It maybe futile and somewhat reckless to try to predict which British composers of today will be remembered in the tomorrows to come but it's probably safe to assume that some of today's big names will be there including Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies.
But, of course, these knights of the realm are not the only British composers working today. Judith Weir is a well established composer with a very distinctive voice. Her music is very direct, perhaps because of her interest in traditional story-telling. Listeners know where they are, anywhere in a piece, because her music is clearly structured with events unfolding in time as they might in a fairy tale. In many ways her soundworld is quite conventional and might appear to have absorbed little of all that has happened in music since the Second World War but she has a very acute ear and her inventive harmonic language creates a sharp edge. She has written many vocal works including several operas the most well known of which is probably Blonde Eckbert which exists in two versions both of which use extreme economy of means.
In some ways John Woolrich's works have a particularly British sound and he seems to naturally follow on from the generation of composers that preceded him. His piece Envoi , for viola and ensemble, contrasts evocative lyrical sections with dramatic, mechanistic systems producing a soundworld that draws in the listener and invites contemplation as if viewing a rolling, green landscape.
The work of Brian Ferneyhough is entirely different even though his music, somehow, has a very British feel about it. His music is notated in incredible detail so that every nuance of the sound is precisely prescribed. The listener is immersed in a fast moving world of dense polyphony bustling underneath a sumptuous surface. Others working with similar techniques include Richard Barrett, James Dillon and Michael Finnissy and they are often - to their intense displeasure - labelled together as 'New Complexity' composers. The music of this 'school' is notoriously difficult to play and can only be tackled by virtuoso performers.
Howard Skempton composes deceptively simple music. Some of it can be played by those without conventional virtuoso skills and the soundworld is pleasingly familiar to audiences unacquainted with contemporary music. His piece Lento , recorded by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, presents an exquisitely wistful progression of block chords creating still pools of reflective calm. It became a huge hit selling in large numbers. But beneath the surface of Howard's music lies a detailed rigour that is rooted in the Experimental Music tradition which includes the composers Michael Parsons, John White and Gavin Bryars.
Bryn Harrison is a pupil of Gavin Bryars and is often included in with the composers labelled 'Young Brits'. His pieces In Nominee After William Byrd (1999) and (2004) take tiny fragments of Byrd's music and rework them by stretching and extending them in time so the melodies and harmonies are drawn out. It sounds like Early music played under water or music heard in a dream.
Tansy Davies is another 'Young Brit' and like Bryn Harrison was selected for the London Sinfonietta's 'Blue Touchpaper' project [http://www.londonsinfonietta.org.uk/btp/about.html] which gives young composers unprecedented access to resources including musicians, conductors and technology. Her piece Inside Out 2 reworks a Bach 2 part invention to produce a chorale for horn and woodwind. The result is a collision between a slow, sombre brass melody etched out of Bach and bright, rhythmic strings that sound like an offbeat, clockwork funk band.
Mark-Anthony Turnage is no longer a 'Young Brit', his reputation is now well established but, like many younger composers, his influences include music from outside the classical tradition - jazz, funk and soul music. Elements of pop music are found everywhere in his work - walking bass lines, use of guitars and saxophones, bluesy melodies - but his soundworld is rich and complex and moves way beyond the catchy, commercial surface of pop. Three Screaming Popes was inspired by the Francis Bacon paintings based on Velasquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X. Here Turnage distorts a set of Spanish dances just as Bacon had distorted Velasquez's image. There's not much left of the dances in the piece but there's an echo of the fiery energy heard in Spanish music.
British music today presents audiences with a wide variety of styles, ideas, techniques and traditions. It is impossible to say where it is all going so it is probably better to explore, and enjoy, what is available now.
