Movements in contemporary music
Modernism
Many of the key figures of the high modern movement are alive, or only recently deceased and there is also still an extremely active core of composers, performers and listeners who continue to advance the ideas and forms of Modernism. Elliot Carter is still active, for example, as is Lukas Foss. While high modernist schools of composing, such as serialism are no longer as rhetorically central, the contemporary period is beginning the process of sorting through the modern corpus, looking for works which will have repertory value.
Modernism is also present as surface or trope in works of a large range of composers, as atonality has lost much of its ability to terrorize listeners, and even film scores use sections of music clearly rooted in modernist musical language. Active modernist composers include Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Judith Weir, Thomas Adès, Magnus Lindberg and Gunther Schuller.
Serialism
One of the most important post war movement led by Pierre Boulez and composers such as Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Compositions use patterns, these may be retrograded, inverted or both. These patterns are the basis for the whole composition. There may be several short patterns used as templates.
Post-modernism
Post-modernism is, naturally, a strong influence in contemporary classical music. One critic remarked that the easiest way to find "post-modernism" is to find the word "new" or the prefix "post-" attached to the name of a movement. However, in an era where media, systematic presentation, and power relationships remain the dominant reality for most people born in to the core industrialized nations, post-modernism is likely to remain the most common mode for artistic expression.
Polystylism
Polystylism is the use of multiple styles or techniques of music, and is seen as a postmodern characteristic. Polystylist composers include Lera Auerbach, George Rochberg, Dmitri Silnitsky, Alfred Schnittke, and John Zorn. See: postmodern music.
Conceptualism
When Duchamp displayed a urinal in an art museum, he struck the most visible blow for artistic conceptualism. Music conceptualism found a champion in John Cage. A conceptualist work is an act whose musical importance draws from the frame, rather than the content of the work. An example would be Alvin Singleton's 56 Blows, a work that has the distinction of being mentioned in debate on the floor of the Senate.
Minimalism and post-minimalism
The minimalist generation still has a prominent role in new composition. Philip Glass has been expanding his symphony cycle, while John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls, a choral work commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks won a Pulitzer Prize. Steve Reich has explored electronic opera (most notably in Three Tales) and Terry Riley has been active in composing instrumental music and music theatre. But beyond the minimalists themselves, the tropes of non-functional triadic harmony are now commonplace, even among composers who are not regarded as minimalists per se.
Many composers are expanding the resources of minimalist music to include rock and world instrumentation and rhythms, serialism, and many other techniques. Kyle Gann considers William Duckworth's Time Curve Preludes as the first "post-minimalism" piece, and labels John Adams as a "post-minimalist" composer, rather than as a minimalist. Gann defines "post-minimalism" as the search for greater harmonic and rhythmic complexity by composers such as Mikel Rouse and Glenn Branca. Another notable characteristic is storytelling and emotional expression taking precedence over technique. Post-minimalism is also a movement in painting and sculpture which began in the late 1960s. (See lumpers/splitters)
Post classic tonality
Other aspects of post-modernity can be seen in a "post-classic" tonality that has advocates such as Michael Daugherty, Elena Kats-Chernin and Tan Dun.
Eclecticism
With a wide range of styles in performance, many contemporary composers work by combining styles, a technique known as polystylism, or even multiple genres of music. One influential composer in this vein is John Zorn.
World music
An increasing number of composers mix western and non-western instruments, including gamelan from Indonesia, Chinese traditional instruments, ragas from Indian Classical music. There is also an exploration of non-Western tonalities, even in relatively traditionally structured works. This can be in the context of post-minimalist works, such as Janice Giteck's Balinese influenced works, or in the context of post-classic tonality, such as in the music of Bright Sheng, or in the context of thoroughly modernist styled works.
Experimentalism
One important movement in contemporary music involves expanding the range of gestures available to instrumentalists, for example the work of George Crumb. The Kronos Quartet has been among the most active ensembles in promoting contemporary works for string quartet, and they take delight in music which stretches the manner in which sound can be drawn out of instruments.
Electronic music
Electronics are now part of mainstream music creation. Performances of regular works often use midi synthesizers to back or replace regular musicians. Looping, sampling, and (rarely) drum machines may also be used. However the older idea of electronic music - as a search for pure sound and an interaction with the hardware itself - continues to find a place in composition, from commercially successful pieces to works targeted at very narrow audiences.
Neo-Romanticism
The resurgence of the vocabulary of extended tonality which flourished in the first years of the 20th century continues in the contemporary period, though it is no longer considered shocking or controversial as such. Composers working in the neoromantic vein include John Corigliano, George Rochberg, and David Del Tredici.
"New Complexity"
"New Complexity" is a current within today's European contemporary avant-garde music scene. Among this diverse group are Richard Barrett, Brian Ferneyhough, James Dillon and Michael Finnissy.
Spectral Music
Epitomized by the works of Tristan Murail, Gérard Grisey, and Claude Vivier.