Uploaded February 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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0:00 Introduction
9:51 Brian Ferneyhough
21:55 Michael Finnissy
33:09 Chris Dench
45:31 Richard Barrett
53:18 James Dillon
58:42 Conclusion

This was requested by DerSibbe, Charlie powell, Mishibijiw Piano, Guy Berreby, 洪孟思, harpynerpy, and Alice Wyan, whose patron bonus DOUBLED the weight of this request. See all requests at lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html

📚 Sources/further reading:
“Brian Ferneyhough” by Lois Fitch (Intellect, University of Chicago Press, 2013)
“Brian Ferneyhough: Collected Writings” edited by James Boros and Richard Toop (Routledge, 1995)
“Uncommon Ground: The Music of Michael Finnissy” edited by Henrietta Brougham, Christopher Fox, and Ian Pace (Ashgate, 1997)
“Modern Music and After (3rd Edition)” by Paul Griffiths (Oxford University Press, 2010)
“The Concept of New Complexity: Notation, Interpretation and Analysis” by Stuart Paul Duncan (DMA dissertation, Cornell University, 2010)
“Re-Complexifying the Function(s) of Notation in the Music of Brian Ferneyhough and the ‘New Complexity’” by Stuart Paul Duncan (Perspectives of New Music, Winter 2010, Vol. 48 No. 1)
“On Complexity” by Richard Toop (Perspectives of New Music, Winter 1993, Vol. 31 No. 1)
“Brian Ferneyhough's Lemma-Icon-Epigram” by Richard Toop (Perspectives of New Music, Summer 1990, Vol. 28 No. 2)
“Developing an Interpretive Context: Learning Brian Ferneyhough's Bone Alphabet” by Steven Schick (Perspectives of New Music, Winter 1994, Vol. 32 No. 1)
“Michael Finnissy's History of Photography in Sound: Under the Lens” by Christopher Fox (The Musical Times, Summer 2002, Vol. 143 No. 1879)
youtube.com/watch?v=HNhGYMJmu3Y
scorefollower.org/featured-composer-dench
“Discontinuous Dialogues: Chris Dench in Conversation with Bruce Petherick” by Chris Dench (Context, Vol. 15/16)
youtube.com/watch?v=hOfGw_G2KEA
chrisdench.com
fdleone.com/2018/05/01/chris-dench
bostonmicrotonalsociety.org/index.php/microtonal-musicians/chris-dench
“Portfolio of Original Compositions: Music of Possibility” by Richard Barrett (PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 2017)
“Resistance and Reflection: Richard Barrett in the 21st Century” by Arnold Whittall (The Musical Times, Autumn 2005, Vol. 146 No. 1892)
“Everything is Connected: Richard Barrett at 60” by Tim Rutherford-Johnson (Tempo, July 2020, Vol. 74 No. 293)
“Codex: Embodied Communication in Richard Barrett’s Scores for Improvisation” by Hannah Reardon-Smith (Directions of New Music, February 2017, Vol. 1 No. 1)
“Contemporary British Composers 3: James Dillon: Currents of Development” by Keith Potter (The Musical Times, May 1990, Vol. 131 no. 1767)
“James Dillon: String Quartets as Complex Causal Network” by Michael Spencer (Contemporary Music Review, Vol. 33): eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/82872/2/James_Dillon_Quartets_article_(5).pdf
“Interview: James Dillon” by Amanda MacBlane: static1.squarespace.com/static/55215c2ce4b0e4ad50063b7d/t/55a73d08e4b03f10bdc34daf/1437023496700/o+SEP11+A+Scottish+composer’s.pdf
rednoteensemble.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/TanzHaus-Production-Info.pdf
https://assets.cla.umn.edu/wbaq/music/pdf/U%20of%20M%20Dillon%20Release%20Southern%204.3.11.pdf
“Divisions Without Hierarchy: Four-Dimensional Modeling of Submeter and its Use in Empirical Analysis of the Musics of the New Complexity” by Aaron J. Kirschner (PhD dissertation, University of Utah, 2017)

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Music:
- Brian Ferneyhough: Transit, performed by the London Sinfonietta conducted by Elgar Howarth [original upload: rGFHH2YW8CQ]
- Thomas Little: Dance! #2, performed by Rachel Fellows, Michael King, and Bruce Tippette
- Brian Ferneyhough: Dum Transisset I-IV, performers unknown [original upload: 06dUqMrd5aQ]
- Brian Ferneyhough: Time and Motion Study II, performed by Neil Heyde and Paul Archbold [original upload: rW2b4ByT8dM]
- Brian Ferneyhough: Bone Alphabet, performed by James Beauton [original upload: eyedqvWwY5Y]
- Michael Finnissy: String Trio, performed by the Gagliano Trio [original upload: NE3gEI2s33I]
- Michael Finnissy: Piano Concerto No. 2, performed by Michael Finnissy, orchestra unknown [original upload: O0TaBKLEhuc]
- Chris Dench: severance, performed by Geoffrey Morris [original upload: RbD-BUHkx-U]
- Richard Barrett: codex I, performed by Ensemble Studio6 [original upload: ptEa_Zkk4jU]
- James Dillon: echo the angelus, performed by Noriko Kawai [original upload: UuCZhVwIf_U]

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