IMSLP Forums

I have submitted a lot of my own works here in 2017. As may be surmised I'm very much alive and therefore 'modern' if you take time period as a criterion - and I have no qualms about that. But I cringe every time I have to mark a work of mine as 'modern' since that reminds me of the avantgardistic line from Schönberg and Webern to people like Cage and Stockhausen and people basically performing happenings (which in my eyes is a theatrical genre rather than music).

I feel more in tune with Les Six and Sovjet composers under the iron heel of Stalin, so the label "Early 20. century" would actually be less misleading Besides I have written several works in a baroque inspired style and others influenced by Balkan music and modern rythmical music. But with a predefined list of 'styles' that is so heavily based on time periods I'm not sure whether I would be allowed to label my works as Baroque, Romantic or Early 20. century or even non-Esstern, depending on the work in question. And I haven't found a solution to this dilemma in the help files. Beside jazz is a permitted style, but if somebody wanted to published rock music as sheet music, they would also have a problem. OK, most rock music is too new to be in the public domain, but so is anti-avangardistic music written by comtemporaneous composers.

Is there a solution somewhere?

The "Piece Style" option was introduced not that long ago and the intention of it was to attempt to better categorize works by their style as opposed to the time period in which a composer lived. Many noted that time period became a problematic way to categorize composers and their works who lived during transitional periods. We were seeing quite a number of "early 20th century" composers (based on their birth/death) who still wrote in a Romantic style well into the 20th century. As a composer when you add a work you can set the Piece Style option. If you feel there's a need for additional styles then I'd suggest starting a new request thread to seek input.

We can see at a later date in adding in more musical styles. The aim of the Modern Period is for most composers now who died after the 1950s. We should come up with a name for things at some point in the coming years for things of the later half of the 20th century of what to call this music.