New Complexity
Located in 3 routes
New Complexity is dense, unstable, and detail-saturated: jagged interval leaps, irrational subdivisions, abrupt texture changes, microtones, extreme dynamics, and notation that can look like the page is having a nervous breakdown. The sound is often ferociously atonal and hyper-articulated, with performers navigating layers of simultaneous, nearly overclocked musical information.
History
Associated especially with Brian Ferneyhough, Michael Finnissy, James Dillon, Richard Barrett, and related British and international circles, the movement took shape as a postwar avant-garde continuation rather than a clean school; the style spread through Darmstadt-adjacent discourse, specialist ensembles, and virtuoso players willing to make near-impossible scores playable, turning performer endurance and interpretive ethics into part of the aesthetic itself.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Cambridge University Press
- Tempo
- The Strad. citeturn3search2turn3search8turn1search14