Each week, Tyler Kline journeys into new territory and demystifies the music of living composers on Modern Notebook. Listen for a wide variety of exciting music that engages and inspires, along with the stories behind each piece and the latest releases from today’s contemporary classical artists. Discover what’s in store on Modern Notebook, every Sunday night from 8 to 10 on Classical WSMR.
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Photo courtesy of the composer's website.On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Aart Strootman’s Descend is a gentle tide of sound — slow, glassy, and immersive. Strings drift in silvery layers, surfacing and folding back on themselves in waves that feel tactile and luminous. There’s a quiet, rhythmic shimmer beneath it all, like a faraway rattle rolling in with the current.Then: How do we hold on, even as everything changes? That question lies beneath The Impermanence of Things by Michael Zev Gordon. Across thirteen brief movements, the piece slips between motion and stillness, with fleeting echoes of Couperin, Debussy, and Mahler surfacing like memories. -
Photo credit: Titilayo AyangadeOn the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Andrea Casarrubios wrote Herencia — meaning both “heritage” and “inheritance” — not with a genre in mind, but with specific performers. She imagined the musicians of Sphinx Virtuosi stepping onstage, each carrying their own personal and cultural history, converging into a collective intention to illuminate the world through music.Then: Martin Bresnick’s Mending Time draws inspiration from Robert Frost’s poem Mending Wall, and the famous line: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” Scored for four saxophones, the piece reflects on the walls we build — for safety, for expression, for division — and invites us to consider how those barriers might also be mended.
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On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Drawing from the Korean folk song Jeongsun Arirang, Hyunjoo Byon’s Arari unfolds in five variations — blending traditional modes and modern textures. With oboe and piano weaving between tonalities, the piece becomes a quiet dialogue between Eastern roots and Western technique.Then: Combining solo viola and percussion might seem unlikely — but Kalevi Aho leans into that contrast in his Moonlight Concerto. Six interconnected movements unfold with shimmering sonorities, ancient ritual influences, and rare percussion instruments like waterphone, Thai gongs, and moon gong. -
On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Memories of friendship linger beneath each short movement in Hugi Gudmundsson’s Coniunctio — moments on park benches, in bars, on quiet walks. Composed for cello, the piece unfolds in brief, focused chapters that reflect intimacy through gesture, space, and shared experience.Then: Luciano Berio once described a utopian dream: to build a bridge between folk traditions and modern music-making. In Folk Songs, that vision takes shape through melodies from eight cultures — reimagined not as museum pieces, but as living, breathing connections to everyday life. -
On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Steven Mackey’s Stumble to Grace traces a journey with the piano: from clumsy beginnings to a confident, contrapuntal fugue. Inspired by his toddler’s early steps, the piece moves through stages of progress and play — a portrait of growth shaped by both joy and challenge.Then: Rhythms passed from father to son form the heart of Murmurs in Time — a rare classical percussion piece by tabla master Zakir Hussain. Rooted in Hindustani tradition but shaped through collaboration, it invites performers to internalize, transform, and return each pattern in a new voice. -
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