautiful and almost like a work of art themselves. He also uses the instruments in more unique ways. Not totally my cup of tea personally, but can definitely appreciate the genius behind his stuff. So there ya go, hopefully this is avant garde enough for ya :)

For the chamber + electronics direction you mentioned, here are three specific starting points:

Kaija Saariaho — Petals. Cello with optional electronics: reverberation and quarter-tone shifts above and below the cello. Look for a performance with electronics, since it can also be played without them. https://ressources.ircam.fr/en/work/petals

Pierre Boulez — Anthèmes 2. Solo violin with live electronics that transform and extend the violin sound and move it around the room. Make sure it's the second version; that's the one with electronics. https://www.universaledition.com/en/Works/Anthemes-2/P0006667

Jonathan Harvey — Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco. This one is entirely electronic, built from a boy's voice and the tenor bell of Winchester Cathedral. The composer's note explains how the bell's partials provide the pitch material and how voice and bell transform into each other. https://www.fabermusic.com/music/mortuos-plango-vivos-voco-1154

Those give you a few different ways into it: a cello with processing, a violin interacting with live electronics, and a piece made from transformed recordings.