100: The 100 Best Works of the 21st Century So Far

Eh more like 55

Name That Tune

This week’s Name That Tune is a Maestro Will special, and it’s your chance to go head-to-head with him (me) because when I was in the car the other day, I turned on the radio and this piece started playing exactly at the point of this clip, and I couldn’t figure it out.

As always, your goal is to provide as much accurate analysis as possible. First try to get the nationality, year, and genre, then make educated guesses about the composer and — if possible— the piece. If you know the piece immediately, send us an email at toneprose@substack.com instead of commenting so the rest of us can have fun guessing. 

Last Week’s Results
Tone Prose 99
Sibelius arr. Stravinsky, Canzonetta

Well, Joey went and stumped us all. I (Will) was the only one brave enough to step up to the plate and take a swing; I guessed Tchaikovsky arranged by Luciano Berio (among others). I think it was a pretty good guess, all told!

Think you can stump your fellow Listeners? Go ahead and try!

Head to our Google Form to upload a 30-second clip of an unidentified piece of classical music for us to try to identify.

The Lists

Inspired by the New York Times’ 100 Best Books of the 21st Century list (and its accompanying list of lists by various authors and luminaries), we invited you all to submit ideas for your top 10 Concert Works of the 21st Century in honor of Tone Prose’s 100th edition.

Thanks to everyone who sent in a list or even just a few suggestions! I (Will) found it made for terribly interesting reading, listening, and food for thought. Here I’m going to share the lists and some analysis of the project, the pieces, and the styles of listmaking.

Listener Christopher

1. Ola Gjeilo, “Unicornis Captivatur”

2. Kevin Puts, Millennium Canons

3. Jonathan Dove, Stargazer

4. John Williams, Violin Concerto No. 2

5. Joel Puckett, Shadow of Sirius

6. Eric Whitacre, “Lux Aurumque”

7. Philip Stopford, “There Is No Rose”

8. Jack Gallagher, Symphony No. 2 (“Ascendant”)

9. Viet Cuong, Re(new)al

10. Tan Dun, Five Muses of Dunhuang

My takeaway from Listener (Formerly Listener-Statistician) Christopher’s list is that he’s got a clear sense of his own taste. The list includes several works for both chorus and wind ensemble, and strongly favors what might be called the “new tonality” school of composers.

The list also shows that Christopher is an attentive Listener indeed, given that several of these works were heavily featured on the Classical Gabfest (Williams Violin Concerto No. 2, Cuong Re(new)al, Puts Millennium Canons.) The big takeaway for me was Jack Gallagher’s Symphony — a composer who is totally new to me, but who wrote a big honker of a symphony that’s full of interesting orchestration and drama.

Listener Eric

1. Andrew Norman, Play

2. Kaija Saariaho, Sept papillons

3. John Adams, The Dharma at Big Sur

4. Peter Lieberson, Neruda Songs

5. Caroline Shaw, Partita for 8 Voices

6. Christopher Cerrone, The Pieces That Fall to Earth

7. Gloria Coates, Symphony No. 15 (“Homage to Mozart”)

8. Britta Byström, Invisible Cities

9. Evan Ziporyn, Frog’s Eye

10. Donnacha Dennehy, Grá Agus Bás

When you juxtapose Listener Christopher’s list with Listener Eric’s, you see just how wide a range of taste we have represented among the Tone Prose readership. Listener Eric’s list represents many more composers in the mainline of “New Music”. Both lists, however, show that concert music in the 21st century remains a parochial endeavor, as we’re seeing a decided slant towards American composers. (For what it’s worth, I don’t think that’s a bad thing!)

This seems like a good moment to mention that we had two Listeners chime in with suggestions of single works, and they’re both reflected on Listener Eric’s list: Listener Lewis suggested Adams’ The Dharma at Big Sur and Listener Ellen suggested Shaw’s Partita for 8 Voices. If we were to use the NYT’s methodology of choosing a top 10 list from the works that had the most votes, anything with two votes would immediately be on that list, so take that for what it’s worth.

This list compelled me to listen to a few composers whose works I was convinced I didn’t really like, and I found that I had to admit I liked quite a bit of it. (Top of that list would be Cerrone’s The Pieces that Fell to the Earth.) Once again, there were many composers who were totally new to me, and of those, I would say my decided favorite was Evan Ziporyn’s Frog’s Eye.

Listener Kevin

1. Ted Hearne, Dispatches 

2. John Luther Adams, Become Ocean 

3. Andy Akiho, Sculptures

4. Andy Akiho, Synesthesia Suite

5. Yuko Uebayashi, Au delà du temps

6. Osvaldo Golijov, Azul

7. Jennifer Higdon, blue cathedral

8. Qigang Chen, Iris dévoilée 

9. Andrew Norman, The Companion Guide to Rome 

10. Mason Bates, Life of Birds

First off: Kevin wants everyone to know that he struggled over this list and that he reserves the right to change his mind. Kevin, I assure you on behalf of the Tone Prose readership, that we are a very understanding bunch, that we fully endorse your prerogative to change your list at any time, and that we’re just glad to have you playing along in this silly parlor game. 🙂

What I think is interesting about Listener Kevin’s list is that he’s (as far as I know) the only list maker who plays in a full-time professional orchestra, and his list is reflective of his actual experience. Where I think he stands out among his colleagues is that, in making his list, he asked for input from his fellow full-time musician friends, and the way he tells it, nobody could name even a single piece!

In a way it’s surprising because these are people who are playing at least 2-3 new or newish works every month, but in another way, it’s maybe not so surprising: a lot of what they play is frankly unremarkable and a lot of it sounds the same. Plus, I imagine, there’s the sheer overwhelmingness of confronting so much new material and living with it for such a short time.

