Contemporary classical music is Western art music written in recent times. In the early 2000s, this type of music often included post-1945 music that used non-traditional scales, which became common after the death of composer Anton Webern in 1960. It included styles such as serial music, electronic music, experimental music, and minimalist music. More recent styles added to this category are spectral music and post-minimalism.

History

At the start of the 20th century, classical music composers began using more dissonant sounds, sometimes creating music without a clear key. After World War I, some composers reacted against the dramatic and unclear styles of late Romanticism by returning to balanced forms and clear themes, a style called neoclassicism. During the post-war period, modernist composers aimed to gain more control in their work, using methods like the twelve-tone technique and total serialism. At the same time, other composers explored ways to give up control, experimenting with chance-based or unpredictable elements. Advances in technology led to the creation of electronic music. Experiments with tape loops and repetitive sounds helped develop the style known as minimalism. Other composers focused on the theatrical aspects of music, using performance art, mixed media, and fluxus. Today, new works in contemporary classical music continue to be created. Each year, the Boston Conservatory at Berklee presents 700 performances, with about 150 of these being new works by students in their contemporary classical music program.

After World War II, European and American musical traditions became more different. Important European composers included Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. The first and last were both students of Olivier Messiaen. A major idea and set of techniques during this time was serialism, which began with the work of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern. This approach was linked to Le Corbusier’s concept of the modulor. However, some composers, like Dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten, continued to use traditional tonal styles despite the popularity of serialism.

In America, composers such as Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Henry Cowell, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, George Rochberg, and Roger Sessions developed their own ideas. Some, like Cage, Cowell, Glass, and Reich, created experimental music that questioned basic ideas about music, such as notation, performance, time, and repetition. Others, like Babbitt, Rochberg, and Sessions, built on Schoenberg’s twelve-tone serialism.

Movements

The style of extended tonality, which was popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s, is still used by modern composers. It has never been seen as unusual or controversial in the larger music world. In the United States, for example, most composers continued to work in the mainstream style of tonal music throughout the 20th century.

Serialism is one of the most important musical movements after World War II among the high modernist schools. A more specific form of serialism, called "integral" or "compound" serialism, was led by composers such as Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna, Luigi Nono, and Karlheinz Stockhausen in Europe, and by Milton Babbitt, Donald Martino, Mario Davidovsky, and Charles Wuorinen in the United States. Some of their works use an ordered set of musical elements that may form the basis of a composition, while others use sets that are not ordered. The term "serialism" is also often used to describe dodecaphony, or the twelve-tone technique, which is sometimes seen as the model for integral serialism.

Although serialism declined in the last third of the 20th century, many composers continued to develop ideas from high modernism until the end of the century. Composers who no longer lived by the end of the 20th century included Pierre Boulez, Pauline Oliveros, Toru Takemitsu, Jacob Druckman, George Perle, Ralph Shapey, Franco Donatoni, Wolfgang Rihm, Jonathan Harvey, Erkki Salmenhaara, Henrik Otto Donner, and Richard Wernick. Composers still alive in October 2025 included Helmut Lachenmann, Salvatore Sciarrino, Magnus Lindberg, George Benjamin, Brian Ferneyhough, Richard Wilson, and James MacMillan.

Between 1975 and 1990, changes in computer technology made electronic music systems more affordable and widely available. Personal computers became an essential tool for electronic musicians, replacing analog synthesizers and performing tasks such as composing, sound processing, sampling audio, and controlling external equipment.

Some writers compare polystylism to eclecticism, while others say they are very different.

Musical historicism—the use of historical musical materials, styles, techniques, and ideas by composers or groups—is found in various forms in minimalism, post-minimalism, world music, and other genres where traditional tonal styles have been kept or revived in recent years. Some post-minimalist works use music from earlier periods, such as medieval songs like "Oi me lasso" and other laude by Gavin Bryars.

The historicist movement is closely connected to the development of musicology and the revival of early music. Some historicist composers have studied the musical practices of earlier times, such as Hendrik Bouman, Grant Colburn, Michael Talbot, Paulo Galvão, and Roman Turovsky-Savchuk. The movement has also been supported by international groups like the Delian Society and Vox Saeculorum.

Since the 1980s, some composers have been influenced by art rock, such as Rhys Chatham.

