DAN ALBERTSON'S RECOMMENDATIONS OF COMPOSERS TO FOLLOW
Six essential (if not overly famous) living composers, and one from the recent past, and three representative works apiece:
James Dillon, Scottish: Andromeda; The Book of Elements 1–5; Stabat Mater
Volker Heyn, German: Blues in B-flat; Dükarrahsch Mongkhöhr; Max the Fiddler's Complaint
Jo Kondo, Japanese: Sight Rhythmics (two instrumentations); Surface, Depth and Colour; Under the Umbrella
Ramon Lazkano, Basque: Chalk Laboratory; Ilunkor; Lurralde
José Maceda, Filipino: Dissemination; Pagsamba; Suling-Suling
Gérard Pesson, French: Bitume; Future is a faded song; Le gel, par jeu
Valentin Silvestrov, Ukrainian: Silent Songs; Simple Songs; Symphony No. 6
For more general recommendations, I have devised eight broad (yet limited/limiting) categories, as follows, with the first four categories not likely to cause any fright and the last four categories requiring much more patience – and with the caveat that some composers could easily have figured in more than one category if I had allowed myself the luxury:
1. Branching out from minimalism (of any sort) and/or pulse in thoughtful ways:
Gheorghi Arnaoudov, Bulgarian
Petr Bakla, Czech
Vidmantas Bartulis, Lithuanian
Laurence Crane, British
Gyula Csapó, Hungarian/Canadian
David Fennessy, Irish
John McGuire, American
Johannes Motschmann, German
Michael Smetanin, Australia
Paweł Szymański, Polish
Artur Zagajewski, Polish
2. Reconciling traditional lyricism with some techniques of modernism:
Chan Kai-Young, Chinese/Hong Kong
Frédéric Durieux, French
Michael Zev Gordon, British
Kenneth Hesketh, British
Betsy Jolas, French/American
Onutė Narbutaitė, Lithuanian
John Rimmer, New Zealander
Niels Rosing-Schow, Danish
Miroslav Srnka, Czech
Helena Tulve, Estonian
Margaret Lucy Wilkins, British
Yao Chen, Chinese
3. Former modernists now with romantic tendencies (or natural-born romantics):
Eurico Carrapatoso, Portuguese
Benet Casablancas, Spanish
Pascal Dusapin, French
Detlev Glanert, German
Michael Jarrell, Swiss
Willem Jeths, Dutch
Hanna Kulenty, Polish
Richard Rijnvos, Dutch
Luís Tinoco, Portuguese
4. Asians inspired by the west or westerners inspired by Asia:
Philip Corner, American
Jean-Claude Éloy, French
Allain Gaussin, French
Atsuhiko Gondai, Japanese
Chris Harman, Canadian
Claude Ledoux, Belgian
François-Bernard Mâche, French
Dieter Mack, German
Masakazu Natsuda, Japanese
Qin Wenchen, Chinese
Knut Vaage, Norwegian
Manbang Yi, South Korean
5. Using folk materials, and often folk instruments, in thoroughly modern contexts:
Jonas Baes, Filipino
Alejandro Iglesias Rossi, Argentinian
Daniel Judkovski, Argentinian
Cergio Prudencio, Bolivian
Julieta Szewach, Argentinian
6. Existing beyond easy pigeonholes (fringes of modernity, microtonality, theatre, etc.):
Gyula Bánkövi, Hungarian
James Clarke, British
Francesco Filidei, Italian
Edu Haubensak, Finnish/Swiss
Hans-Joachim Hespos, German
Jeffrey Holmes, American
Martin Jaggi, Swiss
Dmitry Lybin, Belarusian
Bruce Mather, Canadian
Octavian Nemescu, Romanian
Akira Nishimura, Japanese
Brice Pauset, French
Nadir Vassena, Swiss
7. Playful seriousness or serious play:
Christian Winther Christensen, Danish
Dmitri Kourliandski, Russian
Jon Øivind Ness, Norwegian
Fabio Nieder, Italian
Sergei Zagny, Russian
Vito Žuraj, Slovenian
8. The alternative life of sounds (quiet or loud, acoustic or electroacoustic, modern or primeval):
Pierluigi Billone, Italian
Eivind Buene, Norwegian
Yves Daoust, Canadian
Julio Estrada, Mexican
Ruben Sverre Gjertsen, Norwegian
Klaus Lang, Austrian
Giorgio Netti, Italian
Jānis Petraškevičs, Latvian
R. Murray Schafer, Canadian
Hildegard Westerkamp, Canadian