Kevin’s list is the only one to feature two works by the same composer (Andy Akiho ) and I think it’s great to have such a strong predilection for a particular artist. He’s also included what I would suppose is the most controversial work on any of the lists, namely John Luther Adams Become Ocean. In my experience, that’s a real love-it-or-hate-it work.

For me the absolute standout from this list is (yet again) a work by a composer I’d never heard of before: Qigang Chen’s Iris dévoilée. That is an absolutely fascinating listen and a piece I’m sure to return to many times.

Listener Jeremy

1. William White, Clarinet Quintet

2. Michael Abels, Winged Creatures

3. Valerie Coleman, Shotgun Houses

4. Shulamit Ran, Spirit

5. Nicolas Bacri, Sonata a quattro

6. Paul Schoenfeld, Sonatina for Klezmer Clarinet

7. Frank Ticheli, Clarinet Concerto

8. Peter Schickele, A Year in the Catskills

9. Michael Daugherty, Brooklyn Bridge

10. David Maslanka, Desert Roads

In that Listener Jeremy’s list is comprised exclusively of works for clarinet, it confirms what we already knew about him: that he is a deeply disturbed man who needs professional help.

Luckily, there may be light at the end of the tunnel, because he made one brilliant, totally unprejudiced selection — and at the very top of his list no less — that being the clarinet quintet of William C. White.

Regarding the inclusion of my own works on these lists, I thought about banning it, but then I thought that seemed awfully presumptuous, and then I realized that I was too vain to actually do it. So I am of course flattered to see my music included, though I am fully cognisant that said inclusion is completely unrepresentative of the opinion and interest of the broader world of new classical music (for the time being.)

Seriously though, Jeremy’s self-imposed limitation has turned up a lot of composers who (I think) may not have appeared on anyone else’s lists, and for that reason alone, it’s an interesting addition to the compendium.

First Mate Joey

1. Caroline Shaw, Entr’acte

2. Valerie Coleman, Portraits of Langston

3. Elliott Carter Caténaires

4. Kaija Saariaho, Sept papillons

5. Paul Lansky, Horizons

6. Gabriela Lena Frank, Sonata Andina

7. Thomas Ades, 3 Mazurkas

8. Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer, The Melody of Rhythm

9. Unsuk Chin, 6 Piano Etudes

10. William White, Piano Sonata

Of all the lists, I’d say Joey’s shows the most stylistic diversity, largely attributable to the inclusion of the The Melody of Rhythm, a co-composed bluegrass concerto for banjo, tabla and double bass. I think he’s also representing the most age diversity with his inclusion of Elliott Carter, born in 1908. I happen to know that Caténaires is something of a specialty of Joey’s, and I predict that we’ll be hearing more about that soon.

Joey’s list is, naturally, heavy on piano music, and I’m glad to see it, because it rounds out the genre diversity across all the lists. I’ve already said what I have to say about my music being on the lists, but I will just add that my piano sonata is part of an upcoming project that Joey and I are putting together, and you’ll be hearing a lot about it in the coming months, so consider yourselves warned.

Let’s take this moment to chalk up two votes for Saariaho’s Sept papillons (another CGF / Tone Prose standby).

Maestro Will

1. Philippe Hersant, Cantique des trois enfants dans la fournaise

2. Caroline Shaw, Partita for 8 Voices

3. György Ligeti, Síppal, Dobbal, Nádihegedűvel

4. Alberto Iglesias, “El amante menguante”

5. Jennifer Higdon, Skyline

6. John Adams, El Niño

7. Kian Ravaei, The Little Things

8. Viet Cuong, Re(new)al

9. Quinn Mason, Weapon Wheel

10. Timo Andres, Three Suns

First off, I’m going to defend my list, because there’s two inclusions that you could argue might not count as “concert works,” which, in my prompt for this project, was a category that I defined as excluding film scores and operas. So the first piece that might stick out is John Adams’ El Niño, since it just had a big production at the Met. I think this is an easily defendable inclusion because Adams himself calls the piece an “opera-oratorio” and up until very recently (when he re-worked it) it was only ever performed in concert.

The piece that’s even more cuspy is Alberto Iglesias’s “El amante menguante” because it’s a cue from Pedro Almodóvar’s film Habla con ella. In my defense, this cue is the underscore for a reel-length silent film sequence wherein the director gives his composer total creative freedom, and what Iglesias has crafted is a single-movement string quartet that could stand on its own in any concert setting.

With my list, there are now two votes for Viet Cuong’s Re(new)al and three for Caroline Shaw’s Partita, making it the outright winner if we’re looking at things that way.

What I notice about my list is that, for someone who makes his living as a conductor, I haven’t included much in the way of orchestral music. I happen to think that the most interesting composers are doing their most interesting work in the realm of small ensembles.

I don’t consider my list “ordered” (though I’m not dissatisfied with this order), with one major exception: my number one pick is my absolute favorite on the list. I find Hersant’s Cantique to be just the most extraordinary piece, and one that appeals strongly to my sensibilities. It’s scored for four ensembles of voices and early music instruments, plus three child vocal soloists. I’m sure I’ve listened to it 50 times and I even moved heaven and earth to get my hands on a score (it wasn’t easy, let me tell you!)

Tone Praise

James Macmillan, “O Radiant Dawn”

I’m sure that all the list makers would love to have been granted an “honorable mention,” and, well, this is mine.

Tone Prose is a co-production of William White, Joseph Vaz, and the Listeners (i.e. you.)