Some said: “uplifting, beautiful, hopeful, brilliant.” Others reacted: “pandering, simple, lacking narrative and purpose, cheap.“ The piece: Caroline Shaw’s Pulitzer Prize-winning piece Partita for 8 Voices. The gathering: my Monday Classical Listening Hangout on Zoom where we evaluated/ respectfully argued short excerpts from 7 contemporary pieces I selected.

What can we conclude from such powerfully divergent, emotional reactions to the same music? First I framed our discussion with my mantra that today “we are world wide and one inch deep”—that contemporary music assumes at some level a consciousness of music from all genres, all historical periods, and all cultures, an impossible assumption that ultimately gives bias to breadth over depth. Yet today you can’t assume an audience shares any common musical knowledge, other than pop music. I talked about listening prejudices even with refined ears. I recalled the famous anecdote about the 1940s Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles where Stravinsky students and Schoenberg students would sit on opposite sides hissing at each other’s music. I discussed that “camp” divisions continue—the “minimalist camp,” the “atonal pitch” camp, the “experimental sound” camp, the “microtonal” camp, etc. Adherents to each bring particular aesthetic expectations and judgments of what is ‘good’ music.

I then let discussion rip. Sincere, honest, emotional responses revealed dramatic polarization. Some preferred the music that had a story behind it. Some found cultural context most persuasive. Some felt the pieces were all different. Others found them too similar (“They all sounded the same—some pretty stuff with dirt mixed in.”). Some enjoyed them all and wanted to hear them again. Others said they had no desire to hear any of them again!

I invite YOU to join our discussion! Listen to the 7 works below and add your own reactions in a comment. We’ll see if we can come to a better understanding of what exactly today’s classical music listeners hear, enjoy, don’t enjoy, or look forward to in contemporary concert music .

—Russell

Caroline Shaw—Partita for 8 Voices

William Kraft—Concerto for Percussion and Chamber Ensemble

Steve Reich—I Saw A Dream (Daniel Variations)

Thomas Adés—Piano Quintet

Brian Ferneyhough—String Quartet No. 6

John Luther Adams—In a Treeless Place, Only Snow

Benjamin Wallfisch—Spectra