New Complexity is a style in today’s European contemporary music, named in response to the New Simplicity. Some people believe the term was first used by composer Nigel Osborne, musicologist Harry Halbreich, or musicologist Richard Toop, who helped popularize the idea in an article titled "Four Facets of the New Complexity."

Though often atonal, abstract, and dissonant, the "New Complexity" is best known for using techniques that require complex musical notation. These include extended techniques, microtonality, unusual tunings, irregular melodic shapes, new sounds, complex rhythms, unusual instrument combinations, and sudden changes in loudness or intensity. Composers who write in this style include Richard Barrett, Brian Ferneyhough, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, James Dillon, Michael Finnissy, James Erber, and Roger Redgate.

Modern ambient music combines classical, electronic, and minimalist styles, created by artists like Jon Hopkins, Erland Cooper, Max Richter, Richard D. James, Ludovico Einaudi, Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds, Lambert, Joep Beving, and Hania Rani. Influenced by Brian Eno and Steve Reich, this genre is sometimes called "neo-classical" or "indie classical," blending cinematic orchestral sounds with electronic textures to appeal to a wider audience.

Record labels like Erased Tapes Records, New Amsterdam Records, and 130701 have supported this movement, while BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 6 Music have helped it gain popularity. Programs by Ólafur Arnalds and Mary Anne Hobbs highlight the mix of ambient, classical, and experimental music.

Developments by medium

Important composers who wrote operas since 1975 are:

Important composers who created classical music for films and television after 1945 are:

Some modern classical music originally written for concerts is also used in films. For example, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999) used concert music by György Ligeti. Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) included music by both Ligeti and Krzysztof Penderecki. Jean-Luc Godard’s La Chinoise (1967), Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout (1971), and the Brothers Quay’s In Absentia (2000) used music by Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Some important works for chamber orchestra include:

• Composition for Twelve Instruments (1948, revised 1954) – Milton Babbitt
• Concerto for seven wind instruments, timpani, percussion, and string orchestra (1949) – Frank Martin
• Drei Lieder (1950) – Karlheinz Stockhausen
• Nummer 2 (1951) – Karel Goeyvaerts
• Oiseaux exotiques (1956) – Olivier Messiaen
• Requiem for strings (1957) – Tōru Takemitsu
• Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960) – Krzysztof Penderecki
• Double Concerto for harpsichord and piano with two chamber orchestras (1961) – Elliott Carter
• Stop (1965) – Karlheinz Stockhausen
• Fantasia for Strings (1966) – Hans Werner Henze
• Ojikawa (1968) – Claude Vivier
• Concerto for clarinet and vibraphone with six instrumental formations (1968) – Jean Barraqué
• Ramifications (1968–69) – György Ligeti
• Compases para preguntas ensimismadas (1970) – Hans Werner Henze
• Recital I (for Cathy) (1972) – Luciano Berio
• Trois airs pour un opéra imaginaire (1982) – Claude Vivier
• Guitar Concerto No. 2 for guitar and strings (1985) – Alan Hovhaness
• Invocation for Oboe and Guitar (1993) – Apostolos Paraskevas
• Kol-Od (1996) – Luciano Berio
• Asko Concerto (2000) – Elliott Carter
• Dialogues for piano and chamber orchestra (2003) – Elliott Carter
• Fünf Sternzeichen (2004) – Karlheinz Stockhausen
• Fünf weitere Sternzeichen (2007) – Karlheinz Stockhausen
• Diário das Narrativas Fantásticas (2019) – Caio Facó

In recent years, many composers have written music for concert bands (also called wind ensembles). Important composers include:

Festivals

The following is an incomplete list of modern music festivals:

• Ars Musica, located in Brussels, Belgium
• Bang on a Can Marathon
• Big Ears Festival
• Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, located in Santa Cruz, California
• Darmstädter Ferienkurse
• Donaueschingen Festival
• Festival Atempo in Caracas, Venezuela
• Gaudeamus Foundation Music Week, located in Amsterdam
• George Enescu Festival, located in Romania
• Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
• Lucerne Festival, located in Switzerland
• MATA Festival, located in New York
• Music Biennale Zagreb
• Musica, a French music festival
• New Music Gathering
• November Music, located in 's Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands
• Other Minds, located in San Francisco
• Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival, located in Plymouth
• Warsaw Autumn, located in Poland
• Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik