Contemporary Style

What it is

The performance approach for music written from roughly 1900 to the present. See the performance section for everything related.

It is less a single style than a very wide range, since twentieth-century music fragmented into many directions rather than following one. What unites the repertoire is a different relationship between performer and score.

Reading the score literally

The central difference.

Romantic performance assumes the performer contributes interpretation the score does not specify. Contemporary scores are typically far more explicit, marking dynamics, articulation, tone colour, vibrato and timing precisely.

Where a Romantic composer wrote a melody and expected the performer to shape it, a contemporary composer may specify exactly how much vibrato, at what contact point, with what articulation.

The performer's job shifts from supplying what is missing to executing what is written accurately.

Not universally. Some contemporary music invites improvisation or leaves elements open deliberately. But the default assumption reverses.

Extended techniques

Standard rather than exceptional.

Sul ponticello and sul tasto appear constantly, often with gradual transitions between them marked.

Col legno, both battuto and tratto.

Snap pizzicato, the Bartok pizzicato.

Harmonics, natural and artificial, used extensively and sometimes for whole passages.

Playing behind the bridge, on the tailpiece, or on the body of the instrument.

Scordatura, retuning strings to non-standard pitches.

Quarter tones and other microtonal writing.

A contemporary player needs all of these available, and a student meeting them for the first time in a rehearsal is at a disadvantage.

Notation

Frequently non-standard, and reading it is a skill in itself. The note identification on this site is worth having open while you practise this.

Graphic notation, where visual shapes indicate approximate contours rather than exact pitches.

Proportional notation, where horizontal space represents time rather than conventional note values.

Instructional text in place of symbols.

Composer-specific symbol systems, usually explained in a preface that must be read before playing a note.

The practical rule: read the performance notes first. A contemporary score without its preface is frequently unplayable as intended.

Vibrato

Treated as a variable rather than a default.

Contemporary scores often specify senza vibrato, molto vibrato, or a gradual change between them.

Non-vibrato playing, which in Romantic repertoire would sound cold, is a legitimate colour used deliberately.

A player who applies habitual continuous vibrato to contemporary music is ignoring an instruction.

Rhythm

Often more complex than earlier repertoire.

Irregular and changing time signatures. Nested tuplets. Polyrhythm. Passages where each player has a different subdivision.

Rhythmic accuracy matters more than in Romantic music because the rhythmic structure is frequently the compositional point rather than a vehicle for melody.

Counting, subdivision and metronome work are more central to preparing contemporary repertoire than any other.

Intonation

Complicated by the loss of tonal reference.

In tonal music the ear has a key centre to measure against. In atonal or highly chromatic writing that reference is absent, and intonation must be built interval by interval.

Microtonal writing removes the reference further.

This is genuinely hard and it is why contemporary repertoire takes longer to learn accurately than its technical demands alone suggest.

Where students meet it

Orchestral parts first, usually. Youth and community orchestras programme contemporary work and students encounter extended techniques there.

Then in solo and chamber repertoire at an advanced level.

Film and game scoring uses contemporary techniques extensively, so a student doing session work will meet them regardless of their classical repertoire.

What it asks of a player

Accuracy over interpretation. Willingness to make sounds that are not conventionally beautiful. Fluency with unfamiliar notation. Rhythmic precision. And the discipline to read the instructions rather than assuming.

Students who find contemporary music unrewarding often have not read the score properly, and the music sounds arbitrary because they are executing it approximately.

Read the preface first

The single most practical rule, and the one most often ignored.

Contemporary scores frequently define their own notation. Symbols mean what the composer says they mean, and that explanation lives in the performance notes at the front.

A player who starts at bar one without reading the preface may execute a passage entirely wrongly while believing they read it correctly.

This includes: custom symbols for extended techniques, the meaning of graphic elements, how proportional notation should be timed, and instructions about amplification or setup.

Ten minutes with the preface saves an hour of rehearsal.

Preparing it differently

Contemporary repertoire rewards a different practice approach.

Rhythm first, in isolation. Clap or count the rhythm before touching the instrument. Complex subdivisions are the most common failure point.

Pitches second, slowly. Without tonal reference, intonation is built interval by interval rather than from a key centre.

Techniques third, separately. Practise a snap pizzicato or a col legno passage as a technique before putting it in context.

Then combine. Students who attempt all three at once make slower progress than those who separate them.

Most students pick playing in context up faster with weekly feedback than from any article. Private and group violin lessons are available in Suwanee, Johns Creek and Roswell. Reach us on 470-789-2422 or book a no-commitment evaluation lesson.