How Contemporary Classical Music Is Changing The Face Of Music For Classical Musicians

Contemporary classical music has been dominated by the likes of Ludovico Einaudi, Philip Glass and Nils Frahms for the past thirty-odd years (longer in Einaudi’s case).

This is entirely understandable as moving pieces such as Divenire (Einaudi), Glass’s Glassworks album (it’s all brilliant) and Frahms’ Ambre have inspiring melodies whilst being wonderfully simple in their execution.

I’ve always thought that this is the strength of the Contemporary Classical movement - it maintains interesting and emotionally provocative melodies whilst making the actual musical parts significantly more accessible for both the player and the listener. This encourages both beginner and intermediate performers to try these pieces out, rather than only being able to be played by experienced virtuosos. This is not to say that the performers (I.e. Ludovico Einaudi, Nils Frahms and Olafur Arnalds etc.) are not excellent, just that they recognise the need for neoclassical music to not be complicated for the sake of being complicated. There is beauty in simplicity.

Contemporary Classical works are seen to be featured increasingly in modern adverts with bank, perfume and car advertisements seeing an uptick in contemporary classical music such as Divenire or reimagining of classics such as Bach’s Prelude No.1 but played with haunting synthesisers.

Classical music needs to be performed and recorded in concert halls adding a significant cost onto putting on a show or creating a record. This money is increasingly hard to come by and singular pianist being able to create beautiful performances from their home studios are cheaper and easier to sell. A single composer with a recognisable face and musical style is easier to sell than a faceless and expensive 60 piece orchestra.

Of course, listeners absorb music differently in these days of streaming. Contemporary Classical music often gets digested as music for relaxing, meditation, focus or reading. A variety of activities where neoclassical music will enhance your mood or ability to complete a task; including getting to sleep! That makes neoclassical background music with a purpose - this isn’t to say that it cheapens their artistic value, purely that it means that music’s use is changing.

To this day, many orchestras and chamber ensembles have to perform works by Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky - the ‘good old favourites’ to be able to get enough bums on seats and then throw in a more modern piece for variety. This trend definitely shows a lessening of popularity in classical music being digested in the concert hall and, given inflation and the general cutting of funding to arts programmes all over Europe and the States, this is likely to continue.

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Explore More from Nick Pike

Nick Pike is a London-based composer, pianist, saxophonist, producer, and educator with over 15 years of professional experience. His music blends neoclassical piano with jazz, funk, and contemporary influences, drawing comparisons to Ludovico Einaudi, Yiruma, and Ólafur Arnalds. Alongside original compositions, Nick offers music services including scoring for film, TV, and advertising, piano and saxophone recording, arranging for strings and horns, and professional mixing and production.

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