Modern classical music is Western art music written in recent times. At the start of the 21st century, it often referred to post-1945 post-tonal music after Anton Webern died. This included types like serial music, electronic music, experimental music, and minimalist music. More recent types include spectral music and post-minimalism.

History

At the start of the 20th century, composers of classical music began using more unusual and harsh sounds, sometimes creating music without a clear key or pitch (called atonal). After World War I, some composers reacted against the exaggerated styles and lack of structure in late Romantic music by returning to balanced forms and clear themes, a style known as neoclassicism. During the post-war years, modernist composers aimed to have more control over their music, using methods like the twelve-tone technique and total serialism. At the same time, other composers explored ways to give up control, using chance or randomness in their music. Advances in technology led to the creation of electronic music. Experiments with tape loops and repeated sounds helped develop minimalism. Other composers focused on the visual and dramatic aspects of performances, using mixed media and performance art. Today, new works in contemporary classical music are still being created. Each year, the Boston Conservatory at Berklee holds 700 performances, with about 150 of these featuring new compositions by students.

After World War II, European and American musical traditions became different. Important European composers included Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Boulez and Stockhausen were both students of Olivier Messiaen. A major idea and set of techniques during this time was serialism, which started with the work of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern. This approach was connected 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 styles. Some, like Cage, Cowell, Glass, and Reich, created experimental music that questioned basic ideas about music, such as notation, performance, and repetition. Others, like Babbitt, Rochberg, and Sessions, expanded on Schoenberg’s twelve-tone serialism.

Movements

The vocabulary of extended tonality, which became popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is still used by modern composers. It has never been seen as shocking or controversial in the larger musical world. In the United States, for example, most composers continued working in what has remained the mainstream of tonal-oriented composition throughout the 20th century.

Serialism is one of the most important movements in post-war high modernist music. 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 ordered sets, which may form the basis of the entire composition, while others use "unordered" sets. The term "serialism" is also often used to describe dodecaphony, or the twelve-tone technique, which is sometimes considered the model for integral serialism.

Although serialism declined in the last third of the 20th century, many composers still worked to develop the ideas and forms of high modernism by the end of the century. Composers who no longer lived at the end of the 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 living in October 2025 included Helmut Lachenmann, Salvatore Sciarrino, Magnus Lindberg, George Benjamin, Brian Ferneyhough, Richard Wilson, and James MacMillan.

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

Some authors consider polystylism and eclecticism to be the same, while others see them as different.

Musical historicism—the use of historical musical materials, styles, techniques, and ideas—can be seen in genres like minimalism, post-minimalism, world music, and others where tonal traditions have been preserved or revived in recent decades. Some post-minimalist works use medieval and early music styles, such as the "Oi me lasso" and other laude pieces by Gavin Bryars.

The historicist movement is closely connected to the growth of musicology and the revival of early music. Many historicist composers studied and used techniques from earlier musical periods, including Hendrik Bouman, Grant Colburn, Michael Talbot, Paulo Galvão, and Roman Turovsky-Savchuk. The movement has also been supported by international organizations 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 trend in today’s European contemporary avant-garde music, named in response to the New Simplicity. The term was suggested by composers and musicologists like Nigel Osborne, Harry Halbreich, and Richard Toop, who helped define the movement in an article titled "Four Facets of the New Complexity."

Though often atonal, abstract, and dissonant, the "New Complexity" is best known for using complex musical notation. This includes techniques such as extended instrumental methods, microtonality, unusual tunings, irregular melodic shapes, unique sounds, complex rhythms, unconventional instrument combinations, and sudden changes in volume or intensity. Composers working 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 minimalism 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—sometimes called "neo-classical" or "indie classical"—mixes cinematic orchestral sounds with electronic textures, appealing to a wide audience.

Record labels such as Erased Tapes Records, New Amsterdam Records, and 130701 have played an important role in promoting this movement. Radio stations like BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 6 Music have also helped increase its popularity. Programs featuring Ólafur Arnalds and Mary Anne Hobbs highlight the blending of ambient, classical, and experimental music styles.

Developments by medium

Notable composers of operas since 1975 include:

Notable composers of classical film and television scores created after 1945 include:

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

Some notable 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). Notable composers include:

Festivals

The following is a list of some modern music festivals:

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